User:Mathieugp/shortcuts

This page presents a list of useful shortcuts to know when contributing to Wikipedia. To use a shortcut (for example WP:5P), all you need to do is to type it in Wikipedia's internal search box (top-right corner on Desktop, top bar on mobile).

Five Pillars

Wikipedia is founded on five (5) pillars that are important to understand:

WP:5P – Five Pillars

1. WP:ENC – Wikipedia is an encyclopedia
2. WP:NPOV – Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view
3. WP:COPY – Wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute
4. WP:CIV – Wikipedia's editors should treat each other with respect and civility
5. WP:BB – Wikipedia has no firm rules ("Be bold")

Policies

Some 60 policies were defined by Wikipedians over the years. Here are some that are most useful to know when beginning:

WP:OR – No original research

WP:V – Verifiability

WP:EDIT – Editing policy

WP:CON – Consensus

WP:IUP – Image use policy

WP:NFCC – Non-free content criteria

WP:PAID – Paid-contribution disclosure

WP:BLP – Biography of living persons

Guidelines

Here are some of the important guidelines one should try to follow when editing in Wikipedia:

WP:CS – Citing sources

WP:N – Notability

WP:MOS – Manual of Style

WP:MOSWTW – Words to watch (Manual of Style)

WP:FAITH – Assume good faith

WP:COI – Conflict of interest

WP:AB – Autobiography

Online Help

Sometimes reading the five pillars, the policies or the guidelines is not enough and one needs more help. Here are the most useful shortcuts to know in that case:

Help:Contents – Table of contents for the online help

WP:AQ – To know where you should ask questions

WP:FAQ – List of Frequently asked questions

WP:AAU – Adopt a user program

Editing

When editing articles using the default visual editor, the most common functions (bold, italic, citing sources, adding sections, links, images, etc.) are accessible simply by clicking the mouse or touching the screen on mobile devices. Inserting templates is however slightly more complicated because one needs to know in advance how the template is named in Wikipedia. Here are the names of some of the most commonly used templates:

Reflist – To insert in the section of a Wikipedia article where all footnotes are displayed

Cite book – To format a citation to a book used as an external source. Other templates: Cite journal, Cite thesis, Cite news, Cite web

Infobox person – To display the floating box containing a summary of facts about a person. List of all infoboxes: WP:IB

Community

While it is perfectly acceptable to quietly edit articles in Wikipedia (it is even encouraged!), many people will likely want to engage with the community, explore its various online meeting places, and participate to its activities. Here are some useful links in this regard:

WP:COM – Portal to all community-related aspects of Wikipedia

WP:LWP – Directory of WikiProjects internal to Wikipedia

WP:PORT – Portal to all Wikipedia internal contents portals