This is the user manual for AutoWikiBrowser. It is community-maintained outside of the development team It may contain information that is out of date with the latest AutoWikiBrowser releases. Feel free to edit, add, or remove to improve the comprehension and quality.

General fixes is a set of semi-automated edits that are enabled by default in AutoWikiBrowser. They are intended to be uncontroversial and require minimal human oversight; many are cosmetic and improve wikitext readability but do not affect display to readers.

This page lists the general fixes, although it may not be exhaustive. General fixes are optimised for en-wiki with some variation for other language wikis. Not all general fixes are suitable for all languages. Some general fixes are disabled on pages containing <includeonly> or <noinclude>.

Fix dates (FixDates)

• Fixes date format errors per WP:DATE:
  • Removes comma between day and year for International-format dates.
  • Inserts missing comma between day and year for American-format dates.
  • Sets en-dashes for date, month or year ranges (from hyphen).
• Replaces first occurrence of unlinked floruit with linked version (zeroth section only, not within templates) per WP:MOSBD.
• Fixes some formatting errors
  • Replaces <br> and <p> HTML tags with ...

Template Redirects (TemplateRedirects)

• Bypasses template redirects using those listed on Template redirects rule page, per WP:Redirect#Template redirects.
  • Keeps first letter case of the redirect in the new template name, except for acronym templates (first three letters uppercase) where the template is forced to uppercase.
  • Handles nested templates

Multiple issues (MultipleIssues)

• Applies fixes to {{Multiple issues}} (formerly {{Article issues}}), en-wiki only
  • removes template if it has no parameters.
  • (old format templates) converts it to the original template if it has only one parameter (e.g. diff).
  • (old format templates) removes invalid parameters such as |date=
  • merges other supported tags into it
  • (old format templates) Corrects casing of exiting parameters
  • Adds 2 or more single tags into new {{Multiple issues}}
    • Templates are added within {{Multiple issues}} on separate lines
    • When not in zeroth section, includes |section=yes parameter
  • Removes blank lines
  • (new format templates) converts to original template if only one template in {{Multiple issues}}
  • Does not operate if an article level-2 section has more than one {{Multiple issues}}

Merge multiple DABLinks (Dablinks)

• Cleans and merges multiple DABLinks per WP:DISAMBIG. Called by Conversions function.
  • Removes about as first word of the first parameter of {{About}} e.g. {{about|about foo}} to {{about|foo}}
  • Merges multiple {{About}}
    • {{about|foo|a|b}}{{about|foo|c|d}} → {{about|foo|a|b|c|d}}
    • {{about|foo|a|b}}{{about||c|d}} → {{about|foo|a|b|c|d}}
    • {{about|foo||a}}{{about|foo||b}} → {{about|foo||a|and|b}}
  • Merges multiple {{For}} into {{About}}
    • {{about|foo|a|b}}{{for|c|d}}{{for|e|f}} → {{about|foo|a|b|c|d|e|f}}.
    • {{about|foo|a}}{{for|b|c}} → {{about|foo|a||b|c}}
  • Merges multiple {{For}}
    • {{for|a|b}}{{for|c|d}} → {{about||a|b|c|d}}
    • {{for|a|b|}}{{for|c|d|e}} → {{about||a|b|c|d|and|e}}
  • Merges multiple {{Distinguish}}
    • {{distinguish|a}}{{distinguish|b}} → {{distinguish|a|b}}

DEFAULTSORT insertion and fixes (SetDefaultSort)

• Changes are not applied if the page has <noinclude> or <includeonly> or {{{1}}} in the page text
• Trims whitespace, removes any pipe at start.
• Fixes comma spacing
• If article is about a person uses Surname, Name format per WP:SUR.
  • Exceptions on common Arabic names included to use Full Name format per WP:SUR.
  • Pages with a Surname Clarification Template from Category:Hatnote templates for names use Full Name format per WP:SUR.
  • {{DEFAULTSORT: McDoe, John}} to {{DEFAULTSORT: Macdoe, John}} per WP:MCSTJR. (Check this. WP:MCSTJR contradicts: "Surnames beginning with Mac or Mc are sorted as they are spelled.")
  • "Person of Place" generates sort key of "Person Of Place"; also "Person II of Place" generates "Person 02 Of Place" per WP:PEERS and WP:COP.
• Adds a DEFAULTSORT where the article title does not match the rules above.
• DEFAULTSORTs are not added or changed when the only difference is letter casing.
• NOTE: AWB does not meet all of the (various) rules on DEFAULTSORT on en-wiki; it may not meet all of the rules on other wikis either. It may never be possible to meet all of the rules. An option is provided under the Options menu to turn off all changes/insertion of DEFAULTSORT.

