Help:Poll

You can add simple polls to your wiki using a simple syntax.

Step-by-Step

 * In Edit mode for an article page, change the tab at the top of the editor from "Visual" to "Source".


 * Find the place on the page where you want to add a Poll.


 * Enter the following code, and replace it with the content of your poll:

Title of poll Choice 1 Choice 2 etc.

Example:

What is your favourite color? Red Green Blue Other

Result:

What is your favourite color? Red Green Blue Other


 * Finally, click Publish! You're done! Now anyone can vote in your poll.

How does it work?
Votes are registered under either your username or, if you're not logged in, your IP address. This means the poll does not take a reliable count of unique individuals, and it should not be used for important purposes.

Users can change their vote at any time.

The poll will display the number and percentage of votes for each choice, the total number of votes given so far, and the date and time when the poll was created.

Can the votes be reset?
It is not possible to end, i.e. to 'freeze', a poll. All polls last indefinitely.

To reset all votes, change either the title or one of the poll's choices (which will, in effect, create a new poll).

Since it's so easy to change and reset polls, past poll results can easily be lost. Reverting to the version prior to the reset may allow you to reclaim the information, but you should not rely on this functionality. If historical polls are important to you, it is safest to record the results in some other form of wiki-text, either one time or at intervals.

Customization options
It is possible to customize the design of the poll extension via CSS.

Changing the width of the poll
Polls are 40em wide by default. Wiki admins can make the poll widths changeable by adding the following to MediaWiki:common.css on your wiki:

div.ajax-poll { width:auto !important; }

This will make all polls on your wiki be as wide as the "box" they're in, i.e. they'll usually expand to be as wide as the article body. You can now set its width by wrapping it in a div with a set width, or a table cell, or in any other layout box. Example:

How wide is this poll? Wide Not so wide

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