Help:VisualEditor/FAQ

General

 * What's VisualEditor?
 * VisualEditor is a software development initiative by the Wikimedia Foundation that will allow people to edit pages in MediaWiki without needing to learn wikitext syntax. With VisualEditor, formatting pages will work very similarly to a word processor – while editing, the text will look like it will after it is saved.


 * Why is this change being made?
 * The survey>strategy:Former Contributors Survey Results#Key findings|biggest barrier to making the first edit, and therefore the biggest barrier to beginning the path that could lead to someone becoming a productive, experienced member of the community, is the complex wikimarkup used by the old editing window. To increase the number of successful first attempts at editing, we need a better editing system. Please read our ve-why>mw:Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal/Why|longer explanation for more details.


 * When will VisualEditor be enabled on my wiki?
 * This is the current schedule (it may change):
 * 24 June: A/B test on the English Wikipedia. VisualEditor is released by default to 50% of newly registered accounts.
 * 1 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to the English Wikipedia, available for all logged-in users.
 * 8 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to the English Wikipedia, available for anonymous and logged-in users.
 * 15 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to most large Wikipedia wikis, available for all users. Which wikis are in this list is still to be determined, but will definitely include Wikipedia in German, French and Italian.
 * 29 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to all other Wikipedia wikis, available for all users, minus a few wikis (such as the Chinese Wikipedia) where the VisualEditor does not yet work.
 * Currently, the plan is to deploy to Wikipedia sites first, and to deploy it to sister projects by end of December 2013, due to the complexity of some of the changes necessary.


 * Why are you deploying the software so quickly? It doesn't look ready.
 * The software definitely isn't finished; it has features to be added, and we're certain that after deploying it we'll find bugs. That's not because it's bad software, or because it's not ready, it's just because it's software to start with. Bugs are inevitable: MediaWiki itself is 10 years old, and we are still finding things that could be better, or things that are unexpectedly broken. If we wait until the VisualEditor is completely bug-free to enable it, it will never be enabled.
 * Ultimately, the best way to detect bugs is to have as many people as possible looking at, using and playing with the software. While we appreciate any bugs will be disruptive in the short-term, they will be fixed, and this deployment is what lets us identify them as things that need fixing.


 * I found an issue with the VisualEditor. How can I tell you to fix it?
 * If you're willing and able, please bugreport>mw:Special:MyLanguage/How to report a bug|report the issue in bugzilla in the [https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=VisualEditor "VisualEditor" product]. Many wikis also have a wiki page dedicated to feedback about VisualEditor; see the list on Wikidata. There is also a central feedback page on mediawiki.org.


 * How do I disable VisualEditor?
 * To continue to edit the wikitext directly, simply click the "Edit source" button instead of "Edit". On section edit links, you can open the classic wikitext editor for that section by clicking "edit source" instead of the regular "edit" link.


 * A feature is missing in VisualEditor. How do I ask you to add it?
 * Some features are currently being developed or planned (like formatting images, adding columns and rows to tables, and editing mathematical formulae). The roadmap>mw:Roadmap#VisualEditor|Roadmap and the goals>mw:Wikimedia Engineering/2013-14 Goals#VisualEditor|Wikimedia engineering draft goals for 2013–2014 provide some additional information as well. If you can't find any reference to the new feature you'd like to suggest, please submit it using the same process used to report an issue.


 * Will it still be possible to edit using wikitext after VisualEditor becomes the primary editing interface?
 * Yes. While the VisualEditor will become the default editing environment, a method for editing the underlying “source” text will continue to exist. There are no plans to remove the “Edit source” option.


 * Why is my browser not supported?
 * Building a modern editing interface for Wikipedia and its sister wiki is a technical challenge, but it's possible using modern web technologies and standards. Unfortunately, some browsers don't support many of the features we need for VisualEditor. We're doing our best to support the most common browsers: VisualEditor works well with the most recent versions of Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and support for Internet Explorer 9 is coming very soon. However, trying to work around the limitations of older browsers would divert resources from improvements that would benefit the majority of users. We encourage you to upgrade to a supported browser and, if you can't, to continue to edit using the source wikitext editor.


 * Are you worried by the potential for a large increase in vandalism?
 * One of the goals of the randomly-selected new user testing done in June on the English Wikipedia is to find that out. Realistically speaking, we think that those who come with the intent to vandalize are probably doing it now. It’s just as fast (if not faster) to hit the “Edit source” tab and blank a page using the wikitext editor as to do the same thing using VisualEditor.


 * Does VisualEditor work with Wikisource's ProofreadPage, or Wiktionary's templates, and other features that Wikipedia doesn't have?
 * VisualEditor is currently only enabled on Wikipedia sites, but we have designed it to be flexible enough to be used on all Wikimedia sites. After deploying to Wikipedia we will work to make sure VisualEditor works well with features specific to sister sites.


 * Can I install VisualEditor on my personal wiki outside Wikimedia?
 * Yes, at your own risk. The VisualEditor and Parsoid extensions are available for download but they're still experimental; note that Parsoid requires nodeJS. If you do install and use them, please let us know what worked and what didn't [https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=VisualEditor in Bugzilla].


 * Where do I go to learn more about using VisualEditor?
 * Please see the userguide>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Help:VisualEditor/User guide|VisualEditor User guide.


 * Does VisualEditor make automatic fixes to pages?
 * In general, VisualEditor should never make changes to formatting on lines that are not being directly edited.


 * My question isn't here. Where do I ask?
 * You can ask on the VisualEditor feedback page on your wiki (see the list on Wikidata) or on the central feedback page on mediawiki.org.