People Categories (FixPeopleCategories)

• Adds [[Category:XXXX births]], [[Category:XXXX deaths]] etc. to articles about people where available (English Wikipedia only)
  • Skips pages with 20 or more references and no births/deaths categories to avoid false positives.
  • Skips pages with 15,000 characters or more that do not already have Category:Living people or a birth or death year/century category.
  • Changes {{Uncategorised}} to {{Cat improve}} if categories added.
  • Removes Category:Year of birth missing or Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
• Adds [[Category:Living people]] if page has [[Category:XXXX births]] and no living people/deaths category, taking sortkey from births category if present
  • Skips if the person is dead, or thought to be dead.
  • Skips if person was born > 115 years ago per Category:Living people and WP:BDP.
• If full DOB in {{birth date and age}} removes Category:Date of birth missing or Category:Date of birth missing (living people) (T150632)
• NOTE: FixPeopleCategories is not called for redirects, and therefore the "Skip if no human category changes" check is not called for redirects either.

Fix syntax (FixSyntax)

• Performs various syntax fixes:
  • Removes empty <gallery>, <center>, <blockquote>, <sub> or <sup> tags, including tags with properties
  • Fixes incorrect <i /> tags.
  • Fixes incorrect closing tags for <center>, <gallery>, <sub>, <sup> etc. For example, <center/>.
  • Replaces HTML markup with wiki syntax (e.g. italics and bold).
  • Replaces old HTML markup <strike> with <s>
  • Removes appearance of multiple line break.
  • Removes break line tags after maintenance tags.
  • Fixes double piped links e.g. [[foo||bar]] to [[foo|bar]].
  • Removes unnecessary namespace (e.g. Template:).
  • Removes <br> from lists.
  • Fixes most uneven bracketing on wikilinks/categories/templates/interwikis/external links/files (FixUnbalancedBrackets).
  • (Partially) fixes wikilinked/external linked URL in cite template.
  • Fixes incorrect <br> tags. For example, <br.>, <\br> and <br\>
  • Replaces obsolete <br> tag attributes per Wikipedia:HTML5#Other_obsolete_attributes. Example
  • Fixes incorrectly formatted ISBNs such as ISBN: ..., ISBN-10: ...
  • Removes "ISBN" from start of |isbn= parameter in infoboxes
• Removes <sup> tags from ordinal numbers per WP:ORDINAL.
• Removes <small> tags inside <small>, <sup>, <sub>, <ref> tags (per MOS:SMALL) and image captions (per MOS:CAPTIONS) (not applied when article has unclosed tags).
• Moves {{dead link}} inside references per its documentation.
• Does various syntax fixes for external links/cited URLs.
  • Fixes external links starting with http://http://.
  • Fixes external links starting with http:://.
  • Fixes external links starting without double slash.
  • Removes unneeded pipes from simple external links.
  • Fixes spacing before and after external links.
• Removes break from the end of Image/File descriptions.
• Simple closing bracket fixing to {{R...}} templates

Simplify links (SimplifyLinks)

• Simplifies links like [[Dog|Dog]] to [[Dog]] per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (linking)#Piped links.
• Simplifies links like [[Dog|Dogs]] to [[Dog]]s per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (linking)#Piped links.
• Simplifies links like [[Dog|'''Dog''']] to '''[[Dog]]'''
• Simplifies links like [[dog|(dog)]] to ([[dog]])

Citation templates (FixCitationTemplates)

