Help:Text editor support: Difference between revisions

It is often convenient to [[Wikipedia:How to edit a page|editEditing Wikipedia articles]] using a full-fledged [[text editor]], insteadis ofoften themore standard text areaconvenient ofthan a web browser's standard text area. Text editors provide facilities that are very useful for writing and editing articles (especially ''long'' articles), such as [[spell checker|spell checking]], search and replace, [[Macro (computer science)|macros]], [[syntax highlighting]], and alphabetic sorting. They also provide a quick and easy way of saving a local backup copy of an article, possibly for future offline editing. [[#wikEd|wikEd]] for Wikipedia (Preferences > Gadgets > Editing) supports some of these features, and some browsers support spell-checking. In any case, you can select Wikipedia [[VisualEditor]] for a visual editing, [[wikipedia:VisualEditor|in your user preferences]].

* GhostText ([https://github.com/GhostText/GhostText at this Web sitewebsite] or, for Firefox, added via Tools > Add-ons) opens the text box from your Chrome or Firefox Wikipedia window in a supported external editor ([[trialware]] [[Sublime Text]], or [[open source]] [[Atom (text editor)|Atom]], [[Visual Studio Code|VS codeCode]], or [[Vim (text editor)|Vim]] only), and keeps the browser and external text in sync during editing.

* '''[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/its-all-text/?src=ss It's All Text!]''', supports nonblocking editing and UTF-8 encoding. '''Note:''' If you ''also'' want ''syntax highlighting'' in your edit box, this addon may be incompatible with the highlighting in {{myprefs|Beta features}}, but works with the highlighting in {{myprefs|Gadgets}}. (See below for highlighting ''within Vim''.) '''Note: Stopped working onin Firefox 57+.'''

* '''[http://www.vimperator.org/vimperator Vimperator]''' and '''[http://dactyl.sourceforge.net/pentadactyl/ Pentadactyl]''' have a shortcut in Insert mode that allows external text editing (the default is '''[[Control key|Ctrl]]+i'''). '''Note: Stopped working onin Firefox 57+.'''

When the '''It's All Text!''' Firefox extension has been installed, a little blue edit button appears atin the bottom right corner of the text area. Just click the button to open the contents of the text area in your editor.

A temporary file is created for editing and it is removed at the end. So if you want to preserve a text file for later editing, you can change the file name and/or save the file to another directory.

Some macros may work underin [[Vim_(text_editor)#Interface|Vim]], but not underin [[Vim_(text_editor)#Interface|gVim]] for some reason (e.g., the macro to format text paragraphs). Or you just want to use Vim within an X terminal as you used to do, instead of using gVim. To invoke Vim within an X terminal window, you can write a shell script (see below) to invoke an X terminal and to run the <code>vim</code> command within that X terminal, or generally your preferred editor. Assume that the filename of this script is <code>wiki.edit.vim</code>, and that you put the script in the directory <code>/home_dir/bin/</code> so that the path of the script would be

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="bash">

:exec xterm -e ${VISUAL:='vim'} "$@"

=====Using Vim onin macOS=====

To get It's All Text to work nicely with Vim onin the Mac, you need to install [http://code.google.com/p/macvim/ Macvim]. When MacVim is installed, a script called mvim is also added. You need to tell It's All Text to use this script and not the MacVim.app file. A good place to keep it is in the same folder your MacVim.app file is (Applications by default).

==== Line and paragraph breakagebreaking ====

Lynx has a built-in hard limit onlimits line length. In version 2.8.3, find this line in <code>LYGlobalDefs.h</code>:

In Windows, the display font should be Lucida Console instead of 'Raster fonts', as Lucida Console supports a greater amount of characters. The display font can be changed in window properties: In Windows xpXP, click the Lynx window icon (to the left of the title), choose Properties, and switch to the Font tab, which typically lists only Raster fonts and Lucida Console.

'''<CODE>lynx.rc</CODE>''' is a per-user Lynx User Defaults File saved from the Options page. Settings in it take priority over the global config file. In Windows Vista, the per-user User Defaults file can be in <CODE>C:\Users\''Username''\AppData\Local\temp\lynx.rc</CODE>. If the file is in the <CODE>temp</CODE> directory, care is advised when using automated cleanup tools, such aslike Disk Cleanup.

When not in active use, an option is commented out with a hash <CODE>#</CODE> and its default setting is on; To use an option, delete the hash character before it. It may occasionally happen that theThe config file doesmay occasionally not contain a specific option, but it can be added by the user.

