Wikipedia:VisualEditor

Page semi-protected
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Enable VisualEditor. Read VisualEditor's User Guide.
VisualEditor is enabled by default for new registered editors. If it is not enabled for you, and you are logged in, go to Preferences, click Editing, check Enable the visual editor, and click Save. Or use this sandbox link for testing. Find out how to make links, add or move images, create citations, insert templates, edit tables, and more. Use Phabricator to report problems with Visual Editor. Please include your web browser, computer operating system, and Wikipedia skin (usually Vector (2022), sometimes Vector Legacy (2010)). Start a new Phabricator ticket.
As of mid-2023, editors at the English Wikipedia have used VisualEditor to make more than 25 million edits.

Welcome to the portal for VisualEditor, an editing tool currently under development by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). It allows users to contribute to Wikipedia without the prerequisite need to learn or understand the underlying language and formatting beforehand. Before the release of this tool, the only way for users to make contributions to Wikipedia was by using the 'Source editor', which requires users to understand wiki markup or wikitext in order for their intended edits to be formatted and displayed how they were intended; however, VisualEditor provides a new way for people to edit articles and pages and without the need to understand any code or markup. The WMF staff hopes that this tool will encourage more readers to become editors knowing that this editing tool is now available.

Even after the eventual anticipated full-feature release of VisualEditor, experienced editors may still prefer editing with wikitext because they find it faster and more precise. It will also be needed for editing all discussion pages. Editors who enable VisualEditor will always have the Source editor option available from the toolbar on every page, as the WMF has no plans to remove this.

VisualEditor still has many bugs and missing features. If you encounter an issue using the VisualEditor on Wikipedia.org or another Wikimedia project (ie., not on a third-party wiki), you can report it on the MediaWiki Feedback page. WMF staff prefer that you report bugs via the Phabricator bug tracking website.

About VisualEditor

VisualEditor is a "visual" way of editing Wikipedia that allows people to contribute without having to learn wiki markup. This rich-text editor was made available as an opt-in release on the English-language Wikipedia in December 2012, in 14 other languages in April 2013, and in most other languages at the beginning of June 2013. As of April 2015, it was available by default to users of about 76% of the language editions of Wikipedias and as an opt-in beta feature to the rest, along with most non-Wikipedia projects except Wiktionary and Wikisource. On English Wikipedia, it is enabled by default for new users.[1]

As of 2021, the visual editor is used about half as often as the 2010 wikitext editor, and about as often as the mobile web editor. It is used about twice as often as Twinkle.

To learn more about using VisualEditor, please read the guide to VisualEditor and the list of common keyboard shortcuts. Your help with the many tasks that need to be done is appreciated. You can also receive regular status updates on your talk page by signing up for the VisualEditor newsletter.

Limitations

Current known limitations include:

  • Not available in talk or discussion namespaces – On the English Wikipedia, VisualEditor is not enabled for any talk pages, on the Template or Wikipedia namespaces, and on several of the namespaces that are rarely edited. The "Edit" button for VisualEditor is not available on pages where VisualEditor cannot be used. The Reply tool has a visual mode based on VisualEditor, as well as a wikitext mode with a live preview.
  • Incomplete editing functionality – The content of some complex formatting, including definition lists, will display and can be edited, but editors using VisualEditor cannot modify certain details. Multi-column lists are edited through the complex transclusion dialog, which is difficult. Table editing on Mobile doesn't work properly. Adding features in this area is one of the developers' priorities.
  • Requires JavaScript – If VisualEditor is not available in your browser, or if you have turned off Javascript, then you will see the buttons for the wikitext editor only.
  • Numeric reference names – Currently, VE automatically adds numeric ref names with a colon prefix, i.e., ":0", ":1", ":2", and so on. There has long been interest in having VE support named references.
  • Slower – Loading longer pages into VisualEditor can be significantly slower than the source editor for some users.[2]
  • Cannot edit a single section – VisualEditor loads and submits only entire pages. Clicking an edit link for a section will scroll to the appropriate section upon opening. In VisualEditor's model, editing sections would be paradoxically slower than editing the whole page. [Note: Opening an entire page for editing does not increase edit conflicts, which are (roughly) based on editing the same paragraph.]
  • Limited support for user scripts – Most user scripts do not work when using VisualEditor; it is up to the script's developer to add support for VisualEditor.
  • Cannot upload non-free images – At this time, images that are uploaded inside either the wikitext editor or VisualEditor are sent directly to the Wikimedia Commons, which does not accept non-free images. All images that fall under Wikipedia's non-free content policy must instead be stored on Wikipedia using the File Upload Wizard. Commons also runs a filter to reject many images uploaded by editors who have not made many prior edits to Commons, especially for small or low-resolution images.
  • Data in merged cells is deleted – If rows or columns are moved across them. Workaround: Unmerge the affected areas before moving, and merge them again afterwards.
  • Wikilink changes – May unnecessarily turn a simple link into a piped link when a change to the link text involves redirects.
  • Template issues
    • Parameters are wikitext, not rich text – VisualEditor lets you edit the parameters of template transclusions, but only as "wikitext" (so "[[Foo]]" or nested templates like "{{Foo|{{Bar}}}}", not "Foo" or "{{Foo|{{Bar}}}}").
    • Footnotes – Footnotes inside templates (most commonly, infoboxes and {{reflist}}) are not visible in the "reuse" dialog, causing discrepancies in the numbering of footnotes displayed at the bottom of the main VisualEditor editing window. Similarly, VisualEditor is not compatible with articles using list-defined references.
    • Unable to customize parameter order – VisualEditor does not give you the ability to customize the order in which template parameters are listed. This could cause problems with articles or sets of articles where there is an established, consistent order for templates, especially citation templates.
    • Changes template parameter and value alignment – Especially with infoboxes, VisualEditor can sometimes modify spacing done for parameter and value alignment purposes and add a space after each pipe. Note that this is a deliberate feature of TemplateData that can be managed in the documentation of a given template; see mw:Help:TemplateData#Custom formats for detailed information.
    • Table-formatting unawareness – Popular table cell templates (e.g. yes, no, tba, n/a) can cause issues. The reason is that these templates contain a pipe character to separate formatting and text, but VisualEditor isn't aware of this. As a result, table operations which change the table structure, such as merging/splitting cells or inserting/deleting/moving rows or columns, may not work properly.
    • Unbalanced code – VisualEditor struggles with templates that pass a bit of incomplete code, with markup, to another template or table. These may display oddly or may not be editable if selected in VisualEditor.

You can click "Review your changes" to review the wikitext changes before saving a page. Please report any problems you see, after first searching open VE tickets to make sure it hasn't been reported already..

How to help out

Help is needed to make VisualEditor as good as it can be: You can find and report bugs and ideas for improvements or lend a hand in many other tasks, such as:

  • Updating help pages – All Wikimedia Foundation projects have help pages to make contributing easier for new editors. Unfortunately, the full launch of VisualEditor will make obsolete the screenshots and tutorials in these help pages, because they describe how to edit using the markup editor. Therefore, the VisualEditor development team needs help updating help pages. The user guide to VisualEditor is a starting place for text for the new help pages.
  • Adding TemplateData code to template documentation pages – VisualEditor features an interactive template editor—described in more detail in the user guide—and as you'll see if you use it on Wikipedia, some templates display named parameters and nice descriptions that make the interactive template editor easy to use. However, other templates lack them, because they need TemplateData code added to their documentation pages for this feature to work. If you're interested in adding TemplateData, read the guide for it and a list of some of the most transcluded templates that may still need TemplateData added to their documentation.
  • Help new users – Even though editing with VisualEditor may be easier, learning policies and guidelines and how to interact with the community is always challenging for new editors. You can help by spending time at the appropriate venues: the Help desk, the Teahouse, and the help chatroom. Additionally, please feel free to monitor the Category of Wikipedians looking for help.
  • Report errors, and suggest improvements – Read about how to write a bug report or feature request, then start a new Phabricator ticket.


