Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 February 9

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February 9

Linking images from wikimedia commons to articles.

I uploaded an image to wikimedia commons as wiki suggested I do. I am now struggling to find how to link it to an article. It's a picture of Nottingham Playhouse that I took and I want to drop it into the Infobox Theatre template on Nottingham Playhouse. I tried just typing the image name (Nottingham Playhouse at night.JPG) nut this didn't work.

The table looks like this; {{Infobox Theatre |name = Nottingham Playhouse |image = Nottingham Playhouse at night.jpg |caption = .... etc.

Could someone please help! Does it need a different abbreviation or something to get it off commons? KlickingKarl (talk) 01:01, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

It needs the right capitalization: commons:File:Nottingham Playhouse at night.JPG PrimeHunter (talk) 01:09, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Fixed it, I think. I'm not sure why it wasn't working when you were trying it, but PrimeHunter is right - if you don't type the name in exactly as it appears on the file, it won't show up. AlexiusHoratius 01:14, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

word definition

If I have a word definition, how can I use Wikipedia to find the word related? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.183.157.68 (talk) 01:11, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

You could try searching here by plugging in the def and seeing what comes up. — Ched (talk) 01:33, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Munitions Building, FDR

regarding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munitions_Building

Article seems generally factual, but I cannot verify. It is WRONG to say that FDR was Secretary of the Navy. FDR was ASSISTANT Secretary of the Navy, just as his older Cousin Theodore Roosevelt had been years before. FDR was Asst Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson during World War I. This should be easy to verify in any biography of FDR. The article says that it was FDR's idea to construct Main Navy and Munitions Building along the Reflecting Pool. I do not know whether this is true or not. 03:14, 9 February 2009 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.83.227.92 (talk)

I've corrected this. — Manticore 03:42, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Template calculation question

I'm trying to figure out how to do a calculation in a template and not get a leading zero in the result. {{#expr:1/8}} gives "0.125", but what I'd like is ".125". Is there an easy way to do this? Oren0 (talk) 04:34, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Unless you're doing batting averages of baseball players, why would you want that? Deor (talk) 05:30, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

If you know the number will be less than one, you could multiply it by 1000, div off any remaining decimal digits, and display your own fake leading decimal point, for example:

• This mess: .{{#expr:(((1/8)*1000)) div 1}} gives: .125

In your template, you could test your operand to see if it is within a numeric range that would give a reasonable-looking result (a result less than 0.1 will require a fake zero as well as a fake decimal, and so on). You might want to look at the source of {{Formatprice}} which monkeys around with the display of numbers. But to repeat the first responder, why do you want to do this? --Teratornis (talk) 05:50, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Deor is pretty close. It's for win percentages in sports standings tables. Having to calculate the percentage after each game is annoying and the table syntax was getting unweildy so I figured I'd collapse it into a template. Oren0 (talk) 03:51, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

It appears the code by Teratornis only works if the original number has at most 3 decimals and the first is non-zero. .{{#expr:(((1/7)*1000)) div 1}} gives .142.85714285714 with an extra period. .{{#expr:floor(((1/7)*1000))}}}} gives .142 and should work for any number of decimals, but it still requires the first decimal to be non-zero. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:20, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

OK, that helps. I can solve the leading zero problem by using .{{padleft:{{#expr ((1/11)*1000) round 0}}|3|0}}, which gives .091. This solves the leading zero issue and rounds properly. Thanks guys! Oren0 (talk) 06:55, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

how

do you post a new page on wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.184.125.148 (talk) 05:07, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

See Help:Starting a new page. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 05:09, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Your first article. —teb728 t c 06:32, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

You need an account to create an article, see this page for information on creating an account. Alternatively if you'd prefer to contribute an article without creating an account you can submit your proposed article for review at WP:AFC. Regards, Matt (Talk) 06:41, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Also, if you do create an account it must be WP:AUTOCONFIRMED before you can make the page. — Jake Wartenberg 13:51, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

No, it mustn't. Creating a page does not require autoconfirmed status and never has done. Algebraist 13:53, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

We really need a template for this question - it seems as though at least once a day I see it. Something that includes WP:Your First Article, WP:Tutorial, and Wikipedia:Why create an account? Some sort of {{htpap}} (How to post a page). — Ched (talk) 14:04, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

We could call it {{creation}} and mention it at WP:Help desk/How to answer. Algebraist 14:12, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

And include it in this incredibly useful template of help desk templates: {{Help desk templates navbox}}. – ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

We already have such a template at Template:HD (Template:HD/new). Nobody seems to use it or know about them now :) Chamal ^talk 15:10, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Reuse of photo

I refer to your page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandigarh#Transportation

Can the photo in this link, of Chandigarh's Open Hand Monument, be reproduced? UN-Habitat wishes to use it for the cover of a free upcoming publication? If so, kindly indicate conditions of use.

