Wikipedia:VisualEditor

Enable VisualEditor. Read VisualEditor's User Guide.
Log in, go to preferences (top right) -> editing tab, uncheck Temporarily disable the visual editor while it is in beta, optionally change Editing mode to Show me both editor tabs, and save your preferences. 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. Please include your web browser, computer operating system, and Wikipedia skin (usually Vector, sometimes Monobook).
As of 2020, editors at the English Wikipedia have used VisualEditor to make more than 10 million edits.

Welcome to the portal for VisualEditor, a way of editing Wikipedia being developed by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) that does not require editors to learn wiki markup. They previously had to use 'Source editor' to make edits, but VisualEditor allows people to edit many types of pages without needing to understand simple wikitext. WMF staff hope this encourages more readers to become editors.

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, you can report it on the Feedback page, but be aware that that page is not actively monitored by WMF staff. 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 – In the English Wikipedia, VisualEditor is not enabled for any talk pages, in the Template or Wikipedia namespaces, and in 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.
  • Template 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}}}}").
  • 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.
  • Some browsers not supported – VisualEditor works in almost all relatively modern (2012 or newer) versions of Chrome/Chromium, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, Midori, Falkon (formerly Qupzilla), SeaMonkey and WebPositive (approximately 95% of all users). VisualEditor will never work in some browsers that do not follow web standards, including Android 2.3 or Internet Explorer 10 or prior. 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.
  • Footnotes inside templates – 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.
  • 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.
  • Unbalanced templates – 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.
  • Slower – Loading longer pages into VisualEditor can take 60 seconds or more for some users.
  • 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.]
  • 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.
  • Unaware of table formatting done by templates – 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.
  • 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.

You can click "Review your changes" to review the wikitext changes before saving a page. Please report any problems you see.

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.

