Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 May 9

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May 9

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problems hitting internal connections

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hi sometimes when i hit an internal connection, rather then go to page itself, I get a windows dialog box askong me to save a file. problem exists in both hebrew and english wikipedia i use ie8/vista home answer by email to <blanked> would be most appreciated Rzg (talk) 15:49, 5 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like you have a box checked in your preferences that shouldn't be. Go to the "My preferences" tab at the top of the page, then click on the "Editing" tab. Make sure that "Use external editor by default" and "Use external diff by default" are unchecked. Let us know if that fixes it. TNXMan 15:55, 5 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I am not editing. Just browsing through wikipedia and hitting an internal link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rzg (talkcontribs) 09:05, 6 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
nope. no help!!!Rzg (talk) 04:05, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I get this sometimes— I think it is a connection issue. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 11:10, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Query

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Hi when i looked in to some user talk pages i came across some user thanking others for welcoming new users.How do i welcome a new user and how to identify a new user.Plz anyone there to help me out.Subash.chandran007 (talk) 06.36, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

You can place {{welcome}} in a section. Or you can enable Friendly, a user tool, to use different varieties of welcome templates. ZooFari 06:40, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I think most welcomers assume that a non-existant talk page identifies a new user. -Arch dude (talk) 07:50, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Where should i place the {{welcome}} tag and the UTC time mentioned at the end of each talk message , sould we enter it manually or does it occur automatically.i do it manually. .Subash.chandran007 (talk)08.35, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
You can simply browse and welcome those whose talk pages are red-linked as you go, or you can target new users by going to Special:Log/newusers as well as [1]. There are 117 welcome templates in Category:Welcome templates to explore. You can see examples at Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome templates/Table. Some welcome templates do have automatic signing, such as {{welcomeg}} (my personal favorite). Others do not. Whether a particular welcome template has automatic signing included is something you have to determine yourself. Click show preview before your save to see. Note that these templates should be substituted, and if you forget to do so, a template that provides four tildes (~~~~) for your signature will fail to sign. Instead, the tildes will remain intact rather than placing your name and time stamp, and when a person or bot later substitutes it for you, it will seem as if they applied the template then.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 09:56, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If you do this often enough and use FireFox, then enable Friendly: Special:Preferences → Gadgets → Friendly. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 18:19, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

printed ref

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how do i properly reference "The Times obituary 17 March, 2009 Printed version" ? Kittybrewster 10:06, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

<ref>{{cite news
 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/...(AFAIK all times articles have an online equivalent, so place the URL if it exists)
 | title = insert name of obit
 | date=March 17, 2009
 | last = last name of author, if any
 | first = first name of author, if any
 | coauthors = if any
 | page = page number
 | publisher = The New York Times
 | accessdate = May 9, 2009}}
 }}</ref>

--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:51, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please note that The Times is a London publication. You can use New York Times for the other. In my opinion, in the running text of an article it doesn't matter too much unless there is real ambiguity e.g. if the article refers both the US and UK publications.
I'd use newspaper=[[New York Times]] instead of publisher=; the two present differently (a bugbear of mine) but the newspaper and the publisher are not the same thing. You can keep the publisher (The New York Times Company) but I'd say that's a bit over the top.

SimonTrew (talk) 12:57, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

|newspaper= is one of the deprecated aliases for |work=. Per the template documentation, it should be |work=The New York Times. |work= is italicized, whereas |publisher= is not. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 18:16, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category deletion

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Hi, in cleanup of Delara Darami Delara Darabi I've noticed there are two duplicate categories: Category:Iranian_prisoners_sentenced_to_death and Category:Prisoners_sentenced_to_death_by_Iran. They have the same membership. I don't know whether to ask at AfD (since they're not articles) or what, I'd just Be Bold and delete one but of course I can't do that. There's a general bit of over-egging the pudding in this area IMO so any general advice you could give would be appreciated, but this one seems a simple matter of redundancy and I don't think anyone could reasonably object to one or other going. Should I mark prod or what? I've got slapped before for that because "it's not an article", which is true but unhelpful. SimonTrew (talk) 12:40, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

One should probably be merged into the other; I'm not sure which one should remain, however. Tagging an article for a merge should result in a discussion on one of the talk pages, so other editors will have a chance to express their views as to which category is correct. Cheers, This flag once was redpropagandadeeds 12:45, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
See WP:Categories for discussion. hmwithτ 13:06, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

prosesize.js

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I am unable to get the prosesize.js code working in my monobook by using the instructions at User talk:Dr pda/prosesize.js.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 12:43, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can contact the author at User talk:Dr pda. There are already several sections about it. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:15, 10 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation related!

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I'm editing the profile for Paul Hammond (ballet dancer) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hammond_(ballet_dancer). My problem is this: When I (or anyone) gets on Wikipedia to search for Paul Hammond, it automatically goes through to the page for Paul Hammond the soccer player (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hammond). Yes, there is a note underneath the heading saying to click here 'for other persons names Paul Hammond), however surely there's a way so that anyone typing Paul Hammond gets FIRST to a page where there are all the Paul Hammond entries on Wikipedia. For example, see this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Thomas. Any advice? Elke2008 (talk) 14:07, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It appears that the article on the footballer is the primary topic and thus the title Paul Hammond should point to that page. However, since there appears to be only two topics on Wikipedia associated with the name Paul Hammond, there is no need for a DAB (disambiguation) page. See Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Disambiguation page or disambiguation links?: "If there are three or more topics associated with the same term, then a disambiguation page should normally be created for that term..." I have accordingly redirected the DAB page to the footballer article, and changed the hatnotes on both articles to point to each other. Now a user looking for the ballet dancer who types his name alone will only have to click once through the hatnote on the footballer's page to reach the other article, rather than from the footballer article → DAB page → article. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:00, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, in your post you linked to the two articles by their full URLS. On Wikipedia we can link to any internal page by simply surrounding the title in doubled brackets. Thus, [[Paul Hammond (ballet dancer)]] formats as Paul Hammond (ballet dancer).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:05, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