151.9.197.28 (talk) 06:55, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I am not sure what image you mean. If you are asking about File:Chandigarh Monument.jpg, yes; it is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. Follow the license link for the conditions. If it is another image, click on the image and see what license is indicated on the image description page. —teb728 t c 07:10, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

A Certain International organization wanted to use the Chandigarh Monument.JPG, in a one of their publication. We are kindly asking if you could provide the information on the copyright holder. In this case the person who took the photo and copyrighted it. Thank you

Click on File:Chandigarh Monument.jpg to see what we know about it. As you can see there, it is by Ravjot Singh, and it was uploaded to flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/ravjotsingh/2109080558/ (You may be able to find more information at the flickr page.) —teb728 t c 00:36, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

moved while collecting unemployment in PA

I was layed off from my job in PA on 12/11/08, I have been collecting unemployment. On 12/27/08 I got married to my husband that lived in Tennessee, I moved to Tennessee on 1/18/09 can I still collect unemployment from PA or do I need to file in TN? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.172.137.74 (talk) 15:44, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps.Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 15:46, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

But note that we cannot give legal advice.  – ukexpat (talk) 16:50, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Colspan in a navegational template

I've been trying to combine colspan and columns in a navegational template and I've uterly failed on it. The closest I've been is this:

It's in Catalan. It should represent the English and Scotish monarchsin two columns and then list them together. I know I have to change those ugly colors, but anyone could help me making the title bars to look less weird? Thanks!--RR (talk) 16:39, 9 February 2009 (UTC)--

Before you do anything else, please tone down the red background - it's very hard on the eye, or maybe my eyes are just getting old. Oops you know about the colours...you may be better off asking at the techie end of the Village Pump.

My request for a comment was deleted

Some references I added to a biography were deteleted. I did not agree. So this morning I requested for a comment. But now this has also been deleted. How can this be???--AdeleivdVelden (talk) 17:09, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Did you initiate an RFC (request for comment) by editing Talk:F. William Engdahl? RFC bot removed [1] your edit to Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Art, architecture, literature and media, probably because it didn't find an RFC (also, there was no section link to an RFC). See Wikipedia:Requests for comment for the procedure. If only you and one other editor are involved then consider Wikipedia:Third opinion instead. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:16, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

New Problem of Accessing Wikipedia from the Google Search Engine

I have the new Internet Explorer Version 8 - which runs a lot better than 7 - and I've found a problem that affects Wikipedia (and I suspect the other Wikimedia sites.), It involves searching for something via the Google Search Engine. I recently searched for something that way, and the normal list came up, all of them plainly showing the address of each item. The following is the example

*Alien Tort Claims Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaIn September 1997, 13 Burmese villagers filed suit against Unocal and their parent company, the Union Oil Company of California under the ATCA [8] for ... [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Tort_Claims_Act| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Tort_Claims_Act] - 44k - Cached - Similar pages -

You will notice that the search engine started the address with en., NOT www.en or http://en.. The result is that either Google, Windows, or Internet Explorer tries to downloads the file and stops when it doesn't recognize the file, reports that it is an unknown file type from en.wikipedia.org, and gives you the choice of either saving it to your desktop, or else offers to search for a compatible application that knows what to do with the file. If you ask it to find the application, Windows returns the following [2], which has the following text:

Windows has the following information about this MIME type. This page will help you find software needed to open your file.



MIME Type: application/x-gzip-compressed

Description: UnKnown

Windows does not recognize this MIME type.

Now, I nominate Google, hand in hand with Internet Explorer 8, as the combined source of the problem, since Internet Explorer 8 itself has absolutely no problem interpreting the address and bringing up the page - indeed, Internet Explorer 8 brings up Wikipedia Pages much faster and cleanly than earlier versions of Internet Explorer, and Google did well with Wikipedia Pages with earlier versions of Internet Explorer.