Newsletter

  1. Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)
  2. Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF)
  3. Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback
  4. Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project
  5. User talk:11111s
  6. User talk:1keyhole
  7. User talk:23emr
  8. User talk:2Awwsome
  9. User talk:2NumForIce
  10. User talk:3family6
  11. User talk:5225C
  12. User talk:6033CloudyRainbowTrail
  13. User talk:Abdulraheem Gouda
  14. User talk:Abhal555
  15. User talk:Acather96
  16. User talk:Adam Cuerden
  17. User talk:Afernand74
  18. User talk:Ahm_masum
  19. User talk:Alaney2k
  20. User talk:Aleksa Milićević
  21. User talk:Alessandro57
  22. User talk:Alsee
  23. User talk:Anasskoko
  24. User talk:Anchorvale
  25. User talk:Andrew Davidson
  26. User talk:Andrewa
  27. User talk:Andrybak
  28. User talk:annibale covini gerolamo
  29. User talk:Anonymoustofu
  30. User talk:Another Believer
  31. User talk:Anthony Staunton
  32. User talk:Antoine.b
  33. User talk:AnUnnamedUser
  34. User talk:arodb
  35. User talk:Arthur Rubin
  36. User talk:Ashorocetus
  37. User talk:Atchison_clark
  38. User talk:AWwikipedia
  39. User talk:Azdrew
  40. User talk:Babymissfortune
  41. User talk:Barkeep49
  42. User talk:Barte
  43. User talk:Barzamin
  44. User talk:Bcorr
  45. User talk:Beauty School Dropout
  46. User talk:BetterCallSaulKripke
  47. User talk:Bevo
  48. User talk:Bilby
  49. User talk:bill52270
  50. User talk:bishwa_777
  51. User talk:Blackdiamand21
  52. User talk:Blahma
  53. User talk:Block Baby
  54. User talk:BoldLuis
  55. User talk:bouktin
  56. User talk:C-Brennan-Poole
  57. User talk:Caius G.
  58. User talk:CAPTAIN RAJU
  59. User talk:Carl.e.Bean
  60. User talk:Cassiopeia
  61. User talk:Catx108/my news subscriptions
  62. User talk:Celine1776
  63. User talk:ceyockey
  64. User talk:Charles Edwin Shipp
  65. User talk:Charles01
  66. User talk:Checkingfax
  67. User talk:Ched
  68. User talk:Chewings72
  69. User talk:Chitreshraj
  70. User talk:Christian75
  71. User talk:ckoerner
  72. User talk:ClemRutter
  73. User talk:Cocobb8
  74. User talk:CodingCyclone
  75. User talk:ConradKilroy
  76. User talk:Corn cheese
  77. User talk:Crh23
  78. User talk:CRS-20
  79. User talk:cscott
  80. User talk:Cup o' Java
  81. User talk:CWBoast
  82. User talk:CX Zoom/Newsletters/Current year
  83. User talk:Daisytheduck
  84. User talk:Damenleeturks
  85. User talk:Danish AMC
  86. User talk:danlev
  87. User talk:Danre98
  88. User talk:DarkestElephant
  89. User talk:Darklanlan
  90. User talk:Darren-M
  91. User talk:Davey2010
  92. User talk:David Gerard
  93. User talk:David Saroyan
  94. User talk:Davidbuddy9
  95. User talk:Davisonio
  96. User talk:Daxx_wp
  97. User talk:De la Marck
  98. User talk:Defan24
  99. User talk:Dekema2
  100. User talk:Dfcfozz
  101. User talk:Diaa abdelmoneim
  102. User talk:Diego Moya
  103. User talk:Discott
  104. User talk:Discount Horde
  105. User talk:Dlwilson88
  106. User talk:DLynch (WMF)
  107. User talk:Donald Trung
  108. User talk:Dtwedt
  109. User talk:DXLB Muzikant
  110. User talk:DylWyl
  111. User talk:Dyork
  112. User talk:EchidnaLives
  113. User talk:Ed6767
  114. User talk:EdSaperia
  115. User talk:Eevee01
  116. User talk:Ekhaya2000
  117. User talk:Elitre
  118. User talk:Emery Cool21
  119. User talk:Epicgenius
  120. User talk:EpicPupper
  121. User talk:Ergo Sum
  122. User talk:Esb5415
  123. User talk:Evangeline
  124. User talk:Evolution and evolvability
  125. User talk:Ezlev
  126. User talk:fabregas0414
  127. User talk:Fench
  128. User talk:flekkie
  129. User talk:Flexdream
  130. User talk:Fluffernutter
  131. User talk:foxj
  132. User talk:Frederico1234
  133. User talk:FrenchNobility
  134. User talk:Fresternoch
  135. User talk:Froztbyte
  136. User talk:FuriouslySerene
  137. User talk:Gaia Rinaldelli
