Tools
To shop for more tools, see Wikipedia:Tools or Wikipedia:Tools/Browser tools.
- User scripts: A user script is a bit of JavaScript that gets loaded each time you visit a Wikipedia article and that does things for you. Their use is very varied. Some add popups to links, others make editing easier (regex search and replace), others change the way an article is formatted or simplify common tasks. Usually the script is copied into a user's .js file.
- Navigation popups: Installed in a user's .js file, this causes a small box to pop up when your mouse hovers over a wikilink. The box can show you the first paragraph of an article, whether it's tagged as a stub, how many categories it has, etc. Can be useful for finding stubs and for categorizing an article according to the text in the first paragraph.
- CatScan: Essentially a Boolean search tool. Enter a category or template and find items that use a different cat or template, find all items under a certain size, find images, etc.
- AutoWikiBrowser: The AutoWikiBrowser is a semi-automated Wikipedia editor for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP (or newer) designed to make tedious repetitive tasks quicker and easier. It is essentially a browser that automatically opens up a new page when the last is saved. When set to do so, it suggests some changes (typically formatting) that are generally meant to be incidental to the main change. At present, AutoWikiBrowser can create a list of articles from single or multiple categories, "what links here", the wiki links on an article, a text file, a Google search, a user's watchlist, or a user's contributions. More about AWB...
- {{DEFAULTSORT:}}: You can use this code to force an article to sort correctly (i.e. without an article, or by last name first), no matter what category it's in, even in stub categories. From the January 2007 Technology Report:
- The default sort key of a page for categories can be changed using the new {{DEFAULTSORT}} magic word. For instance, on George Washington, {{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, George}} would cause a subsequent ] to be equivalent to ], not ]. This is especially useful when the article belongs in many categories.
Read more about this topic: Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub Sorting
Famous quotes containing the word tools:
“In child rearing it would unquestionably be easier if a child were to do something because we say so. The authoritarian method does expedite things, but it does not produce independent functioning. If a child has not mastered the underlying principles of human interactions and merely conforms out of coercion or conditioning, he has no tools to use, no resources to apply in the next situation that confronts him.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws.—The function of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)