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{{Short description|Visual method of editing Misplaced Pages}}
<div class="plainlinks" style="border:3px solid #a7d7f9; background-color:#f9f9f0; width:100%; font-size: 100%; padding: 0.5ex; ">
{{pp-semi-indef}}
Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) developers have implemented a Beta version of VisualEditor (VE), a way to edit pages without needing to learn wiki markup. Both VisualEditor and the original ] editor are automatically available to all editors on all article and user pages (VE is disabled in all other ]). You can continue to edit wikitext directly using the "Edit source" tab, or (on non-article, non-user pages), the "Edit" tab.
{{selfref|For the Misplaced Pages article about VisualEditor, see ], or to perform tests using Misplaced Pages's VisualEditor, go to the ] page and click "Edit page visually".}}
{{Misplaced Pages how-to|WP:VE}}
{| style="background:#EBF4FA; border:1px solid lightgray; text-align:center; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
|-
| style="font-size:150%; width:32%" | '''].'''
| style="font-size:150%; width:32%" | ''']'''.
| style="font-size:150%" class="plainlinks" | ] .
|-
| 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, ], and click Save. Or&nbsp;'''''' for testing.
| Find out how to make links, add or move images, create citations, insert templates, edit tables, and more.
| Use ] to report ] with Visual Editor. Please include your '''web browser''', '''computer operating system''', and '''Misplaced Pages skin''' (usually Vector (2022), sometimes Vector Legacy (2010)). Start a <span class="plainlinks"></span>.
|}


{{VisualEditor navbox}}
'''''Bug reports and comments are welcome at ].''''' Your help in identifying bugs and training new users is invaluable.
]
Welcome to the portal for '''VisualEditor''', an editing tool currently under development by the ] (WMF). It allows users to contribute to Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages was by using the ']', which requires users to understand wiki markup or ] 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.
That VisualEditor is in Beta means that it lacks the full functionality of the older wikitext editor. But while experienced editors will be more comfortable with wikitext editing, VE has features that are intended to be more user-friendly for new editors. For example, there are dialogs to insert a new image, or to edit a complex templates or a reference.


VisualEditor still has many bugs and missing features. If you encounter an issue using the VisualEditor on Misplaced Pages.org or (ie., not on a third-party wiki), you can . WMF staff prefer that you report bugs via .
After a ] in its favor, the WMF developers have implemented a user preference to disable the VisualEditor. Go to ], and check the box labeled "Temporarily disable VisualEditor while it is in beta", then click "Save". If you're having trouble disabling the VisualEditor, or to hide it instead of disabling it, see ] for more detailed instructions.


__TOC__
'''Attention ] (IE) users:''' At the moment, VisualEditor is disabled for all IE web browsers. For IE9 and IE10 users, this is intended to be temporary, with various issues being addressed by software fixes. But VE will ''not'' be made available to users of IE8 and earlier. If you use these older versions of IE and want to edit with VisualEditor, you will need to use a different browser.
</div>


==About VisualEditor==
{{Shortcut|WP:VE}}
VisualEditor is a "visual" way of editing Misplaced Pages that allows people to contribute without having to learn ]. This ] was made available as an opt-in release on the English-language Misplaced Pages in December 2012, , and in 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 ] to the rest, along with most non-Misplaced Pages projects except Wiktionary and Wikisource. On English Misplaced Pages, it is enabled by default for new users.<ref>{{cite web |title=visualeditor-nondefault.dblist |url=https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/mediawiki-config/+/refs/heads/master/dblists/visualeditor-nondefault.dblist |website=gerrit.wikimedia.org |access-date=28 December 2021}} (List of Wikiprojects that do not have VisualEditor enabled by default for new users)</ref>
{{VisualEditor Portal}}


As of 2021, the visual editor is used about half as often as the ], and about as often as the mobile web editor. It is used about twice as often as ].
<br>
Welcome to the portal for the '''VisualEditor''', a new way of editing Misplaced Pages being developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Editing Misplaced Pages has, in the past, required people to learn some ], for most changes to articles. In 2001, this was acceptable; in 2013, it ]. VisualEditor allows people to edit without having to learn wikimarkup and will, it is hoped, encourage more readers to become editors.