• Performs various fixes to citation templates (en only):
  • Renames invalid |pg= to |page= (e.g. diff).
  • Removes empty fields where the field has already been specified elsewhere.
  • Corrects common typos in |accessdate=, |format=, |language= and |publisher= field names (e.g. diff).
  • Removes excess pipes.
  • Removes the unneeded |format=HTML field
  • Removes |language= when it is English per citation templates manuals
  • Removes |format= field with null value when URL is HTML page
  • Removes italics for |work= field for book/periodical, but not website (auto italicised by template)
  • Removes quotes around |title= field since they are automatically added by template markup
  • Converts curly quotes to straight quotes per MOS:PUNCT and MOS:QUOTE
  • Removes p. or pp. from |page= and |pages= fields when nopp not set
  • Renames |year= to |date= if the field contains an American, International or ISO date.
  • Changes {{cite web}} references to Google Books to use {{cite book}}
  • Removes duplicated fields.
  • Removes |accessyear= where |accessdate= is present and contains said year
  • Renames deprecated parameter names, per WP:AWB/RTP
  • Removes ordinals from dates per WP:MOSDATE
  • Adds http:// to start of www URL when missing.
  • {{Dead link}} moved from |format= field to after citation per Template:Dead link.
  • Converts newlines to spaces in citation titles when URL is present (otherwise display is incorrect).
  • Renames |authors= to |author= in {{cite web}}.
  • For {{cite journal}} only: extracts issue/number information from |volume= and moves to |issue=
  • Converts |id=ISSN 1234-5678 or |ID=ISSN 1234-5678 to |ISSN=1234-5678 provided |ISSN= and |issn= not already populated and |id= contains valid ISSN
  • Formats |ISSN=12345678 or |ISSN=1234 5678 to |ISSN=1234-5678 provided |ISSN= is 8 digits (supported for |issn= as well)

Redirect tagger (RedirectTagger)

• Tags redirects, where appropriate, with one of

• Note: The method is in compliance with WP:REDCAT

Fix syntax inside redirects (FixSyntaxRedirects)

• Removes carriage returns inside redirects.
• Removes unnecessary namespace (e.g. Template:).

Add missing {{Reflist}} (AddMissingReflist)

• Checks for a <references> missing '/' to correct (e.g. diff).
• Adds {{Reflist}} if it's needed (i.e. article has references) but missing (English Wikipedia only).
  • If page does not have a References section, it adds one to the appropriate place.

Duplicate Named References (DuplicateNamedReferences)

• Where an article uses named references (see WP:REFNAME), duplicate copies of the same reference are condensed to the abbreviated format of <ref name="Smith" />.
  • The change is subject to a minimum reference length.
  • References using the same name and same reference value are condensed (this does not change the appearance of the page to the reader).
  • Unnamed references with the same reference value are condensed.
  • Leading and trailing whitespace is ignored when deciding if two references are the same.
  • Named references are not condensed if the first declaration is in a template call, because we cannot be sure the template will display all of its parameters (and hence the reference) and do not want to create an undefined reference error
  • Note: This change is fully compatible with the Harvard referencing style.

Duplicate Unnamed References (DuplicateUnnamedReferences)

• Duplicate copies of the same reference are condensed by setting the references as named references (see WP:REFNAME), and condensing per Duplicate Named References logic.
  • The references must be identical except for any leading or trailing whitespace.
  • The change is subject to a minimum reference length.
  • The references cannot be of the ibid type.
  • The references cannot have a {{page needed}} template.
  • The article must already have at least one named reference (to avoid a 'change in citation style' in the article per WP:CITEVAR). This means at least one named ref in short format (<ref name=a/>) as a full named ref by itself does not cause any references to display as combined.
  • The reference name is derived by use of the author name, year & page where available, otherwise trans-title/title, otherwise publisher, otherwise website of URL, otherwise fields from the Harvard family of templates, otherwise full reference if short, otherwise a generic reference name of 'ReferenceA' etc.
  • Note: This change is fully compatible with the Harvard referencing style.

Fix Date Ordinals/Of (FixDateOrdinalsAndOf)

This is a MOS and minor fix

• Performs various fixes in compliance with WP:DATE, but not on text in quotes, templates, wikilinks, etc.:
  • Removes ordinals from full dates per WP:DATESNO; does not alter on the 3rd November 2008 (i.e. the plus ordinal) to avoid introducing bad grammar.
  • Removes 'of' between a month and a year per WP:DATESNO.
  • Removes leading zeros from the day in full dates per WP:DATESNO.
  • Adds a comma if missing to full American-format dates per WP:DATEFORMAT.
• Note: This function can be disabled by disabling WP:MOS fixes under the Options menu (Option designed for third-party wikis/other language wikis that are not en-wiki).

Fix categories (FixCategories)

• Sets first alphabetical character in category name to be upper case.
• Removes diacritics and trailing whitespace from category sortkeys per WP:SORTKEY.
• Removes unnecessary whitespace around category call.
• Removes the (unneeded) sort key from categories if a {{DEFAULTSORT}} entry is present with the same sort key.
• Note: The use of a single space as a category sortkey is supported.

