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Help-content.png This help article will guide you as you edit in the Wiki. See Contributor Help for more help articles.



General Editing Basics

All registered users of FamilySearch Wiki are invited to edit or add to Wiki articles.

Watch a video demonstration of how to do basic editing.

There are a few things you should know about editing:

  • You must be signed-in to edit. If you haven't previously registered, click here to register.
  • To edit a page in the Wiki, you must click on the Edit This Page button on the top right of the page. You may also edit only one section of a page by clicking on the Edit button to the top right of the section heading.
  • You may add to or edit a page in the Wiki. You may also copy and paste into a Wiki page.
  • You must click the Save page button at the bottom of the editing page to save your work.
  • You may sometimes encounter "disgruntled" or even "mean" people on the Wiki. Please read the Wiki policies and guiding principles to learn how to deal with such situations or receive help in the FamilySearch Wiki Forums.

Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting

The number one rule of wiki editing, is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There can be all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophy governing the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule overrides these!

In general try to write clearly and concisely and make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the wiki contents. An edit might be to contribute whole paragraphs or pages full of information, or it could be as simple as fixing a typo or spelling mistake.

When you need to use some type of formatting e.g. new headings or bold text, you do this using wiki syntax. See Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used.


Before you edit an article

Before you edit your first article, you should:

  1. Register with the Wiki
  2. Review Wiki guiding principles
  3. Understand Wiki publishing policies

Steps in Editing an Article

1. Sign in to the FamilySearch website. If you haven't previously registered, click here to register.

2. Search for the article you want to edit. In the search box, type the name or title of the article you want to edit. Press the Search button. Otherwise, learn how to create a new article.

3. After clicking the Search button, you will see the search results page. Find the article you want to edit and click on the title to open the article.

4. Click Edit in the navigation bar page options, Edit This Page at the top of the page, or theEdit Icon out to the side of the heading.  After clicking, the editing box will open.

Edit 1.png


5. In the editing box, begin typing new text or editing existing text in the article. You may use the toolbar at the top of the editing window to format text, insert links to other pages, insert links to other websites, and add tables. For more details about how you can edit, learn more about the editing toolbar. You may also insert images or files into an article.

6. While editing, use the Show Preview button frequently. This allows you to review the edits and changes you've made and prevents your wiki session from timing out after twenty minutes of no activity. If your session times out, you will lose all the work you've done.

Preview.png


We recommend you Save your work periodically, especially before you start reading reference material, after you enter a paragraph, or in stages while working on a time intensive task such as creating a table or list.

7. After making any changes, be sure to summarize your changes in the Summary field below the editor window, and then save your work.

Summary.png


To save, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save page button. WARNING: If you navigate away from your article without saving, your work will be lost. This includes clicking on links in the preview mode, and clicking the back button on your browser after saving. Remember, after saving the page, you may click the Edit link again to add or edit more material.

Edit Summary

Before you save a change, you can enter a short note in the Summary: box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, or spend too much time thinking about it, but try to give a little description of what you just changed e.g. "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".

The summary gets stored alongside your edit, and allows people to track changes in the wiki more effectively.

Summary.png

Preview

It's a good idea to use the “Show preview” button to see what your change will look like, before you save it. This is also related to tracking changes because every time you save, this is displayed to others as a separate change. This isn't something to worry about too much, but it's good to get into the habit of eliminating mistakes in your own work, by using a preview before saving, rather than saving several minor corrections afterwards.  Be sure to click on the Save button at the bottom of the page after you preview or you will lose your edits.

Save

Be sure to save all of your edits by clicking on the Save button under the bottom left hand corner of the edit box.  If you are doing extensive editing, it is a good idea to save your work periodically so you don't risk losing it.  Remember, previewing your changes does not save them, you must still click on the Save button.

Things you can do while editing articles

For more information on contributing to the FamilySearch Research Wiki, please visit the Edit and Contribute Page

Wiki Editing is as Easy as 1-2-3!

Help-content.png Questions?
Visit the Get Help to receive help with contributing to the Wiki.


  1. Before you can edit, you must first sign in. If you haven't previously registered, click here to register.
  2. To see how this works, edit your own User Page. Access your User Page on the Navigation bar by scrolling down and clicking on your Username under "Personal tools."
  3. When your User Page is displayed, click Edit near the top of the side bar. This will open the Rich Text Editor window. It will have the toolbar pictured above along the top of the editing window.
  4. Select the Heading 2 font in the "Format" drop down menu on the left side of the toolbar.
  5. Type a heading title for the first section of your User Page, such as "John Doe's User Page" and press your Enter key. The "Format" will automatically change to the "default" format of Normal.
  6. Add some information to your user page beneath the heading you created.
  7. Click Save page at the bottom of the screen to save your work.

Congratulations! You have just created your first Wiki page!
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