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Help:Introduction to navigating Wikipedia/6

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Introduction
Navigating Wikipedia

Namespaces
The different types of pages

Searching pages
Tricks to find what you want

Page histories
See past revisions

Redirects and shortcuts
Redirecting traffic

Useful links
Handy pages for editors

Summary
Review of what you've learned



At the top

If you are logged in, you'll also see some useful links at the top right of your screen:

  • Your username takes you to your userpage, where you can add information about yourself.
  • Watchlist () shows recent changes to pages you're watching (click the star at the top right of a page to watch it).
  • Talk is your user talk page, where people can leave messages for you.
  • Sandbox is a page in your user space where you can experiment with editing without worrying that you will cause problems on an actual Wikipedia page.
  • Preferences allows you to change your password and customize your email and wiki software settings.
  • Contributions has a list of all the edits you have made.
  • Log out logs you out of your account.

On the left

There's an additional set of useful links on the left side of each page:

  • Help is the entry point for Wikipedia's help pages.
  • Community portal is the hub for editors, with news, discussions, and ways to help out.
  • What links here shows you what other pages are linking to an article.
  • Related changes lists any edits that have been made to pages that an article links to.

There are a few other pages on Wikipedia that are really handy to know about:

  • You can ask questions at either the Help desk (using or editing Wikipedia) or the Teahouse (help for newcomers).
  • The Village pump is a set of central discussion forums.
  • The Task Center lists various tasks you can help out with.
  • The Signpost is Wikipedia's community-written newspaper, a good way to keep up with goings-on.