Help:How to change pages

This page tells you how to edit (change) or make new pages on Wikipedia. Anyone can make pages. If you are learning how to make pages, or just want to test an idea, it is a good idea to begin in the Sandbox.

Click on "change this page" at the top of any page, then you can write in the large edit box that will appear.

The "Change summary" box you will see at the bottom of that page is used to tell others what you are changing or trying to do. For example, if you are writing a new article about dogs, you can put "new article about dogs" in the change summary.

You can also press "Show preview" to see what the page will look like before anyone else does, and check for mistakes. When you are all ready, and you want to send the page, press "Publish Changes" - and like that your page is on Wikipedia!

To make a new page, find or make a "red link" with the article name on Wikipedia, for example poodle, if you want to write about poodles.

You can also write the page name in the "search" box in the sidebar to the left on every page, then click "Go". If there is no page already with that exact name, the search results page will say: "There is no page titled [PAGENAME]. You can create this page". From that page, just click on the red link that says "create this page" to get to the "edit box" and make a new page.

You can also create a new article from this page by typing its name in the box below:

The page name should be singular, for example, "Poodle" not "Poodles". The first letter will automatically be capitalized (upper case) in the title, whether you give it a capital or not. If there are two or more words in the title, they should be capitalized only if it is a proper name, for example, "Elvis Presley" not "Elvis presley". If the words are not a proper name, do not use capital letters, for example, "Big cat" not "Big Cat".

In the first sentence of the new page you make, write the name of the page in bold writing.