  138. User talk:Gasforth-2021
  139. User talk:Ged UK
  140. User talk:Gerald Waldo Luis
  141. User talk:Gerryyabes
  142. User talk:Goldenshimmer
  143. User talk:Goldside852
  144. User talk:GreatSculptorIthas
  145. User talk:Grumpylawnchair
  146. User talk:Ham II
  147. User talk:Hamham31
  148. User talk:Happily888
  149. User talk:Harvici
  150. User talk:Hazeldee0512
  151. User talk:HeartGlow30797/Subscriptions
  152. User talk:Henrikdv
  153. User talk:hibsch
  154. User talk:HJKeats
  155. User talk:Hmich176
  156. User talk:Hopefully999
  157. User talk:HouseBlaster
  158. User talk:HovigTheEditor
  159. User talk:Howicus
  160. User talk:Hydriz
  161. User talk:hym411
  162. User talk:HyperEagle
  163. User talk:Hypersonic man 11
  164. User talk:I Am Chaos
  165. User talk:I dream of horses
  166. User talk:I.hate.spam.mail.here
  167. User talk:Idell
  168. User talk:IkselOwk
  169. User talk:Im5yrsold
  170. User talk:Imagine Wizard
  171. User talk:Immu 01
  172. User talk:Innovative Username
  173. User talk:Interitus malorum
  174. User talk:It is a wonderful world
  175. User talk:Itcouldbepossible
  176. User talk:Ivan Humphrey
  177. User talk:James Allison
  178. User talk:Jamesjpk
  179. User talk:Jarble
  180. User talk:JB82
  181. User talk:Jcuber17
  182. User talk:JetBlast
  183. User talk:Jhertel
  184. User talk:Jimbo Wales
  185. User talk:Jindam vani
  186. User talk:JJBers
  187. User talk:JMHamo
  188. User talk:John Broughton
  189. User talk:Johnny Au
  190. User talk:Jonathan Lane Studeman
  191. User talk:JonsterMonster
  192. User talk:Josethewikier
  193. User talk:Jrf
  194. User talk:Jtamad
  195. User talk:Judgesurreal777
  196. User talk:Jyoo1011
  197. User talk:K4rolB
  198. User talk:K6ka
  199. User talk:Kasyap
  200. User talk:katcheez
  201. User talk:KEmel49
  202. User talk:Kerry Raymond
  203. User talk:Kew Gardens 613
  204. User talk:Keyacom
  205. User talk:khamar
  206. User talk:Killarnee
  207. User talk:LaDinky
  208. User talk:Lalit82in
  209. User talk:Language Boi
  210. User talk:LeonardoIannelliCOMPUTE
  211. User talk:lfstevens
  212. User talk:Littleb2009
  213. User talk:Llew_Mawr
  214. User talk:L'Mainerque/Newsletters
  215. User talk:LogX
  216. User talk:Lomrjyo
  217. User talk:LORENZ SARMIENTO
  218. User talk:Lotje
  219. User talk:Lucky102
  220. User talk:MadGuy7023
  221. User talk:Magol
  222. User talk:Mainline421
  223. User talk:Manwuel380
  224. User talk:Masssly
  225. User talk:MatthewBurton
  226. User talk:Medo9
  227. User talk:Melymay123
  228. User talk:Meow
  229. User talk:Merfralex
  230. User talk:MetaAlphaBeta
  231. User talk:mgiganteus1
  232. User talk:Mindi Crayon
  233. User talk:Mostafa12890
  234. User talk:Moyogo
  235. User talk:MrTrains227
  236. User talk:Mruthunjaya9
  237. User talk:MrWonka
  238. User talk:Muffizainu
  239. User talk:MusikAnimal
  240. User talk:Mvolz
  241. User talk:My Pants Metal
  242. User talk:Naechrr
  243. User talk:Nate 2169
  244. User talk:NemesisAT
  245. User talk:Neo12345292
  246. User talk:NeoJade
  247. User talk:Neonorange
  248. User talk:NgocAnMaster
  249. User talk:Nicco18
  250. User talk:Nicereddy
  251. User talk:Nick Moyes
  252. User talk:Nick Wilson
  253. User talk:nigeleezdr
  254. User talk:NightWolf1223
  255. User talk:Nihiltres
  256. User talk:Nikolaih
  257. User talk:Nkansahrexford
  258. User talk:NPRB
  259. User talk:Ocaasi
  260. User talk:Ohiowa2
  261. User talk:OhKayeSierra
  262. User talk:Oiyarbepsy
  263. User talk:OodFloo
  264. User talk:Oronsay
  265. User talk:orsd
  266. User talk:Paine Ellsworth
  267. User talk:PamD
  268. User talk:patchallel
  269. User talk:Patriccck
  270. User talk:PearlSt82
  271. User talk:Pelagic, User talk:Pelagic/Newsletters
  272. User talk:Perumalism
  273. User talk:Peter Chastain
  274. User talk:Peterdownunder
  275. User talk:Philoserf
  276. User talk:PhotographerTom