To learn more about using VisualEditor, please read the ] and the ]. Your help with the ] is appreciated. You can also receive regular status updates on your talk page by ].
By the end of July 2013, the VE team expects VE to be available to editors on almost all Wikimedia projects.

Experienced editors may well ''prefer'' editing wikitext directly, finding it faster and more precise. '''Editing articles purely in wikitext is still and will remain an option'''; the Wikimedia Foundation has absolutely no plans to remove this. Both editing options are accessible from the toolbar above each article and user page.

==About the VisualEditor==
The VisualEditor is a new, "visual" way of editing Misplaced Pages that will let people contribute without having to learn wikimarkup. It has been available as an opt-in "alpha" release on the English-language Misplaced Pages since December 2012, , and in since the beginning of June. As ], the VE team expects to deploy this to almost all Wikipedias by the end of July, making it available for all editors ''without their opting in'', starting with the English-language Misplaced Pages on 1 July.

For those interested in using VisualEditor, there is a ], as well as a ]. If you're interested in helping with the deployment, there are ]. You can receive regular status updates on your talk page by ].

]

At the moment, the VisualEditor has a large number of bugs. While some bugginess was inevitable, the current level is unacceptable and the developers' goal is to eliminate as many of these bugs as quickly as possible. Some entirely new features are still yet to be built. If you encounter an issue, then please ].


