Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Opt-in

This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference. Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump. Instead, see Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Opt-out for the way to access the visual editor since September 2015. It was last substantively updated September 2015.

This help page is a how-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines and may reflect varying levels of consensus.

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• Main page
• Feedback at MediaWiki
• Sandbox (no account required)

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About

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• Documentation:
  • Introductory tutorial
  • User guide
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Frequently Asked Questions (or at MediaWiki)
• Development:
  • Roadmap up to 2017
  • Updates (2013–2023)
  • Weekly status reports (2015–2016)

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Help out

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• Update the help pages
• Add template data (Tutorial)
• Translate and localize documentation

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Research

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• Main research page

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Other

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• Why are the developers building this? (2013)
  • User Test Data (2013)
• Customization
• Known problems
• Requests for Comments (RfCs): Jul 2013 a, Jul 2013 b, Jul 2015, Sep 2015, Jul 2026

You can opt-in to VisualEditor at the English Wikipedia or at other Wikipedias where it is not generally available yet.

Opting in

Access to VisualEditor is handled by Beta Features on the English Wikipedia. To gain access to VisualEditor, go to the Beta Features section of Special:Preferences and choose the "VisualEditor" item. Then scroll to the end of the page and save your choice.

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Troubleshooting

If you have opted in, but VisualEditor is not displaying, then check the following things:

• Are you logged in to your account?
• You must be using a supported web browser. VisualEditor is turned off for all Internet Explorer users and users of older web browsers.
• You must have JavaScript enabled on your web browser.
• Go back to Beta Features under your preferences and make sure that VisualEditor is actually selected.
• Check Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets to see whether you have used the gadget in the "Editing section" to "Remove VisualEditor from the user interface" . If you have used the gadget to disable it, then untick the box, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click "Save".
• Under the main Preferences -> Editing tab, check to see if "Temporarily disable the visual editor while it is in beta" is checked.

Access for logged-out editors

Unregistered editors do not have access to Beta Features. However, it is possible to access VisualEditor by manually editing the URL. To do so, append ?veaction=edit to the end of the page name. For example, change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random?veaction=edit to open a random page in VisualEditor. This is intended to support bug testing across multiple browsers, without requiring editors to login repeatedly.