  277. User talk:Pichemist
  278. User talk:PieThrowerChamp
  279. User talk:Piotrus
  280. User talk:Pizza1016
  281. User talk:Playlikeastar
  282. User talk:Plingsby
  283. User talk:Pointillist
  284. User talk:PradNelluru
  285. User talk:Pratyya Ghosh
  286. User talk:Presidentman
  287. User talk:ProcrastinatingReader
  288. User talk:ProtoDrake
  289. User talk:Prototime
  290. User talk:Pseudonymous Rex
  291. User talk:Psiĥedelisto
  292. User talk:Punetor i Rregullt5
  293. User talk:Pythoncoder/News
  294. User talk:Quadtripplea
  295. User talk:Quiddity
  296. User talk:QWER11296
  297. User talk:Qwerfjkl
  298. User talk:Rachel.dicerbo
  299. User talk:reb1981
  300. User talk:Redalert2fan
  301. User talk:Retinarecorder
  302. User talk:Rhagfyr
  303. User talk:Rhododendrites
  304. User talk:Richard Nevell (WMUK)
  305. User talk:Robert M. Hunt
  306. User talk:Robert McClenon
  307. User talk:RoySmith
  308. User talk:Saehrimnir
  309. User talk:Sam'kelo Mpungoseh
  310. User talk:Sanyamkamat
  311. User talk:Sasuke Sarutobi
  312. User talk:ScottyWZ
  313. User talk:Sculpordwarfprunesea
  314. User talk:Shaded0
  315. User talk:Shanata
  316. User talk:shanluan
  317. User talk:Shemew
  318. User talk:Shibbolethink
  319. User talk:Signalizing
  320. User talk:Simoncaulton
  321. User talk:SivaGovind
  322. User talk:Slazenger
  323. User talk:SmartK
  324. User talk:SMcCandlish
  325. User talk:Some1
  326. User talk:Spineas
  327. User talk:Spurb
  328. User talk:Sreejiththulaseedharan
  329. User talk:SshibumXZ
  330. User talk:SSSB
  331. User talk:StudiesWorld
  332. User talk:Sue Gardner
  333. User talk:SunDawn
  334. User talk:Syed Sadique Hussain
  335. User talk:Sylvester Penn
  336. User talk:Symphonic Spenguin
  337. User talk:TapticInfo
  338. User talk:TehPlaneFreak
  339. User talk:Tenryuu
  340. User talk:TenType
  341. User talk:TerraCodes
  342. User talk:The 19th One
  343. User talk:The Anome
  344. User talk:The ed17
  345. User talk:The Land
  346. User talk:The Master of Hedgehogs
  347. User talk:The person who loves reading
  348. User talk:the wub
  349. User talk:TheFrog001
  350. User talk:TheOtherGaelan
  351. User talk:There'sNoTime
  352. User talk:TheSandDoctor
  353. User talk:Three97
  354. User talk:Thryduulf
  355. User talk:Timeshifter
  356. User talk:TimothyBlue
  357. User talk:Tom Morris
  358. User talk:Tom29739
  359. User talk:Tomorrow and tomorrow
  360. User talk:Tonymetz
  361. User talk:Toran107
  362. User talk:ToxiBoi
  363. User talk:TPFNoob
  364. User talk:TrudiJ
  365. User talk:UMAGPR
  366. User talk:UnstoppablePhoenix
  367. User talk:Valereee
  368. User talk:VeniVidiVicipedia
  369. User talk:Vishal.acet
  370. User talk:Vitaium
  371. User talk:Vpilato
  372. User talk:VQuakr
  373. User talk:Vukky
  374. User talk:VulcanSphere
  375. User talk:Waddie96
  376. User talk:Washing Machine
  377. User talk:WDM10
  378. User talk:WhatamIdoing
  379. User talk:Whiteghost.ink
  380. User talk:Wikiuser13
  381. User talk:Wil540 art
  382. User talk:Wittylama
  383. User talk:Wolbo
  384. User talk:Wouterstomp
  385. User talk:writeswift
  386. User talk:wshaggy
  387. User talk:Xbony2
  388. User talk:Yobkj
  389. User talk:Yololobia2
  390. User talk:Yoshi1423
  391. User talk:ZLEA
  392. User talk:Zulujive
  393. User talk:Zziccardi
  394. User talk:ԱշոտՏՆՂ
  395. User talk:علاء
  396. User talk:أيوب

Userbox

You can signal to other editors your use of the VisualEditor on your userpage by using the userbox User:Psiĥedelisto/Userboxes/VisualEditor. See that page for all the options available, three of which are shown here.

Notes

  1. ^ "visualeditor-nondefault.dblist". gerrit.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 28 December 2021. (List of Wikiprojects that do not have VisualEditor enabled by default for new users)
  2. ^ For data on VisualEditor performance, see this Grafana dashboard
Subpage Index