== Limitations == == Limitations ==
{{sh|WP:VELIM}}
Current limitations include: <!-- Listed roughly in order of impact -->
{{hatnote|1=Further information: ] and <span class=plainlinks></span>}}
Current known limitations include: <!-- Listed roughly in order of impact -->
<onlyinclude><!-- Please do not remove - this tag is used to post select content to the Known problems page --> <onlyinclude><!-- Please do not remove - this tag is used to post select content to the Known problems page -->
* '''Not available in talk or discussion namespaces''' – On the English Misplaced Pages, VisualEditor is not enabled for any talk pages, on the Template or Misplaced Pages 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 ] has a visual mode based on VisualEditor, as well as a wikitext mode with a live preview.
* '''Articles and User pages only''' – The VisualEditor is only enabled for the article and user namespaces (the latter allows editors to make changes in a personal sandbox). In time, VE will include the specialised editing tools needed for non-article pages, but the developer focus has been on articles. On pages other than those in the article and user namespaces, the "Edit" button will take editors to the old (wikitext) editor.
* '''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.
* '''Limited browser support''' – VisualEditor currently works only in the most modern versions of Firefox, Chrome and Safari. A volunteer is working on Opera support, and the developers aim to have support for the latest versions of Internet Explorer once they release the VisualEditor more widely.
* '''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.
* '''Only supports the Vector and Monobook skins'''.
* '''Numeric reference names''' – Currently, ] with a colon prefix, i.e., ":0", ":1", ":2", and so on. There has ] in having VE ].
* '''Cannot edit a single section.''' VisualEditor only loads and submits entire pages.
* '''Slower''' – Loading longer pages into VisualEditor can be significantly slower than the source editor for some users.<ref>For data on VisualEditor performance, see </ref>
* '''Despite above, must hover over "Edit" link for sections in order to get the Edit source tab for that section'''. This does not work on touchscreens, and . This is in contrast to recommended practices of the ] that ].<ref>Specifically two of the core principles, , and most likely several specific principles such as and . See also .</ref>
* '''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. ], which are (roughly) based on editing the same ''paragraph''.]
* '''Slow loading''' - Loading longer pages into VisualEditor takes more time than the old wikitext editor, though significantly less time than at the initial rollout of VE. Large articles may take 15 seconds or so to load.
* '''Limited support for user scripts''' – Most ] do not work when using VisualEditor; it is up to the script's developer to add support for VisualEditor.
** Pages for which the VisualEditor is an option carry roughly 2% more Javascript, which is about 0.5% of the total page load. Furthermore, this only has to be loaded once and is cached for use on all pages (until your cache expires, usually once a week).
* '''Cannot upload non-free images''' – At this time, images that are uploaded inside either the wikitext editor or VisualEditor are sent directly to the ], which does not accept non-free images. All images that fall under ] must instead be stored on Misplaced Pages using the ]. 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.
* '''Slow scrolling''' – Pages can take a long time to respond to attempted scrolling down or up on even relatively good computers with good internet connections.
* '''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.
* '''Incomplete editing functionality''' – The content of some "complex" formatting, including tables and definition lists, will display and can be edited, but editors using VE cannot modify the structures or add new entries, such as an additional row for a table. Adding features in this area is one of the developers' priorities.
* '''Wikilink changes''' – May ] turn a simple link into a piped link when a change to the link text involves redirects.
* '''Relatively weak referencing support''' (albeit getting better).
* '''Template issues'''
* '''Cannot copy-paste from one page to another without losing italics, bold, wikilinks, and other markup'''. In particular, footnotes and templates cannot be copy-pasted. Adding this functionality is a high-priority enhancement.
** '''Parameters are wikitext, not rich text''' – VisualEditor lets you edit the parameters of template transclusions, but only as "wikitext" (so "<code><nowiki>]</nowiki></code>" or nested templates like "<code><nowiki>{{Foo|{{Bar}}}}</nowiki></code>", not "]" or "{{tlp|Foo|{{tl|Bar}}}}").
* '''Odd-looking''' – The developers are currently struggling with making the HTML that VE produces look like what editors are used to seeing, so styling and so on may look a little (or even very) odd. Developer time is being spent on improving this, but their focus remains on ensuring that the VisualEditor does not alter wikitext unexpectedly.
** '''Footnotes''' – Footnotes inside templates (most commonly, infoboxes and {{tl|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 ].
* '''Cannot view hidden comments''' – Users using VisualEditor cannot view hidden comments, which often contain notes that are helpful in editing specific sections of articles.
** '''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.
* '''Template within template''' - (e.g. <code><nowiki>{{Template1|{{Template2}}}}</nowiki></code>) Unlike the Visual Mode editor of ], which will be disabled if a template is containing another template, VisualEditor of Wikimedia allows such usage and will display the preview properly. The only problem is that the template within can only be used in the source mode style, meaning you need to write the full source code of the inner template manually in the parameter entry window of the outer template.
** '''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 <em>feature</em> of TemplateData that can be managed in the documentation of a given template; see ] for detailed information.
** '''Table-formatting unawareness''' – Popular ] (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 any problems you see, after first to make sure it hasn't been reported already..</onlyinclude><!-- Please do not remove - this tag is used to post select content to the Known problems page -->
Because of these limitations and the many remaining bugs in Visual Editor, the developers recommend that VE users click "Review your changes" before saving a page, and ] any problems they see.

</onlyinclude><!-- Please do not remove - this tag is used to post select content to the Known problems page -->

== Timetable ==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Week of.. !! Launch !! Target projects !! Status
|-
| 1 July || Launch to all logged-in users as the default editor || English-language Misplaced Pages || Done
|-
| 15 July || Launch to all logged-in and anonymous users as the default editor || English-language Misplaced Pages || Done
|-
| 24 July || Launch to all logged-in users on other first-stage projects || German (de), Spanish (es), French (fr), Hebrew (he), Italian (it), Dutch (nl), Polish (pl), Russian (ru) and Swedish (sv) || Please update
|-
| 29 July || Launch to all logged-in and anonymous users on other first-stage projects || German (de), Spanish (es), French (fr), Hebrew (he), Italian (it), Dutch (nl), Polish (pl), Russian (ru) and Swedish (sv) || Please update
|-
| ? || Launch to all logged-in and anonymous users on all other projects || All Wikipedias, except those languages with language variants, such as Chinese. || Please update
|}