The following options are often found as defaults in Lynx binaries compiled for Windows and might not meet formatting conventions used in Wikipedia. These options can be edited from <CODE>lynx.cfg</CODE> and are usually not specified in the Options page. Before making changesediting, makeback a backup copy ofup the file, renamingand rename it to <CODE>lynx.cfg.old</CODE>, for example.

[https://luakit.github.io/ Luakit] is able to edit text boxes using an external editor by pressing {{key press|Ctrl|e}} on the focused text box. The external editor functionality is powered by the <code>editor</code> and <code>open_editor</code> Lua modules powers the external editor functionality. User configuration is done by editing a <code>userconf.lua</code> file and key bindings are changed with the <code>add_binds</code> and <code>remove_binds</code> functions.

[https://sourceforge.net/p/vimprobable/wiki/Home/ vimprobable] can open text boxes in an external editor by typing {{key press|Ctrl|t}} while in Insert Mode. User configuration is done by making edits toediting a <code>vimprobablerc</code> file. To change the key binding, use the <code>map</code> command on the <code>openeditor</code> function. To define a different editor, use the <code>handler</code> command to change the <code>vimprobableedit</code> URI schema.

There are alsoSome [[command line interface|command line]] tools that allow you to download articles, edit them using your favorite text editor, and upload the edited articles back into Wikipedia (or into any MediaWiki server). This bypasses the need for a web browser. These are (at least):

* [http://search.cpan.org/~markj/WWW-Mediawiki-Client/bin/mvs mvs], a [[Perl]] program available from [[CPAN]]. There's more information at [[Meta:WWW::Mediawiki::Client]] has more information. Unfortunately, mvs uses the name of the local file as the title of the page for the wiki remote server. If you need title pages in UTF-8 for Russian, Japanese or Arabic for example, you won't be able to upload such files. It seems that Mediawiki::Client as well as Perl libraries are not enough advanced in the management ofmanaging UTF-8 characters to be fully operational, even if your terminal and shell are correctly set for UTF-8. But see [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libwww-mediawiki-client-perl Debian bug reports].

* [[mw:Manual:Pywikibot]] is an extensive library and set of utilities for doing innumerable things with Wikipedia. It can also do something as simple as editing Wikipedia pages. It has some ways to avoid the wrong transmission oftransmitting titles in UTF-8 wrongly, for example it allows to incorporate the name of the title ''within'' the file itself and to use another command line tool. The local filename could then be written in simple ASCII. Here is an example of a file, named locally 'foo.wiki', using pagefromfile.py (from [[mw:Manual:Pywikibot]]):

There are aA few [[Emacs]] ''major mode'' implementations are available for editing MediaWiki syntax:

* [[Meta:Mediawiki.el|Mediawiki.el]], see [http://github.com/hexmode/mediawiki-el mediawiki.el on github]. “…"… adds the ability to edit sites hosted on Mediawiki (including Wikipedia, of course).”"

* [http://www.gna.org/projects/wikipedia-el/ wikipedia.el] (obsolete) is a much more advanced major mode. whichIt provides [[WYSIWYG]] editingeditor offor Wikipedia articles. Note, however, that it is developed using the current [[Concurrent Versions System|CVS]] version of GNU Emacs, may not be compatible with older versions, and has been effectively discontinued because it's not being actively maintained. Also, the mode was in the [[Software release life cycle#Alpha|alpha stage of development]] when it was orphaned, so use it at your own risk.

* [http://www.emacswiki.org/elisp/longlines.el longlines.el] — implements “word"word wrap”wrap" functionality for Emacs (<code>longlines.el</code> is now part of GNU Emacs). [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia-mode.el#Installing longlines-mode|Installation instructions for <code>longlines.el</code>]].

There is also a highlighting import tool : <code>Settings → Configure Kate → Fonts & Colors → Highlighting Text Styles → Highlight: → Import button</code>.

[[gedit]] is a cross-platform, free software text editor that comes bundled with [[Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]] Linux by default. There is aA [[GPL]]-licensed MediaWiki syntax highlight mode is shipped by default with ''gedit 3.10'' and newer.

<div style="margin-left:1em;"><sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="bash">

</sourcesyntaxhighlight></div>

<div style="margin-left:1em;"><sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="bash">

</sourcesyntaxhighlight></div>

A [http://www.notetab.com/clipbooks/wiki.zip Clip Library plugin] for the [[NoteTab]] (Windows) text editor contains some functions to automate Wikiwiki markup.

