Page:Wikipedia Training Manual.pdf/18



If you have a compatible browser, an edit toolbar can be automatically displayed, provided that this has been set in your preferences. The tool bar is similar to a word processor tool bar and has the basic formatting functions as buttons–eg bold, italic, links etc. This functions partly as a typing aid and partly as a reminder of the available functions. Example below:

When using buttons from the edit tool bar you will see the Wiki uses Mark Up symbols in the output of the edit box. Wikipedia uses text codes to create particular elements of the page (e. g., headings). This mark-up language is known as Wikitext (or Wiki-markup) and is designed for ease of editing. Writing in plain text is good, because when making simple alterations, such as spelling corrections, text is all we need to use. However, problems emerge when we want to add special formatting–if only plain text can be included, how do we add bold, italics, or headings? The answer is Wikipedia’s use of text formatting; see the table below for a list of what to use when formatting and an example below:

5.1–Formatting Cheat Sheet Wikipedia Training Manual