== How to help out == == How to help out ==
Help is needed to make the VisualEditor as good as it can be: You can find and ] while using the software or lend a hand in many other tasks, such as: Help is needed to make VisualEditor as good as it can be: You can find and 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 ]. The ] 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 ]—and as you'll see if you use it on Misplaced Pages, 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 ] code added to their documentation pages for this feature to work. If you're interested in adding TemplateData, read the ] and a ] 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 ''']''', the ''']''', and the ''']'''. Additionally, please feel free to monitor the ''']'''.
* '''Report errors''', and '''suggest improvements''' – Read about ], then '''start a <span class="plainlinks"></span>'''.
{{Misplaced Pages:VisualEditor/Newsletter}}


== Userbox ==
*'''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 VE development team needs help ]. The ] is a starting place for text for the new help pages.
{{userbox top|extra-css=clear:both|toptext=VisualEditor ] variants}}
*'''Adding TemplateData to templates''' – The VisualEditor features an interactive template editor—described in more detail in the ]—and as you'll see if you use it on Misplaced Pages, some templates have named parameters and nice descriptions that make it easy to use. However, other templates lack them because they need "TemplateData" before this feature will work. If you're interested in adding TemplateData, then read the ] and the ].
{{User:Psiĥedelisto/Userboxes/VisualEditor}}
*'''Help new users''' – The successful launch of VisualEditor might result in many more new editors than usual, and even though editing may be easier, learning policies and guidelines and how to interact with the community will still be challenging. Please try to spend some time at the appropriate venues: the ''']''', the ''']''' and the ''''''. Additionally, please feel free to monitor the ''']'''.
{{User:Psiĥedelisto/Userboxes/VisualEditor|adv=sometimes}}

{{User:Psiĥedelisto/Userboxes/VisualEditor|buggy=}}
== Newsletter ==
{{userbox bottom}}
Sign up here! Just add <nowiki>* {{user|Your username}}</nowiki> below.
You can signal to other editors your use of the VisualEditor on your ] by using the ] ]. See that page for all the options available, three of which are shown here.
* {{user|Lacolchadetu senscape}}
{{clear}}
* {{user|Jimbo Wales}}
* {{user|3family6}}
* {{user|Alessandro57}}
* {{user|Flexdream}}
* {{user|Defan24}}
* {{user|Wrybit}}
* {{user|Cisco9078}}
* {{user|cj1340}}
* {{user|Judgesurreal777}}
* {{user|Alaney2k}}
* {{user|J.Dong820}}
* {{user|Drali1954}}
* {{user|Doberek}}
* {{user|Ekhaya2000}}
* {{user|Tentinator}}
* {{user|Buffbills7701}}
* {{user|ctxppc}}
* {{user|Captain Assassin!}}
* {{user|Pratyya Ghosh}}
* {{user|Charles Edwin Shipp}}
* {{user|Blok Glo}}
* {{user|JordanKyser22}}
* {{user|Auric}}
* {{user|Chiefmartinez}}
* {{user|Zhaofeng Li}}
* {{user|CRC43}}
* {{user|Aashwath_001}}
* {{user|patchallel}}
* {{user|Susanne Ramharter}}
* {{user|Neo12345292}}
* {{user|Simoncaulton}}
* {{user|benzband}}
* {{user|Coal town guy}}
* {{user|Farshid7}}
* {{user|Smuckola}}
* {{user|Corn cheese}}
* {{user|~Siriusly}}
* {{user|vfrickey}}
* {{user|Gerryyabes}}
* {{user|Johnny Au}}
* {{user|Quadtripplea}}
* {{user|Signalizing}}
* {{user|Cekli829}}
* {{user|fabregas0414}}
* {{user|JMHamo}}
* {{user|gordon4752}}
* {{user|PearlSt82}}
* {{user|Jacopo Werther}}
* {{user|Freedman1}}
* {{user|Charles01}}
* {{user|lion_trainer}}
* {{user|Lineagekeeper}}
* {{user|Spacenut42}}
* {{user|danlev}}
* {{user|Perumalism}}
* {{user|Aleksa Milićević}}
* {{user|Coolgama}}
* {{user|Wahrmund}}
* {{user|Discott}}
* {{user|Paine Ellsworth}}
* {{user|Nascar1996}}
* {{user|Codename Lisa}}
* {{user|mgiganteus1}}
* {{user|XapApp}}
* {{user|Andrewa}}
* {{User|Robert McClenon}}
* {{User|Imagine Wizard}}
* {{User|BJMendelson}}
* {{User|Bcorr}}
* {{User|Ocaasi}}
* {{User|Lucky102}}
* {{User|Loggats}}
* {{User|John Broughton}}
* {{User|ScottyWZ}}
* {{User|ProtoDrake}}
* {{User|Diaa abdelmoneim}}
* {{User|Dom497}}
* {{User|JB82}}
* {{user|ConradKilroy}}
* {{user|Sreejiththulaseedharan}}
* {{user|TehPlaneFreak}}
* {{user|Ged UK}}
* {{user|hym411}}
* {{user|David Gerard}}
* {{user|Bilby}}
* {{user|Pseudonymous Rex}}
* {{user|OrangesRyellow}}
* {{user|Arctic Kangaroo}}
* {{user|Quiddity}}
* {{user|Faizan}}
* {{user|Miya}}
* {{user|Numbermaniac}}
* {{user|Alexander95015}}
* {{user|Hair}}
* {{user|Shanata}}
* {{user|Martijn Hoekstra}}
* {{user|Stratocaster27}}
* {{user|Joe Decker}}
* {{user|Ewiz88}}
* {{user|PamD}}
* {{user|jduranboger}}
* {{user|metsfreak2121}}
* {{user|Diego Moya}}
* {{user|Froztbyte}}
* {{user|Odisha1}}
* {{user|JetBlast}}
* {{user|MirandaStreeter}}
* {{user|Christian75}}
* {{user|EdSaperia}}
* {{user|Jc86035}}
* {{user|Bevo}}
* {{user|JohnCD}}
* {{user|GermanJoe}}
* {{user|orsd}}
* {{user|MatthewBurton}}