As far as Wikipedia is concerned, it may be necessary to do what you can to make sure the entire web address is picked up by the search engine. _ SSG Cornelius Seon (Retired) (talk) 17:12, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

An interesting problem, but not really one for the Help Desk - I'd suggest posting it over at the village pump (technical section). _Gb^T/c 17:17, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

This sounds like the same type of error that results when you edit a page with the "Use external editor by default" box checked in your preferences. TNXMan 17:23, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't think your problem is related to Google. As far as I know, Google never includes http:// in the displayed url but always includes it in the link you can click. There should not be www. in front of en.wikipedia.org (although it appears to work by redirecting to a url without www.) There are occasional reports of the type of error message you mention but unrelated to Google. Can you reproduce the error? What is the exact clickable url (not the displayed url) you get from Google? Does it help to clear your entire cache? PrimeHunter (talk) 17:34, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your suggestions. I brought the page back up, and right clicked on the linked address, and this is it:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Tort_Claims_Act, while the visible address shown is [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Tort_Claims_Act| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Tort_Claims_Act]. I also used other Wikipedia pages, and found that it may be an error on the page itself. I googled First Army, and got the following set of addresses: [3] by right clicking the link, and [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_United_States_Army| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_United_States_Army]. Whereas the Alien Torts Claims Act page does as I report, the First Army Page works just fine. In my book, that tells me that the problem is in the Alien Torts Claims Act page. And yet, if I do the same thing in the Yahoo Search Engine, both pages come up just fine. - SSG Cornelius Seon (Retired) (talk) 18:28, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Your above clickable links don't work but that is because you used incorrect formatting when writing them here. The pipe character '|' is only for internal wikilinks (I wrote [[Help:Link|wikilinks]] to make that link). Use a space to separate a url from the displayed text in [url displaytext]. But when specifically discussing url's, please just write the full url with no formatting. If it starts with http:// then the wiki software automatically makes it clickable, for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Tort_Claims_Act and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_United_States_Army which both work fine for me. If they don't for you then it sounds like a browser problem to me. Internet Explorer 8 is still in Beta stage and likely to have different issues. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:56, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Autocomplete / suggest

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 01:10, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

What happened to the drop down menu suggesting articles when you type in the search field? I can't see any mention of it on the article about searching, and it doesn't seem to be working any more. God Emperor (talk) 17:48, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

It's currently turned off due to high cpu usage on the servers. See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 140#Search suggest. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:54, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

It's back on now. Algebraist 01:28, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Can Photographs be used as Evidence?

Could I use photographs as evidence or to verify facts/information on Wikipedia or do I have to supply an external weblink?

From

--Peter Skuce (talk) 18:12, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

You still need to provide a citation, but images are also helpful. See here; there are still refs, but there is also a photograph of the pages in question. Queenie ^Talk 18:15, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

In this age of Photoshop, photos and scans are not likely to be accepted as evidence of much of anything except in rare circumstances. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:19, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Can i use wikipedia outside

Resolved

 – I think WP:DFTT applies in this case. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 18:36, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I can use wikipedia for outside usage? --Lithuskiov Polska Medidev (talk) 18:18, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, that depends. Can you reproduce on another webpage? Yes, but you must attribute the content to Wikipedia and release it under the GDFL. Can you use it as a reference? By all means, use Wikipedia like you would any other encyclopedia. I'll leave a welcome message for you with more links to get you started. TNXMan 18:20, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

No no I ask if I can use the wikipedia for outside on computer , in sunshine and rain. please --Lithuskiov Polska Medidev (talk) 18:22, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

So long as your computer is connected to the internet, then you should be able to access Wikipedia inside or outside. TNXMan 18:27, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) That depends on your hardware. I don't recommend rain on your computer. Wikipedia:Mobile access may be of interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:28, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Can I use computer in the rain? Can is wikipedia the weatherproof? --Lithuskiov Polska Medidev (talk) 18:28, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Can wikipedia be used for cooking purpose? --Lithuskiov Polska Medidev (talk) 18:32, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Not for preparing troll-food, no. Karenjc 21:02, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, we're all here To Serve Man, aren't we? Deor (talk) 23:26, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Questions like this make me glad the Help desk only uses text. If it had sound, we'd be getting Soundboard trolls too, with questions consisting of Arnold Schwarzenegger movie lines pasted together. In any case, to answer the seemingly un-serious question, there are rugged computers which would easily allow reading Wikipedia in the rain. Maybe someday I will buy one, and then I can sit outside in my Gore-Tex on a nasty day and edit on Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 09:27, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Strange things happen when I log in

When I log in, after entering my password (the web-software has already entered my username) and clicking on "log in", The browser window fills with a load of HTML text. Sometimes, this is overwritten with a page that tells me I have successfully logged in. (Sometimes I need to press the "refresh" icon on my browser to get this.) When I then access any other Wikipedia page, the text "Log in / create account" reappears at the top right hand side of the page. If I attempt to edit any page, I'm told I'm not logged in. I have enabled cookies, persistent cookies and third party cookies in my Opera browser and in my firewall, in which I have also enabled active code, web bugs and private headers for the site en.wikipedia.org. What's going on? 81.151.118.78 (talk) 18:24, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Try re-entering the username and/or password yourself and bypass your browsers cache. That sometimes works. Regards, FM [ talk to me | show contributions ]  18:26, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

See Help:Logging in. Click "Remember me" at login if you don't already do that. Try to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:32, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

How can I contact another user?

