Help:Contents

The Readers' FAQ and our about page contain the most commonly sought information about Wikipedia.

For simple searches, there is a search box at the top of every page. Type what you are looking for in the box. Partial matches will appear in a dropdown list. Select any page in the list to go to that page. Or, select the magnifying glass "Go" button, or press ↵ Enter, to go to a full search result. For advanced searches, see Help:Searching.

There are other ways to browse and explore Wikipedia articles; many can be found at Wikipedia:Contents. See our disclaimer for cautions about Wikipedia's limitations.

For mobile access, press the mobile view link at the very bottom of every desktop view page.

Contributing is easy: see how to edit a page. For a quick summary on participating, see contributing to Wikipedia, and for a friendly tutorial, see our introduction. For a listing of introductions and tutorials by topic, see getting started. The Simplified Manual of Style and Cheatsheet can remind you of basic wiki markup.

Be bold in improving articles! When adding facts, please provide references so others may verify them. If you are affiliated with the article subject, please see our conflict of interest guideline.

The simple guide to vandalism cleanup can help you undo malicious edits.

If you're looking for places you can help out, the Task Center is the place to go, or check out what else is happening at the community portal. You can practice editing and experiment in asandboxyour sandbox.

If there is a problem with an article about yourself, a family member, a friend or a colleague, please read Biographies of living persons/Help.

If you spot a problem with an article, you can fix it directly, by clicking on the "Edit" link at the top of that page. See the "edit an article" section of this page for more information.

If you don't feel ready to fix the article yourself, post a message on the article's talk page. This will bring the matter to the attention of others who work on that article. There is a "Talk" link at the beginning of every article page.

You can contact us. If it's an article about you or your organization, see Contact us – Subjects.

Check Your first article to see if your topic is appropriate, then the Article wizard will walk you through creating the article.

Once you have created an article, see Writing better articles for guidance on how to improve it and what to include (like reference citations).

For contributing images, audio or video files, see the Introduction to uploading images. Then the Upload wizard will guide you through that process.

Answers to common problems can be found at frequently asked questions.

Or check out where to ask questions or make comments.

New users should seek help at the Teahouse if they're having problems editing Wikipedia.

More complex questions can be posed at the Help desk. Volunteers will respond as soon as they're able.

Orask for help on your talk page and a volunteer will visit you there!

You can get live help with editing in the help chatroom.

For help with technical issues, ask at the Village pump.

Ifsearching Wikipedia has not answered your question (for example, questions like "Which country has the world's largest fishing fleet?"), try the Reference Desk. Volunteers there will attempt to answer your questions on any topic, or point you toward the information you need.

• Directory: main list of directories and indexes.

• Help directory: for informative, instructional and consultation pages.
• Request directory: for services and assistance that can be requested on Wikipedia.

• Policy directory: official policies for "English Wikipedia".
• Guideline directory: official guidelines for "English Wikipedia".
• Manual of Style directory: pages related to the style manual of Wikipedia articles.

• Departments: for the different divisions of Wikipedia.
• Editor's index: for everything an editor needs to know to work on Wikipedia.
• Essay directory: for Wikipedia namespace essays.
• Dashboard: for current discussions taking place throughout Wikipedia.
• WikiProjects: for people who want to work together as a team to improve Wikipedia.

• Wikitext: for the syntax used by Wikipedia to format a page.
• HTML: for HTML5 elements, or tags and their attribute.
• Templates: for templates used within Wikipedia.

• Help Menu: for searching by subject matter.
• Navigating Wikipedia: for searching and browsing the encyclopedia.
• Joining Wikipedia: how to get involved.
• Editing Wikipedia: has general help for editors.
• Links and references: has help for creating links, or dealing with references
• Images and media: how to use images, videos and sound files.
• Keeping track of changes: how to track the evolution of a page, or follow a user.
• Policies and guidelines: for community standards.
• Asking questions: volunteers will attempt to answer.
• The Wikipedia community: how to submit or debate a proposal.
• Resources and lists: has resources for editors.
• Account settings: has tips and tools for registered users.
• Technical information: has tools for advanced users, and troubleshooting.
• Site map: is the above thirteen pages on one single page.

InFirefox, the search box has a little pull down menu to allow you to choose which search engine it uses. Several popular search engines come included, but not Wikipedia. However, Firefox provides a page on their website listing more search engines you can add to that menu, including Wikipedia's search. To add Wikipedia, simply go here and click on Wikipedia in the list provided, and you are done. To activate it, pull-down the menu at the search box and click on Wikipedia there. Now you have a second Wikipedia search box. Unlike the search box in Wikipedia's sidebar, which disappears off the screen when you scroll down to read a long page, the Firefox search box always remains on the screen, ready to assist. (Keep in mind, typing Alt+F also places the cursor in the Wikipedia search box.)

Using external search engines  

Languages