Fix empty links and templates (FixEmptyLinksAndTemplates)

• Removes empty wikilinks, category links, and template calls: e.g. empty [[]], [[Category:]], and {{}}.

Fix empty references (SimplifyReferenceTags)

• Condenses reference tags in the form <ref name="blah"></ref> with <ref name="blah" />.

Fix images (FixImages)

• Fix common spacing/capitalisation errors in images
  • Fix whitespace around Image/File call
  • Canonicalises images titles (underscore to space, URL encoding converted to Unicode etc.).

Fix main article (FixMainArticle)

This is a MOS fix

• Changes See also: xxx to use {{See also|xxx}}
• Changes Main Page: xxx to use {{Main|xxx}}

Fix non-breaking spaces (FixNonBreakingSpaces)

This is a MOS fix

• Inserts non-breaking spaces between amount and unit for common units, but not on text in quotes, templates, wikilinks, references, etc. per WP:NBSP.
  • The units supported include cd (candela), cm, km, miles, feet, inches (but not "in"), grammes, hp, Hz, GHz, kHz, MHz, kg, µg, mL, dB mol, °C, °F (see also WP:UNITS for these), and page abbreviations p. and pp. (see also MOS:NDASH for these)
    • Non-breaking spaces are added only before abbreviated units.
    • Unspaced mm are specifically excluded, as firearms use mm when it does not refer exactly to a dimension.
    • "m" is excluded due to its use as an abbreviation for million, except when it is immediately followed by a measurement in ft
• Changes "invisible non-breaking spaces" given by Unicode characters with "visible non-breaking spaces" given by html entities per WP:NBSP.
• Inserts a non-breaking space between 12-clock number and a.m. or p.m. per MOS:TIME.
• Removes space and/or non-breaking space between number and percent symbol per WP:PERCENT.
• Removes space and/or non-breaking space between nonalphabetic currency symbol and number per WP:CURRENCY.
• Note: This function can be disabled by disabling WP:MOS fixes under the Options menu (Option designed for third-party wikis/other language wikis that are not en-wiki).

Fix reference tags (FixReferenceListTags)

• Converts the old "references-2column" style to use {{reflist}}.

Fix temperatures (FixTemperatures)

• Fixes temperatures – corrects numerous incorrect degrees symbols.

Fix whitespace in links (FixLinkWhitespace)

• Removes all unnecessary leading and trailing whitespace from wikilinks and Image/File links.
• Converts double spaces to single spaces in wikilinks and Image/File links.
• Corrects [[page# section]] to [[page#section]].

FixReferenceTags (FixReferenceTags)

• Performs whitespace fixes to references per WP:REFPUNC and WP:CITEFOOT:
  • Remove any spaces between consecutive references.
  • Ensure a space between a reference and text (reference within a paragraph).
  • Remove spaces between punctuation and references (<ref> tags) per WP:CITEFOOT.
• Performs syntax fixes to named references:
  • Incomplete quotes, extra quotes, curly quotes, missing quotes.
  • Missing/Double equals in ref name syntax.
  • Named ref with no name given.

Mdashes (Mdashes)

This is a MOS fix (see WP:DASH)

• Replaces hyphens with endashes:
  • Time/common unit ranges.
  • Dollar amount ranges.
  • Age ranges.
  • Text same as the title where title uses an endash.
  • Two consecutive hyphens within a sentence (excluding "xn--").
• Replaces hyphen with Unicode minus in superscripted negative numbers.
• Note: This function can be disabled by disabling WP:MOS fixes under the Options menu (Option designed for third-party wikis/other language wikis that are not en-wiki).

Remove empty comments (RemoveEmptyComments)

• Removes HTML comments with no content other than whitespace. This feature is disactivated as a general fix at the moment but the function is still available for use.

