Once you have created a user account, you should create your userpage in Wikipedia. This is where people can find out more information about you. It is useful to let other editors know that you are a new user and are still learning.
Ensure you are logged into Wikipedia and have switched on the Visual Editor before going further.
- Click on the red link matching your user name at the top of the page.
- Click on the top bullet point to create your user page, for example Create the JoBloggs user page.
- If there are two edit tabs at the top of the screen, click on Create.
- Type a sentence to introduce yourself to the Wikipedia community. e.g. Hi, my name is Ewan and I work at the University of Edinburgh as the Wikimedian in Residence.
- Select the Insert > Template option from the dropdown menu.
- Type This is a new user in the box.
- Select the This is a new user link.
- Click Add template.
- Click Insert. A statement will appear on your page identifying you as a new user.
- Click Save Page in the top right of the screen.
- Type a short edit summary of ‘created user page‘.
- Click Save Page.
- You will see that your the user name link at the top of the page has changed in colour from red to blue.
- That is your Wikipedia user page created!
At this stage you are ready to begin editing Wikipedia. Happy editing!
You can stop here, or carry on with the next five slides, which will explain how to format pages easily using Wikipedia’s Visual Editor.
Further Tutorials
If you would like to find out more about editing Wikipedia then you can also:
- Try the Wikipedia Adventure tutorial. A fun self-guided tutorial that you can do at home in roughly 45-60 minutes.
- Explore the Wikipedia training library tutorials. Includes short practicals that let you play around in your sandbox (your draft space on Wikipedia).
- Learn how to edit in under 25 minutes (video tutorial).