A "MediaWiki" bundle is available in the [[TextMate]] for [[macOS]] bundle subversion repository. The bundle could ne enabled through the app preference pane GUI by checking a tickbox. To learn how to load this bundle manualy, see the [http://macromates.com/textmate/manual/bundles#getting_more_bundles TextMate manual page] about installing more bundles, or view this [[shell script]] that downloads and installs it. [http://netcetera.org/cgi-bin/tmbundles.cgi?bundle=%4D%65%64%69%61%77%69%6B%69]. The bundle does syntax highlighting, code completion, and other actions.

===SublimeTextSublime Text===

[https://github.com/tosher/Mediawiker Mediawiker] is a SublimeTextSublime Text package that enables editing mediawikiMediaWiki pages.

More informationsinformation about the plugin and hisits configuration can be found in the [https://github.com/tosher/Mediawiker/wiki mediawiker wiki].

Please feel free to contribute improvements to the below scripts, or check the [httphttps://newswww.gmanevim.org/gmane.editorsmaillist.php#vim.devel-dev vim-develdev list] if anyone has requested the upload of mediawiki.vim Syntax & FileType plugin. If not, request it and/or post the reasons why they are not here. {{as of | 2017 | March}}, it is not in [https://github.com/vim/vim/tree/master/runtime/syntax the Vim source control tree's "syntax/" directory].)

When using Vim in Windows, it's preferable to createcreating and savesaving mediawiki.vim in Vim itself is preferable, otherwise the file may become brokenbreak.

Notepad++ supports plugins; there is a 2009 mediaWiki plugin for the 32-bit version that can be downloaded at [http://www.cab.i24.cc/projects/wikieditor/ http://www.cab.i24.cc/projects/wikieditor/] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20231001185805/http://www.cab.i24.cc/projects/wikieditor/ Internet Archive]).

The previous methods allow a Wikipedia Edit page to be processed more efficiently. [[LibreOffice Writer|LibreOffice (LO) Writer]] can be used for this purpose; but it is also possible to useusing LO Writer to convert a formatted document into Wikipedia edit format is also possible. This requires the use ofusing styles and other LO features, explained in LO Writer Help > MediaWiki Formats; for example the Heading 2 style must be used if a heading is to be enclosed within a pair of "==". This is supported, at least, in LO 5 under Windows 10 with the appropriate 32- or 64-bit [[Java Runtime Environment]] (JRE) present and enabled in LO; the procedure is File > Export > MediaWiki (.txt). See [[Help:WordToWiki]].

* Single1-click fixing of common mistakes

wikEd can simply be enabled underin [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets|Preferences::Gadgets]] (on wiki installations where wikEd is not installed as a gadget, a small code snippet can be pasted to your [[Special:Mypage/common.js|''common.js'']] page or it can be run locally as a [[Greasemonkey]] user script). For detailed installation instructions see the [[User:Cacycle/wikEd#Installation|wikEd homepage]].

With this [[Firefox]]- add-on it is possible to make little edits to wiki-articles without having to leave or reload the page, so the flow in reading an article is barely disturbed. It is available at [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quickwikieditor_updated/ addons.mozilla.org].<!-- 2022-04-02 "Last updated 3 years ago" -->

Text on Wikipedia isencodes encodedtext using the [[UTF-8]] character set, which allows the use ofusing many non-English characters and special symbols. Such characters may appear even in articles where you wouldn't expect them due to the use of interwiki links to non-English versions of the article. Therefore, it's very important to useusing an editor that does not mangle these characters or replace them with question marks is very important. Check your editor's documentation to make sure that it supports Unicode or UTF-8, and enable it if needed. You don't necessarily need a special editor; recent versions of [[Notepad (Windows)|Notepad]] and [[Microsoft Office Word|Microsoft Word]] support Unicode, for example. An extensive list of Unicode-supporting editors is available for [http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/utilities_editors.html Windows] and [http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/utilities.html other operating systems] (see also: [[Comparison of text editors]]).

If your editor does not support UTF-8, then copy-paste from web browser may mangle the characters. For example, pasting from Windows Clipboard automatically converts characters to whatever character set is used in your editor uses and replace any characters not included in this character set are replaced with question marks. You can avoid this by using one of the helper applications or browser plugins mentioned above. For example, ''It's All Text!'' does not mangle any characters.

When making an edit toediting an article with special characters using a new editor, it's a good idea to useusing the "Show changes" button (next to "Show preview") to see exactly what changes your edit will makechange is a good idea. If areas with special characters that you didn't intend to modify are highlighted as red, that means they will be corrupted, even though both versions may look the same to you because you don't have foreign fonts installed.

| style="; font-size:120%; width:32%" | '''To enable [[Wikipedia:VisualEditor|VisualEditor]]''':