ReorderReferences (ReorderReferences)

• Reorders consecutive named references such that they appear in numerical order e.g. ^[1][2][3] instead of ^[2][1][3].
  • Applies only to consecutive references (i.e. does not affect multiple references spread out over clauses in a sentence).
  • Supports the {{Rp}} template.
  • Does not affect the use of reference groups.
  • Note: This change is fully compatible with the Harvard referencing style and "list-defined references".
• Note: This function was removed from en.wiki in 2017

SameRefDifferentName (SameRefDifferentName)

• Condenses very short named references to the <ref name="Smith" /> format (e.g. diff). It is designed to catch short reference with a trivial entry such as a number or alphabetical ordering reference that is unneeded, or simply whitespace. It operates subject to these conditions:
  • The reference is very short
  • The reference is named and another full reference is present with the same name.
  • The reference is not to a page number.
• Corrects named references where the reference is the same but the reference name is different (e.g. diff)
  • Not applied if the reference is an 'ibid' reference or similar.
  • The longer reference name is used provided it is not in 'autogenerated1' or 'ReferenceA' format

References after punctuation (RefsAfterPunctuation)

• Puts references after punctuation (comma, full stop, colon, semi-colon) per WP:CITEFOOT and WP:PAIC, subject to:
  • Applies to en-wiki and simple-wiki only
  • Requires >= 75% refs after punctuation to convert the rest.
  • Whitespace before ref is cleaned when punctuation moved.
• Puts many inline templates (such as {{citation needed}}) after punctuation (comma, full stop, colon, semi-colon).

Sort meta data (MetaDataSorter)

• Puts categories after page body, followed by stub templates and interwiki links per WP:FOOTER. Recognizes the common cat and interwiki header comments.
• Puts stub templates above navboxes (ru-wiki only).
• Moves {{Ibid}} to the references section (en-wiki only).
• Removes commented out interwiki links (en-wiki only).
• Puts two blank lines before stubs per Wikipedia:IDEALSTUB (one blank line for ru and sl-wiki).
• Puts a single blank line between headers per WP:BODY and WP:HEAD.
• Moves the most common maintenance templates above infoboxes etc. (zeroth section only)
• Keeps {{Short pages monitor}} at the very end of article if present per its documentation
• Removes newlines inside unordered lists per WP:LISTGAP

Bullet external links (BulletExternalLinks)

• Add bullet points to external links after "external links" header per Wikipedia:External links#External links section.

Cite Template Dates (CiteTemplateDates)

• Performs a number of fixes to date fields within citation templates. (en-wiki only)
  • Converts invalid date formats like DD-MM-YYYY, MM-DD-YYYY, YYYY-D-M, YYYY-DD-MM, YYYY_MM_DD etc. to ISO format of YYYY-MM-DD
  • Removes time from citation date fields.
  • Note: Not applied to {{cite podcast}} due to its non-standard use of date fields.

Bold titles (BoldTitle)

• Emboldens the first occurrence of the article title, if not already bold per WP:BOLDTITLE.
  • Check for any self links and no bold title, if found just convert first link to bold.
  • Don't apply if bold in lead section already or some noinclude transclusion.
  • Ignore date articles (date in American or international format) and articles containing {{year article header}}
  • If title in bold already exists in article, or page starts with something in bold, do not change anything.
  • Ignore articles with some bold in first 5% of article.
  • Check that the bold added is the first bit in bold in the main body of the article.

FixLinks

Not applied if page has an imagemap on the page or noinclude transclusion

• Performs fixes to wikilinks:
  • Removes piped self-links leaving pipe.
  • Delinks simple self-links per WP:OVERLINK.
  • Replaces unnecessary pipe template inside wikilinks with pipe.
  • Cleans up wikilinks: replace underscores, percentages and URL encoded accents/diacritics etc. (with underscore exceptions for mod_perl and size_t)
• Reformats self interwikis to be standard links. Only applies to self interwikis before other interwikis (i.e. those in body of article).
• Converts [[foo|'''foo''']] to '''[[foo|foo]]''' for bold, italics or bold and italics.

MinorFixes

Merge See also (MergeSeeAlso)

• Merges multiple {{see also}} templates into one.
• Same for {{see also2}}.
  • En-wiki only. Called by Conversions.

Merge Portals (MergePortals)

• Merges multiple {{portal}} templates into a single one. En-wiki only. Called by Conversions.
• Does not merge portal templates with additional named arguments (see {{portal}} documentation).
• Does not process any portal templates if portal template within {{stack}} template.
• When merging removes duplicate portals.
• The {{portal}} templates must be in the same section of the article, or the article must not have any headings.

Mainspace tagger

Mainspace tagger skips redirects and soft redirects to wiktionary.

Talk page general fixes

Note: When making fixes to talk pages, it is helpful to also use the custom module User:Magioladitis/WikiProjects for template redirects.

Helper functions

This section documents some of the AWB functions that are used by the general fixes, but do not form part of the general fixes themselves.