I would like to ask another user some questions about the content of one of his images. I need some clarification on the legends used in his graph, references for the material, etc. I gather that it is not appropriate to post to his Talk page for this reason, but I can't figure out how else to contact him.

Please advise--thanks!

RomaLevy (talk) 19:38, 9 February 2009 (UTC)Roma Levy (RomaLevy)

Why would that be inappropriate? Go ahead. Algebraist 19:42, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Actually, the user's talk page would be the best place to contact him/her, unless there is some sort of warning at the top not to do so. To which user were you referring? TNXMan 19:44, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary's_Roman_Catholic_High_School,_Chesterfield

Hi

I am the network manager at St Mary's Catholic High School, Chesterfield.

It has come to our attention that someone has been editing the school Wikipedia page with incorrect information. For example, our Headteacher is Sean McClafferty, not 'Cheeky Sean'.

I have registered with the site in an attempt to put this right, however a temporary protection has been put on it and now the incorrect information is there instead.

Please can you either delete the page or allow me access to put this right?

Many thanks

Andy Network Manager St Mary's Catholic High School Chesterfield

<redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Andyg1980 (talk • contribs) 19:44, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I have corrected the issue you mentioned. In order to edit a page that is semiprotected, your account needs to be autoconfirmed, which means that it has been active for four days and made at least ten edits. Thank you for catching that. TNXMan 19:47, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

meta-editing

I made an edit to an article earlier, and I meant to check the 'minor edit' box, but I forgot to. Is there any way to go back and change that edit? I know it's silly, but I was just wondering. --WhiteDragon (talk) 20:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

No, there is not. Algebraist 20:54, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Nope, sorry. Technically you could ask an admin, if your edit were the last edit made to the page, to delete it, allowing you to redo to the edit and mark it as minor, but there's absolutely no point - the "minor edit" box has little in the way of impact anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. _Gb^T/c 20:55, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

An easier way to edit

Is there a program or script that gives you a sort of Microsoft Word-ish view? A WYSIWYG or at least something that makes it so you can edit the prose without having to scroll past <ref>Cite web blah blah blah</ref> every sentence or two. --Illumo (talk) 21:26, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Kinda, sorta.... not really. But take a look at WikED - you can enable it in the Gadgets tab of your preferences. And see the WYSIWYG editor page at MediaWiki. – ukexpat (talk) 21:36, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the WMF received some kind of grant recently to improve usability of MediaWiki, which would probably include something resembling a WYSIWYG editor. I think there may be a few other usability tools out there, but I don't know what they're called. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:00, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Tools/Editing tools may have something useful. – ukexpat (talk) 22:02, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

WP:EIW#Interface lists some things, including a mention of the Stanton Grant:

• Press release: Wikipedia to become more user-friendly for new volunteer writers (December 3, 2008)
• Stanton Grant Q&A

Boy, do I have some questions about the assumptions and goals of this program after reading that. --Teratornis (talk) 08:51, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

infoboxes and section-edit links

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 01:10, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Lfcaddict17 has an problem with Rachel Buehler - the infoboxes on the right have pushed the section-edit links to the bottom. The page wikicode looks OK to my not-terribly-expert eye. Is this a known issue? Pseudomonas_(talk) 21:58, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, see WP:BUNCH. Algebraist 22:00, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Aha, useful! thanks! Pseudomonas_(talk) 22:09, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Autolink to vandalism

I use TW to revert vandalism and warn vandals. I notice some people who use an automated tool to warn vandals leave messages that say something along the lines "as you did with [[this edit]] to Whatever Article". My warnings only say "as you did to Whatever Article". Is there a certain script or other anti-vandal program that does this? Thanks! ←Signed:→Mr. E. Sánchez ^{Get to know me!} / _{Talk to me!}←at≈:→ 22:06, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

That message is produced by Huggle. You need Rollback to use it. Chamal ^talk 00:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)