The VisualEditor in action
The VisualEditor feature allows users to edit an article quickly and easily. The editing interface will always reflect how the article will look when published.
Generally, if you are an anonymous user, or if you have set your preferences to allow it, the "Edit" button on an article page will start VisualEditor. Otherwise, the 'VisualEditor' option may be available in the Edit button's dropdown menu. Unlike the classic editor — sometimes called the Rich Text Editor (RTE) — VisualEditor does not reload the entire page in your browser: it simply turns the article area into an editor. The editing toolbar appears at the top of the article space, and the cursor appears at the beginning of the text.
Making an edit
After clicking "Edit", simply begin typing the text that you want to add. The toolbar allows for text modifications like 
bold, 
italic and the selection of various text sizes (headings and sub-headings). Additional format options can be found under the style dropdown (
), including underline.
Your browser's native spell check function will be used as you enter text; this is most often shown as red underlining on misspelled words.
Creating a link
The toolbar also has the 
link tool that's used to link words or phrases to other pages on the same Wikia site. To create a link, either:
- Click the link button without selecting any text - you can then type in the intended destination in the tool, and this will be used as the link text.
- Highlight some text then click the link button - this will keep the highlighted text, but you can point the link itself at a different destination.
If the destination article already exists on Wikia, you can simply start typing the name of the page and a list of suggestions will appear. When you're done, simply hit enter or click elsewhere on the screen to dismiss the dialog. Click the linked text to access the dialog again for further changes.
Media (images and videos)
The media insertion tool, with the cart on the right side
After uploading a new image
You can add videos, images and galleries by clicking the media buttons on the toolbar.
- To upload an image, drag and drop it onto the dialog, or click the Upload button.
- To add a new video, paste a URL from a supported site into the field at the top of the video tool.
- Search the community for existing images and videos by entering search terms into the field at the top of the media tool. Results will be displayed below the field. Click on one or more images or videos to add them to the 'cart'. Items you've added to the cart will show a check mark
in the upper right corner (even when they appear in subsequent search results).
Once chosen, the image or video will be added to your cart, displayed on the right side. When clicked, more detail about the image or video will be displayed in the center, along with options such as the ability to change the filename and licensing, or to remove the item from the cart.
When ready, click "Apply changes" in the lower right. The items will be inserted into the article as thumbnails. The default width for images is 220px, and for videos it is 330px. You can resize media and add captions after adding them to the article.
Note: admins can customize the message shown at the bottom of 'Add images' dialog by editing the wikia-visualeditor-dialog-wikiamediainsert-policy-message system message.
Manipulating media
Resize media by selecting the image and using your mouse to drag the corners. If you hold down the Shift key when dragging, it will be resized in steps of 10px.
Move media by dragging the image where you want in the article - it will snap to locations above and below paragraphs of text, indicated by a horizontal line.
Edit media captions by selecting the image and clicking the edit media button, normally shown over the upper right of the image.
Accessing source mode
The source mode for the Visual Editor
On the toolbar's settings menu (
), choose the 
Source Editor option to view the page's wikitext. If you make any changes, click the "Apply changes" button in the lower right, and you'll be returned to the VisualEditor with the changes reflected there.
You can also quickly open the source editor via a keyboard shortcut. See Help:Keyboard shortcuts for more info.
Other options
An object selected by clicking on the desired object to edit.
The VisualEditor's template tool
Other abilities include, but are not limited to:
- Add a new template using the Template option on the toolbar's Insert menu.
- If you're specifically looking for infoboxes, you can use the Infobox option, which lists all portable infoboxes on your community.
- Edit an existing template by clicking it, then clicking the Edit button that appears.
- Within the template tool, you can search for specific items to change using the parameter's name (e.g. 'age') or the existing value (e.g. '24').
- If you're specifically looking for infoboxes, you can use the
- Create numbered or bulleted lists by choosing the list icons.
- Update article categories by clicking the settings menu in the toolbar, then choosing 'Categories'.
- Add references by choosing the Reference option on the Insert menu in the toolbar.
- Edit existing references by selecting the references section and clicking the edit button, shown over the upper right of the section.
Tips and tricks
- If you're trying to bring up the Source Editor and it has problems loading, try hitting the ESC key to close it and try again.
Editor support and updates
The Classic editor option still allows access to all existing editing tools
The VisualEditor is a new feature and heavy development is ongoing, meaning new features and bug fixes will be released regularly. It is available for the main, User, Project and Category namespaces, and is only active on the main Wikia skin.
Any element that you can't currently modify using VisualEditor will be obscured with a striped overlay and a tooltip stating that it's not currently editable. To do some things, you'll still need to use the source dialog, or the classic editing experience.
See here for an explanation of Wikia's editor user preferences. Anonymous users will generally always see the VisualEditor by default.
VisualEditor is not supported in Internet Explorer at this time. Other standard browsers are supported.
Quick video tutorial on editing in VisualEditor
Next steps
- Learn how to create a new article.
Further help and feedback
- For help using the alternative 'classic' editor, please see Help:Classic editor
- Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
- Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
- Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article