Help:VisualEditor/FAQ/sco

General

 * Whit's VeesualEediter?
 * VeesualEediter is ae saffware deveelipmant ineetiateeve bi the Wikimedia Foundation that will pemit fawk tae eedit pages in MediaWiki wioot needin tae learn wikitex syntax. Wi VeesualEediter, formattin pages will wairk fair sicklik til ae waird processor – while eeditin, the tex will luik lik it will efter it's hained.


 * 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 page will look very similar to what the page will look like after it is saved.


 * Why is this chynge being dun?
 * The mucklest barrier til daein the first eedit, n thaurfore the mucklest barrier til beginnin the path that coud lead til somebodie becomin ae producteeve, expereeanced memmer o the communitie, is the complex wikimaurkup uised bi the auld eeditin windae. Tae increase the nummer o successfu first ettles at eeditin, we need ae better eeditin system. Please read oor langer explanation fer mair details.


 * The complex wiki markup syntax used by the old editing window is the biggest barrier to making the first edit, and therefore the biggest barrier to beginning the path that could lead to someone's becoming a productive, experienced member of the editing community.

To increase the number of successful first attempts at editing, we need a better editing system. Please read our longer explanation for more details.


 * Where do I go to learn more about using VisualEditor?
 * Please see the VisualEditor User guide.


 * Whan will VeesualEediter be enabled oan ma wiki?
 * The nou schedule fer futur rowoots is posted at VeesualEediter Rawoots. VeesualEediter wis affered til uisers o maist mucle Wikipædias in Julie o 2013. Mair than hauf o Wikipædias receeved VeesualEediter in the laist hauf o 2013. VeesualEediter will be deployed til naurlie aw o the remainin Wikipædias in 2014. Oan the nou, the ettle is tae deploy til Wikipædia steids first, n tae deploy it oan sister waurks thaurefter, cause o the complexitie o some o the chynges that ar necessair.


 * The current schedule for future rollouts is posted at VisualEditor/Rollouts.

More than half of Wikipedias received VisualEditor as an option for all users during 2013. VisualEditor is available as an opt-in Beta Feature to almost all logged-in users at all Wikimedia Foundation projects.


 * Why ar ye deployin the saffware even thooch deveelipmant isna finished?
 * The saffware definitelie isna finished; it haes featurs tae be eikit n issues tae be resolved. Ultimatelie, the best waa tae detect bugs n ideentifie missin featurs is tae hae aes monie fawk aes possible luikin at, uisin n pleyin wi the saffware. While we ken that bugs ar disrupteeve in the short-term, thay will be fixt, n this deploymant is whit lats us identifie thaim aes things that need fixin.


 * The software has features to be added and issues to be resolved.

Ultimately, the best way to detect bugs and identify missing features is to have as many people as possible using the software and playing with it. While we know that bugs are disruptive in the short term, they will be fixed, and the current use is what lets us identify things that need fixing.


 * Ah foond aen issue wi VeesualEediter. Hou can Ah tell ye tae fix it?
 * Gif ye'r willin n able, please report the issue in bugzilla in the [$bugzilla "VisualEditor" product]. Maist muckle Wikipædias hae ae wiki page dedicated til feedback aneat VeesualEediter aes weel; see the leet oan Wikidata. Thaur's ae central feedback page oan mediawiki.org aes weel.


 * Hou dae Ah disable the VeesualEediter?
 * Tae continue tae eedit the wikitex directlie, simplie clap the "" button in steid o "". Oan section eedit airtins, ye can apen the classeec wikitex eediter fer that section bi clapin oan "" in steid o the raigulair "" link.

On wikis where VisualEditor is still a Beta Feature, you can simply uncheck its box in the Beta tab of your Preferences; on the other wikis, you can check the Temporarily disable VisualEditor while it is in beta box from the Editing tab instead.


 * Ae featur is missin in VeesualEediter. Hou dae Ah speir til ye tae eik it?
 * Some features ar bein deveelipt the nou or planned (lik support fer poems or museecal scores; eeeditin mathemateecal formulae is available aes ae Beta Featur). The Roadmap n the Wikimedia engineerin draft goals fer 2013–2014 provide some addeetional information aes weel. Gif ye canna fynd onie referance til the new featur that ye'd lik tae suggest, please haun it in uisin the same process uised tae report aen issue.


 * Some features are currently being developed or planned.