== Notes == == Notes ==
Line 199: Line 77:


== External links == == External links ==
{{Commonscat|VisualEditor}} {{Commons category|VisualEditor}}
* The ], including the ] * The ], which links to historical ] from 2011 through 2016.
* The ], the bidirectional wiki parser behind VisualEditor and its ] * The ], the bidirectional wiki parser behind VisualEditor, and historical ] from 2011 through 2014.
* A 2015 ]

{{collapse top|Subpage Index}}
{{Special:Prefixindex/Wikipedia:VisualEditor/}}
{{collapse bottom}}


{{Misplaced Pages technical help|collapsed}}
] ]

Latest revision as of 13:34, 13 October 2024

Visual method of editing Misplaced Pages

For the Misplaced Pages article about VisualEditor, see VisualEditor, or to perform tests using Misplaced Pages's VisualEditor, go to the Sandbox page and click "Edit page visually".
This help page is a how-to guide.
It explains concepts or processes used by the Misplaced Pages community. It is not one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus.		Shortcut
Enable VisualEditor. Read VisualEditor's User Guide. Report a problem with VisualEditor.
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 Misplaced Pages skin (usually Vector (2022), sometimes Vector Legacy (2010)). Start a new Phabricator ticket.
About
Help out
Research
Other
As of mid-2023, editors at the English Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages.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 Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages 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-Misplaced Pages projects except Wiktionary and Wikisource. On English Misplaced Pages, it is enabled by default for new users.

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

Shortcut Further information: mw:VisualEditor/Feedback and Phabricator

Current known limitations include:

  • Not available in talk or discussion namespaces – On the English Misplaced Pages, VisualEditor is not enabled for any talk pages, on the Template or Misplaced Pages 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 Misplaced Pages's non-free content policy must instead be stored on Misplaced Pages 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 "]" 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 Misplaced Pages, 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.

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Userbox

VisualEditor userbox variants
This user primarily edits using the VisualEditor.
This user sometimes edits using the VisualEditor.
This user primarily edits using the VisualEditor. Please excuse the bugs it occasionally introduces.

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

External links

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