Help:SourceEditor/User guide

Note: When you edit this page, you agree to release your contribution under the CC0. See Public Domain Help Pages for more info.

The source editor, unlike the visual editor, allows you to edit the wiki markup directly. It also includes a WikiEditor that adds a toolbar to make it easier to format wiki markup.

If you would like to try the source editor without editing an article, here is a page where you can freely test it. You don't need an account to use the source editor on that page.

Opening the source editor

To edit a page using the source editor, press on the "Edit source" tab, if visual editor is disabled on default, at the top of the page. Pressing on the "Edit" tab will open the visual editor.
You can also open the source editor by pressing on the "edit source" link on each section.

Getting started: the WikiEditor toolbar

You can switch off or switch on WikiEditor in personal preferences set at Preferences → Editing → Enable the editing toolbar.

The WikiEditor toolbar appears in the top of the source editor when you edit page. It allows you to format text, insert special characters, add links, templates and sources.
The menu contains most of the possible text formatting methods and some additional functions that, for one reason or another, were not included in the main panel. Therefore, initially we will describe both panels at once.
Bold text Italic text Bulleted list Numbered list Ignore wiki formatting	Formatting text Formatting: Pressing the "A" opens a menu. The "Bold" item (B) bolds the selected text. The "Italic" item (I) italicizes the selected text. The "Superscript" item (x2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and to be slightly higher than the surrounding text. The "Subscript" item (x2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and to be slightly lower than the surrounding text. The "Strikethrough" item (S) adds a solid bar through the selected text. The "Computer code" item (a set of curly brackets: {}) changes the font of the selected text to a monospaced font, which sets it apart from surrounding (proportionally spaced) text. The "Underline" item (U) adds a solid line beneath the selected text. The "Language" item (文A) allows you to label the language (for example, Japanese) and direction (for example, right-to-left) of the selected text. The final item (), called "Remove", removes all character formatting from the selected text, including links. If you have not selected any text, then when you press the "A" to open the menu, and then select an item, that formatting will apply to the text that you start typing, from wherever your cursor is located.
	Formatting headings Headings pull-down menu: allows you to change how the paragraph is formatted. To change the style of a paragraph, put your cursor in the paragraph and select an item in this menu (you don't have to highlight any text). Section titles are formatted "Heading", and subsections are "Sub-heading 1", "Sub-heading 2", and so on. The normal format for text is "Paragraph".