The Roadmap, the Wikimedia Engineering goals pages for 2015–2016 and the Phabricator workboard 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 tae eedit uisin wikitex efter VeesualEediter becomes the primarie eeditin interface?
 * Ay. While VeesualEediter will become the defaut eeditin environment, ae methid fer eeditin the unnerlyin “soorce” tex will continue tae exeest. Thaur's nae plans tae remuiv the “Eedit soorce” optie.


 * Can Ah uise fameeleeair Wikimaurkup lik  n  in VeesualEediter?
 * Naw. In steid o this, please uise the airtin n template featurs. See the VeesualEediter Uiser guide fer mair aneat hou tae uise VeesualEediter.


 * Why's ma brouser na supportit?
 * Biggin ae modern eeditin interface fer Wikipædia n its sister wiki is ae techneecal challenge, bit it's possible uisin modern wab technologies n staundairts. Onfortunatelie, some brousers dinna support monie o the featurs that we need fer VeesualEediter. We'r daein oor best tae support the maist commyn brousers: VeesualEediter wairks weel wi the maist recynt versions o Firefox, Chrome, Opera n Safari, n support fer Internet Explorer 9 n abuin is planned. Houever, ettlin tae wairk aroond the leemitations o aulder brousers wid divert resoorces fe impruivmants that wid benefeet the feck o uisers. We encoorage ye tae upgrade til ae supporti brouser n, gif ye canna, tae continue tae eedit uising the soorce wikitex eediter. (See VisualEditor/Target browser matrix fer speceefeec details.)


 * 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 recent versions of the most popular web browsers: Firefox 15 and up; Iceweasel 10 and up; Safari 7 and up; Chrome 19 and up; Opera 15 and up; Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and up; Edge 12 and up. In some browsers, such as Internet Explorer 9, a warning message will still show up, but users shouldn't experience any major problems editing. 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. (See target browser matrix for specific details.)


 * Dis VeesualEediter wairk wi Wikisource's ProofreadPage, or Wiktionair's templates, n ither featurs that Wikipædia disna hae?
 * VeesualEediter is yinlie enabled oan Wikipædia steids the nou, bit we hae designed it tae be flexeeble enooch tae be uised oan aw Wikimedia steids. Efter deployin til Wikipædia we will wairk tae mak sair that VeesualEediter wairks weel wi featurs speceefeec til sister steids.


 * Can Ah instaw VeesualEediter oan ma personal wiki ootside Wikimedia?
 * Ay, at yer ain risk. VeesualEediter n Parsoid extensions ar available fer doonlaid bit thay'r still expereemental; mynd that Parsoid needs nodeJS. Gif ye dae instaw n uise thaim, please lat us ken whit wairkt n whit didna [$bugzilla in Bugzilla].


 * Dis VeesualEediter mak autæmateec fixes til pages?
 * In maist cases, VeesualEediter will na mak chynges til formattin oan lines that'r na bein directlie eeditit. In cases whaur maurkup that's awreadie oan the page is haunled oncorrectlie (fer example, wi buirds that'r na claised), it micht attempt tae set thir richt.


 * Will the visual editor be enabled on talk pages?
 * ​No. This question comes up quite often.


 * The visual editor is designed to edit content, plain pages of text.


 * Talk pages aren't content. Many of the tools and design patterns that make VE nice to use to edit content make it poor to use for discussions.


 * To make it usable for discussions, we would have to remove or break many of those patterns in VE. We have spent a lot of time researching with users what works best there.


 * VE can't deal with structured discussions and plain-text discussions are not structured discussions.


 * Discussions like they are on traditional talk pages are not structured discussions from a technical perspective, despite the fact there is a certain number of colons or bullet points added to each answer to provide a pseudo-structure. With the current design of classical discussions, a piece of software can't know who has replied to whom – only humans can. There is no real connection between posts (which post is the parent/child of which), which is the definition of a structured discussion.


 * At the moment Flow deals with structured discussions. In Flow, each post is independent with a unique ID, linked to other posts and to a Topic (also with a unique ID), with a specific history, and all posts can be targeted precisely. It would be possible in the future to have conversations at multiple places, to move topics or replies, and to create sub-discussions with Flow. Classical talk pages, using VE or not, do not allow that.


 * Ma speirin isna here. Whau dae Ah speir?
 * Ye can speir oan the VeesualEediter feedback page oan yer wiki (see the leet oan Wikidata) or oan the central feedback page oan mediawiki.org.

Community resources

 * Where can I read more about what communities can do to adapt the visual editor to their sites?
 * You can find a sort of "checklist" here on mediawiki.org.


 * Where can I find people experienced in this kind of effort?
 * There is a list of names at Community Taskforce.