Newsletter

  1. Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)
  2. Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF)
  3. Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback
  4. Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project
  5. User talk:2Awwsome
  6. User talk:3family6
  7. User talk:5225C
  8. User talk:6033CloudyRainbowTrail
  9. User talk:Abdulraheem Gouda
  10. User talk:Acather96
  11. User talk:Adam Cuerden
  12. User talk:Afernand74
  13. User talk:Ahm_masum
  14. User talk:Alaney2k
  15. User talk:Aleksa Milićević
  16. User talk:Alessandro57
  17. User talk:Alsee
  18. User talk:Anasskoko
  19. User talk:Anchorvale
  20. User talk:Andrew Davidson
  21. User talk:Andrewa
  22. User talk:Andrybak/subscriptions
  23. User talk:annibale covini gerolamo
  24. User talk:Anonymoustofu
  25. User talk:Another Believer
  26. User talk:Anthony Staunton
  27. User talk:AnUnnamedUser
  28. User talk:arodb
  29. User talk:Arthur Rubin
  30. User talk:Ashorocetus
  31. User talk:Atchison_clark
  32. User talk:AWwikipedia
  33. User talk:Babymissfortune
  34. User talk:Barkeep49
  35. User talk:Barte
  36. User talk:Barzamin
  37. User talk:Bcorr
  38. User talk:Beauty School Dropout
  39. User talk:Bevo
  40. User talk:Bilby
  41. User talk:bill52270
  42. User talk:bishwa_777
  43. User talk:Blackdiamand21
  44. User talk:Blahma
  45. User talk:Block Baby
  46. User talk:BoldLuis
  47. User talk:bouktin
  48. User talk:C-Brennan-Poole
  49. User talk:Caius G.
  50. User talk:CAPTAIN RAJU
  51. User talk:CASSIOPEIA
  52. User talk:Catx108/my news subscriptions
  53. User talk:Celine1776
  54. User talk:ceyockey
  55. User talk:Charles Edwin Shipp
  56. User talk:Charles01
  57. User talk:Checkingfax
  58. User talk:Ched
  59. User talk:Chewings72
  60. User talk:Chitreshraj
  61. User talk:Christian75
  62. User talk:ckoerner
  63. User talk:ClemRutter
  64. User talk:CodingCyclone
  65. User talk:ConradKilroy
  66. User talk:Corn cheese
  67. User talk:Crh23
  68. User talk:CRS-20
  69. User talk:cscott
  70. User talk:Cup o' Java
  71. User talk:CWBoast
  72. User talk:Damenleeturks
  73. User talk:Danish AMC
  74. User talk:danlev
  75. User talk:Danre98
  76. User talk:DarkestElephant
  77. User talk:Darklanlan
  78. User talk:Darren-M
  79. User talk:Davey2010
  80. User talk:David Gerard
  81. User talk:David Saroyan
  82. User talk:Davidbuddy9
  83. User talk:Davisonio
  84. User talk:Daxx_wp
  85. User talk:De la Marck
  86. User talk:Defan24
  87. User talk:Dekema2
  88. User talk:Dfcfozz
  89. User talk:DGG
  90. User talk:Diaa abdelmoneim
  91. User talk:Diego Moya
  92. User talk:Discott
  93. User talk:Discount Horde
  94. User talk:Dlwilson88
  95. User talk:DLynch (WMF)
  96. User talk:Donald Trung
  97. User talk:Dtwedt
  98. User talk:DXLB Muzikant
  99. User talk:DylWyl
  100. User talk:Dyork
  101. User talk:Ed6767
  102. User talk:EdSaperia
  103. User talk:Eevee01
  104. User talk:Ekhaya2000
  105. User talk:Elitre
  106. User talk:Emery Cool21
  107. User talk:Epicgenius
  108. User talk:EpicPupper
  109. User talk:Ergo Sum
  110. User talk:Esb5415
  111. User talk:Evangeline
  112. User talk:Evolution and evolvability
  113. User talk:Ezlev
  114. User talk:fabregas0414
  115. User talk:Fench
  116. User talk:flekkie
  117. User talk:Flexdream
  118. User talk:Fluffernutter
  119. User talk:foxj
  120. User talk:Frederico1234
  121. User talk:Fresternoch
  122. User talk:Froztbyte
  123. User talk:FuriouslySerene
  124. User talk:Gaia Rinaldelli
  125. User talk:Gasforth-2021
  126. User talk:Ged UK
  127. User talk:Gerald Waldo Luis
  128. User talk:Gerryyabes
  129. User talk:Goldenshimmer
  130. User talk:GreatSculptorIthas
  131. User talk:Ham II
  132. User talk:Hamham31
  133. User talk:Happily888
  134. User talk:Harej
  135. User talk:Hazeldee0512
  136. User talk:HeartGlow30797/Subscriptions
  137. User talk:Henrikdv
  138. User talk:hibsch
  139. User talk:HJKeats
  140. User talk:Hmich176
  141. User talk:Howicus
  142. User talk:Hydriz
  143. User talk:hym411
  144. User talk:HyperEagle
  145. User talk:I Am Chaos
  146. User talk:I.hate.spam.mail.here
  147. User talk:Idell
  148. User talk:IkselOwk
  149. User talk:Im5yrsold
  150. User talk:Imagine Wizard
  151. User talk:Immu 01
  152. User talk:Innovative Username
  153. User talk:Interitus malorum
  154. User talk:Itcouldbepossible
  155. User talk:Ivan Humphrey
  156. User talk:James Allison
  157. User talk:Jamesjpk
  158. User talk:Jarble
  159. User talk:JB82
  160. User talk:Jcuber17
  161. User talk:JetBlast
  162. User talk:Jhertel
  163. User talk:Jimbo Wales
  164. User talk:JJBers
  165. User talk:JMHamo
  166. User talk:Joe Decker
  167. User talk:John Broughton
  168. User talk:Johnny Au
  169. User talk:Jonathan Lane Studeman
  170. User talk:JonsterMonster
  171. User talk:Jrf
  172. User talk:Jtamad
  173. User talk:Judgesurreal777
  174. User talk:Jyoo1011
  175. User talk:K4rolB
  176. User talk:K6ka
  177. User talk:Kasyap
  178. User talk:katcheez
  179. User talk:Kerry Raymond
  180. User talk:Keyacom
  181. User talk:khamar
  182. User talk:Killarnee
  183. User talk:LaDinky
  184. User talk:Lalit82in
  185. User talk:LeonardoIannelliCOMPUTE
  186. User talk:lfstevens
  187. User talk:Littleb2009
  188. User talk:Llew_Mawr
  189. User talk:LogX
  190. User talk:Lomrjyo
  191. User talk:LORENZ SARMIENTO
  192. User talk:Lotje
  193. User talk:Lucky102
  194. User talk:Luke1337
  195. User talk:MadGuy7023
