Help:Edit toolbar

For the toolbar that shows under the edit window and allows the insertion of various characters and symbols, see Help:CharInsert.

In compatible browsers, an edit toolbar can be automatically displayed with the edit box, provided that this has been set in the preferences. It appears automatically for editors who are not logged in. This functions partly as a typing aid and partly as a reminder of the available functions. All the functions are available simply by typing the code directly into the edit box (such as [[link]]) – this may be easier.

The toolbar works with Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, the Mozilla Suite/SeaMonkey, Konqueror, Safari and Opera.

In Mozilla browsers, IE, and Chrome, you can format existing text by highlighting the text you want to format and clicking the relevant button on the toolbar. If you click a button without selecting any text, sample text will be inserted at the cursor's position (like so: Bold text). In other browsers, clicking on the button presents an explanation for that feature. (Pre-release 9.0 versions of Opera browser also seem to support the advanced functionality.)

You can switch off or switch on personal preferences set at Preferences → Editing:

Source editor

If your toolbar looks like this:

Then you are using the source editor.

VisualEditor

If your toolbar looks like this:

Then you are using the rich-text visual editor.

List of functions

Source editor

Icon	Function	What it shows when editing	What it shows on the page
Bold text	Bold	'''Bold text'''	Bold text
Italic text	Italic	''Italic text''	Italic text
Your signature with timestamp	Sign talk comments (with time stamp)	--~~~~	Username (talk) 13:22, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
Internal link	Internal link	[[Link title]]	Link title
Embedded file	Insert image	[[File:Example.jpg|thumbnail]]
	Insert template	{{Example}}	This is an example of a template. For help with templates, see Help:Template.
Error creating thumbnail:	Insert Reference	<ref>Insert footnote text here</ref>
Error creating thumbnail:	Activate highlighting in wikitext	Error creating thumbnail: active
Error creating thumbnail: Advanced		Open advanced menu	See below.
Error creating thumbnail: Special characters		Open special characters menu	See below.
Error creating thumbnail: Help		Open help menu	See below.
Error creating thumbnail: Cite		Open cite toolbar menu	See Wikipedia:RefToolbar/2.0.
Error creating thumbnail: Error creating thumbnail:	Change "Source editing" to "Visual editing"

Advanced selections

Icon	Function	What it shows when editing	What it shows on the page
Error creating thumbnail:
Error creating thumbnail:	Section heading	== Heading text == === Heading text === ==== Heading text ==== ===== Heading text =====	Heading text Heading text Heading text Heading text
Error creating thumbnail:	Bulleted list	* Bulleted list item	Bulleted list item
Error creating thumbnail:	Numbered list	# Numbered list item	Numbered list item
Error creating thumbnail:	Nowiki: Ignore wiki formatting	<nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here</nowiki>	Insert non-formatted text here
Error creating thumbnail:	Line break	<br />	text before abc
Error creating thumbnail:	Big text	<big>Big text</big>	Big text
Error creating thumbnail:	Small text	<small>Small text</small>	Small text
Error creating thumbnail:	Superscript	<sup>Superscript text</sup>	Superscript text
Error creating thumbnail:	Subscript	<sub>Subscript text</sub>	Subscript text
Error creating thumbnail:	Picture gallery	<gallery> Example.jpg|Caption1 Example.jpg|Caption2 </gallery>	Caption1 Caption2
Error creating thumbnail:	Table	{| class="wikitable" border="1" |- ! header 1 ! header 2 ! header 3 |- | row 1, cell 1 | row 1, cell 2 | row 1, cell 3 |- | row 2, cell 1 | row 2, cell 2 | row 2, cell 3 |}	header 1 header 2 header 3 row 1, cell 1 row 1, cell 2 row 1, cell 3 row 2, cell 1 row 2, cell 2 row 2, cell 3
Error creating thumbnail:	Automatically redirect to another page	#REDIRECT [[Target page name]]	Preview a redirect page

Error creating thumbnail:

Search and Replace

Search for strings of text and optionally replace them, progressing one at a time or replacing all occurrences at once. If the regular expressions check box is selected, then the targeted search term is interpreted as a symbolic "expression", called a "regular expression", which will act as a pattern to select targets for replacement. Any amount of text can be matched by a regular expression. Languages that use this type of regular expression include Perl, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, .NET, and XML. A list of the regular expressions accepted by this search and replace box has been compiled for reference by the Mozilla Contributors.

See also

• Wikipedia:RefToolbar/2.0
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia Toolbar (Firefox only)