Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome to Wikipedia

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Welcome to Wikipedia...

Shortcuts:
WP:WEL
WP:WELCOME

to Wikipedia!

It's nice to have you aboard. We're glad you wish to help develop this encyclopedia. We hope you enjoy participating in the Wikipedia community as much as we do. As a new contributor, you may feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer size and apparent complexity of this project. But don't worry, it will become easier and clearer as you go. If you feel you need assistance, experienced Wikipedians are available to help you learn the basics and get up to speed. We've included some resources below to help you get started. Good luck and have fun. -- The Wikipedia Welcoming Committee

One of the best places to get started is Help:Contents/Getting started.
Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date.

In case you get stuck, the following people have volunteered to assist new contributors, to give a helping hand and help you learn the ropes:

Even more volunteers are standing by to answer your questions on the following pages. You can usually expect an answer fairly quickly, often within just a few minutes:

To learn more about the Welcoming Committee, see Wikipedia:Welcoming committee.

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Finding your way around

To understand Wikipedia, it is easiest to think of this website as having two types of pages: pages that are part of the encyclopedia itself, and pages of the community (used by contributors to help build and operate the encyclopedia).

To find your way around the encyclopedia, either enter a term into the search box on the left side of the screen, or go to Wikipedia's table of contents.

Wikipedia's community pages include instructions, help pages, policies, guidelines, discussion forums, places to make requests, pages to report problems, and user pages. These are all pages which we use to develop the encyclopedia and to communicate with each other in that mission. Some directories to help you find your way around the community are:

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Related Projects

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Tip of the day

Inserting a picture in an article

The syntax used for displaying an image is:

[[Image:{name}|{type}|{location}|{size}|{caption}]]

Only [[Image:{name}]] is required. The other details are optional and can be placed in any order. They are:

Type 
'thumb' / 'thumbnail' or 'frame'. This causes image to be displayed with specific formatting. "thumb" is normally preferred.
Location 
'right', 'left', 'center' or 'none'. Determines placement of the image on the page. "Left" or "right" is the norm, but large panoramas or timelines can be displayed in the center.
Size 
{width}px or {width}x{height}px (e.g. 50x40px, would limit width to 50 and height to 40). Normally only one variable is used. Use common sense when determining the sizes; you can use the "Show preview" button if you need to.
Caption 
Any element which cannot be identified as one of the above is automatically treated as caption text. It is traditional to put this last. The caption should identify what the image is, and ideally be a complete sentence that adds to the article by pointing out something a casual reader wouldn't have noticed otherwise, or add information the pertains to the image.

If you have a picture that isn't already in Wikipedia's image collection that you want to include in an article, you will need to upload it first.

Read more (includes examples): Wikipedia:Extended image syntax

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Our "Rules"

Be sure to read the above pages! They are very important, and they will help you - even if you're not perfect the first second tenth seventeenth time!

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If you need help...

If you've made a mistake and wish to undo it, revert it. Here's how: click history at the top of the page you made the mistake on. Then click on the second entry in the history list that appears on your screen. Once there, click edit this page. Then save page. See more detailed instructions at Wikipedia:Reversion.

There are two main styles of help on Wikipedia: self-help and assistance...

Self-help involves reading the help and instruction pages around Wikipedia. Some very informative self-help pages are:

For when you get stuck, confused, or befuddled, assistance is available on Wikipedia's "desk" and "request" pages - use these when self-help hasn't provided you with an answer:

Mostly anyone on these lists will help you as well:

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See also
Resources