Help:VisualEditor/FAQ

Questions! That are frequently asked!

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, in that the text will look while editing as it will after it is saved.


 * When will VisualEditor be enabled on my wiki?
 * This is the current schedule:
 * 18 June: A/B test on enwiki. VisualEditor released by default to 50 percent of newly-registered accounts.
 * 1 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to enwiki, as the default, for all logged-in users.
 * 8 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to enwiki, as the default, for anonymous and logged-in users.
 * 18 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to first-tier, non-enwiki wikis - list still to be determined, but definitely de, fr and itwiki, for all users.
 * 29 July: Deployment of the VisualEditor to all other wikis, as the default, for all users, minus those wikis (such as zhwiki) where the VisualEditor definitively does not 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.


 * I found an issue with the VisualEditor. How can I tell you to fix it?
 * If you're willing and able, please report the issue in bugzilla in the "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 here on mediawiki.org.


 * How do I disable VisualEditor?
 * To continue to edit the wikitext dierctly, simply click the "edit source" button instead of "edit". If you want section edit links to open the classic wikitext editor as well, open your preferences and enable the option called "Use the wikitext editor for editing sections while VisualEditor is in beta".


 * A feature is missing in VisualEditor. How do I ask you to add it?
 * Some features are currently being developed or planned (like editing around images and templates). The Roadmap and the 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, you can 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?
 * 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.


 * Aren’t you worried by the potential for a large increase in vandalism?
 * One of the goals of the randomly-selected testing done in June 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 button and blank a page than 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 it was designed to be flexible enough to be used on most Wikimedia sites. In the six months between the deployment to Wikipedia and the deployment to its sister sites, developers 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. If you do install and use them, please let us know what worked and what didn't in bugzilla.


 * 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 here on mediawiki.org.

Editing

 * What about editing LaTeX for mathematical formulas, image files, and other special environments?
 * Some like images and categories will be supported directly in VisualEditor. There are plans to support mathematical formulas as well. For more exotic features, it will still be possible to edit the source wikitext directly.


 * How do I edit links?
 * Click the “link” button (looks like a couple of links in a chain). You use that to search for the page that you want to link, rather than typing double square brackets at each end.


 * How do I edit templates?
 * Templates can't yet be edited in VisualEditor, but this feature will be enabled in the coming days.


 * How do I edit images and other media files?


 * How do I edit categories?
 * Categories can be edited through the "Page settings" menu in the VisualEditor toolbar.


 * How do I edit references?


 * What keyboard shortcuts are supported?
 * See VisualEditor/Features/Keyboard shortcuts. Many of the shortcuts commonly in use ("CTRL+B" for bold, for instance) will still function.