  196. User talk:Magol
  197. User talk:Mainline421
  198. User talk:Manwuel380
  199. User talk:Masssly
  200. User talk:MatthewBurton
  201. User talk:Medo9
  202. User talk:Melymay123
  203. User talk:Meow
  204. User talk:mgiganteus1
  205. User talk:Mindi Crayon
  206. User talk:Miya
  207. User talk:Mostafa12890
  208. User talk:Moyogo
  209. User talk:Mr Reading Turtle
  210. User talk:MrTrains227
  211. User talk:Mruthunjaya9
  212. User talk:MrWonka
  213. User talk:Muffizainu
  214. User talk:MusikAnimal
  215. User talk:Mvolz
  216. User talk:Naechrr
  217. User talk:Nate 2169
  218. User talk:NemesisAT
  219. User talk:Neo12345292
  220. User talk:NeoJade
  221. User talk:Neonorange
  222. User talk:Nicco18
  223. User talk:Nicereddy
  224. User talk:Nick Moyes
  225. User talk:Nick Wilson
  226. User talk:nigeleezdr
  227. User talk:NightWolf1223
  228. User talk:Nihiltres
  229. User talk:Nikolaih
  230. User talk:Nkansahrexford
  231. User talk:Ocaasi
  232. User talk:Ohiowa2
  233. User talk:OhKayeSierra
  234. User talk:Oiyarbepsy
  235. User talk:OodFloo
  236. User talk:Oronsay
  237. User talk:orsd
  238. User talk:Paine Ellsworth
  239. User talk:PamD
  240. User talk:patchallel
  241. User talk:Patriccck
  242. User talk:PearlSt82
  243. User talk:Pelagic, User talk:Pelagic/Newsletters
  244. User talk:Perumalism
  245. User talk:Peter Chastain
  246. User talk:Peterdownunder
  247. User talk:Philoserf
  248. User talk:PhotographerTom
  249. User talk:Pichemist
  250. User talk:PieThrowerChamp
  251. User talk:Piotrus
  252. User talk:Pizza1016
  253. User talk:Playlikeastar
  254. User talk:Plingsby
  255. User talk:Pointillist
  256. User talk:PradNelluru
  257. User talk:Pratyya Ghosh
  258. User talk:Presidentman
  259. User talk:ProcrastinatingReader
  260. User talk:ProtoDrake
  261. User talk:Prototime
  262. User talk:Pseudonymous Rex
  263. User talk:Psiĥedelisto
  264. User talk:Punetor i Rregullt5
  265. User talk:Pythoncoder/News
  266. User talk:Quadtripplea
  267. User talk:Quiddity
  268. User talk:QWER11296
  269. User talk:Qwerfjkl
  270. User talk:Qwerty284651
  271. User talk:Rachel.dicerbo
  272. User talk:reb1981
  273. User talk:Redalert2fan
  274. User talk:Retinarecorder
  275. User talk:Rhododendrites
  276. User talk:Richard Nevell (WMUK)
  277. User talk:Robert M. Hunt
  278. User talk:Robert McClenon
  279. User talk:RoySmith
  280. User talk:Saehrimnir
  281. User talk:Sam'kelo Mpungoseh
  282. User talk:Sanyamkamat
  283. User talk:Sasuke Sarutobi
  284. User talk:ScottyWZ
  285. User talk:Sculpordwarfprunesea
  286. User talk:Shaded0
  287. User talk:Shanata
  288. User talk:shanluan
  289. User talk:Shibbolethink
  290. User talk:Signalizing
  291. User talk:Simoncaulton
  292. User talk:SivaGovind
  293. User talk:Slazenger
  294. User talk:SmartK
  295. User talk:SMcCandlish
  296. User talk:Some1
  297. User talk:Spineas
  298. User talk:Spurb
  299. User talk:Sreejiththulaseedharan
  300. User talk:SshibumXZ
  301. User talk:SSSB
  302. User talk:StudiesWorld
  303. User talk:Sue Gardner
  304. User talk:Sylvester Penn
  305. User talk:Symphonic Spenguin
  306. User talk:TapticInfo
  307. User talk:TehPlaneFreak
  308. User talk:Tenryuu
  309. User talk:TenType
  310. User talk:TerraCodes
  311. User talk:The 19th One
  312. User talk:The Anome
  313. User talk:The ed17
  314. User talk:The Land
  315. User talk:the wub
  316. User talk:TheFrog001
  317. User talk:TheOtherGaelan
  318. User talk:There'sNoTime
  319. User talk:TheSandDoctor
  320. User talk:Three97
  321. User talk:Thryduulf
  322. User talk:Timeshifter
  323. User talk:Tom Morris
  324. User talk:Tom29739
  325. User talk:Tomorrow and tomorrow
  326. User talk:Toran107
  327. User talk:ToxiBoi
  328. User talk:TPFNoob
  329. User talk:TrudiJ
  330. User talk:UMAGPR
  331. User talk:UnstoppablePhoenix
  332. User talk:Valereee
  333. User talk:VeniVidiVicipedia
  334. User talk:Vishal.acet
  335. User talk:Vitaium
  336. User talk:Vpilato
  337. User talk:VQuakr
  338. User talk:Vukky/Newsletters
  339. User talk:Waddie96
  340. User talk:Washing Machine
  341. User talk:WDM10
  342. User talk:WhatamIdoing
  343. User talk:Whiteghost.ink
  344. User talk:Wikiuser13
  345. User talk:Wittylama
  346. User talk:Wolbo
  347. User talk:Wouterstomp
  348. User talk:writeswift
  349. User talk:wshaggy
  350. User talk:Xbony2
  351. User talk:Yobkj
  352. User talk:Yololobia2
  353. User talk:Yoshi1423
  354. User talk:ZLEA
  355. User talk:Zulujive
  356. User talk:Zziccardi
  357. User talk:ԱշոտՏՆՂ
  358. User talk:علاء

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.

External links

Subpage Index
  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)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor
en.m.wikipedia.org
crawl=CC-MAIN-2022-27
147783
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:NE2A7MXNISRWVDNP3XEPSUIEAHLSXK26
<urn:uuid:edbad9e7-0b55-4880-a22c-451bb4db985a>
2022-06-30T10:09:17Z
208.80.154.224
text/html
sha1:PJUDJWKCSRQDOZJV4W2UCTGU6UVFMMVY
<urn:uuid:da8f0c54-bc8c-4b0d-aef2-f191a3e2f6bf>
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor
response
<urn:uuid:b7d5f1d0-d1a9-4655-b444-a2d6ab8ddff2>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2022-27
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for June/July 2022
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-180
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.3-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/