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.


 * Why is this change being made?
 * 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.


 * When will VisualEditor be enabled on my wiki?
 * The current schedule for future rollouts is posted at mw: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 are you deploying the software even though development is not finished?
 * 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.


 * I found an issue with VisualEditor. How can I tell you to fix it?
 * If you're willing and able, please report the issue in Phabricator in the "VisualEditor" product. Most large Wikipedias 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 "" button instead of "". On section edit links, you can open the classic wikitext editor for that section by clicking "" instead of the regular "" 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.


 * A feature is missing in VisualEditor. How do I ask you to add it?
 * 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 I use familiar wikimarkup like  and  in VisualEditor?
 * No. Currently, those shortcuts will trigger the link and the template tool respectively. If you use wikimarkup in the article, a warning message will appear. See VisualEditor User guide for more about how to use VisualEditor.


 * 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 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 VisualEditor/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 I install VisualEditor on my personal wiki outside Wikimedia?
 * Yes, at your own risk. 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 in Phabricator.


 * 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 Help:VisualEditor/Community Taskforce.