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Is there a list of keyboard shortcuts or alt-tags to help blind people using JAWS navigate wiki pagesBigjoedog9 (talk) 14:28, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Using JAWS. Nanonic (talk) 14:43, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

ACCESSIBLE PAGES for JAWS Users

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Is there a clear concise status of the accessibility project? Is there a project to provide and ACCESSIBLE PAGE option, similiar to the one at http://www.wgbh.org/ ? Bigjoedog9 (talk) 14:34, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Accessibility, Wikipedia:Accessibility and Help:Accessibility. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 17:54, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Citing the secondary source

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I am working on an article and I found a fact from a book (call it book 1) on google books that has cited that fact from another book (call it book 2). Now, when citing the source, can i cite that fact from book one, because the book two is not available for preview. In any case, does citing from book one violate any citing rules of wiki? Muhammad Hamza (talk) 16:11, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You would cite book 1, but not book 2 since you haven't read book 2. As for whether it violates any rules, that would depend on which book you're using. Have a look at Wikipedia:Reliable sources to help you determine if the book is reliable. Tra (Talk) 16:21, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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Could you please advise me how the following rules( extracted from a Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia apply to Gibraltar, which is not a sovereign country but part of the United Kingdom territories with the same Laws as in England.

"This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. It is not in the public domain in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and other countries with individual treaties. See this page for further explanation. "

Thank you

217.65.58.94 (talk) 15:32, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Joe Gingell

I don't know the answer, but maybe the people at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities will know the answer, as they deal with questions related to laws. AvN 17:43, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How do I edit the Notes section of an article?

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In the article "Cultural influence of Gilbert and Sullivan," someone cited a review I wrote, and they misspelled my name. I'd like to correct it. Thanks in advance for your assistance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michmck (talkcontribs) 17:34, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The notes section includes references and cannot be directly edited. Click on edit at the top of the page, then ctrl+f to find the misspelling. You can correct it there, and the change will be reflected in the notes section. AvN 17:41, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Bizarre entry on a talk page

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Came across this rather strange entry on a talk page. Should it be deleted? Alexrexpvt (talk) 18:01, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it should be deleted. Goodraise 19:11, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Alexrexpvt (talk) 19:18, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

how to convert this C program to assembly language for 8086 ???

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#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<iostream.h>
void main()
{
	clrscr();
	int i,j,n,m=0,k,g;
	cout<<"enter n";
	cin>>n;
	int l=n;
	if(n%2==0)
	{
		for(i=0;i<n/2;i++)
		{

			for(j=0;j<i;j++)
			{
				cout<<" ";
			}
			for(k=l;k>0;k--)
			{
				cout<<"*";
			}
			l=l-2;

			cout<<"\n";
		}
	}
	else
	{
		for(i=0;i<((n/2)+1);i++)
		{
			for(j=n/2;j>i;j--)
			{
				cout<<" ";
			}
			for(g=0;g<=m;g++)
			{
				cout<<"*";
			}
			m=m+2;
			cout<<"\n";
		}
	}

	getch();
}

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.74.109.7 (talk)

Have you tried the Computing section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. TNXMan 18:54, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I added <pre> tags to the source code. By the way, it's C++ and not C. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:10, 10 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

supporting

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I have tried three times to contribute $100. It is far too complicated. Please -- just take my Visa debit card number, say thanks, and let Pay Pal advertise somewhere else.

Thanks,

A daily user and one deeply in debt to you for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.207.63.32 (talk) 18:42, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You could phone the Foundation at the phone number listed at its contact page. I am sure they will gladly take your credit card details. – ukexpat (talk) 01:49, 11 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Simple Edits Gone Awry

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I went in to make some very simple corrections to a page - correcting incorrect labels, adding missing information. It looked fine in Preview and it looked fine in Show Changes. I saved it, and now the areas where I edited look terrible - something is messed up. I read everything carefully about editing before I did this. I have no idea what happened. The page in question is Sixth College at UCSD - look at the list of personnel box on the right. Eolophus (talk) 23:00, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It is my understanding that you can edit only to the right of the equal sign in an infobox, that everything to the left of the sign is untouchable. But I don't know where to go to find the template for the infobox so as to edit that as well. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 23:41, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You were editing an infobox which is a form of template. Templates have named parameters and all uses of a template must use those parameter names. {{Infobox ucsdcolleges}} has no documentation, but for this template (not true of all templates) you can see the parameter names inside {{{...}}} on the template page. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:43, 10 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Jason O'Toole

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I noticed that there are two articles: Jason O'Toole and Jason O'Toole (journalist). I am probably too new here to do it myself but could someone link from one article to another, along the lines of "For other people with this name, click here"? Not sure what the Wikipedia policy is for this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.198.8.45 (talk) 23:23, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to scope out the answer yourself, you can probably find it among the wordage at Wikipedia:Disambiguation. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 23:45, 9 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The best thing to do would be to add a hat note at the top of each article referring to the other. You can find the appropriate template at {{otheruses}}. TNXMan 01:58, 10 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]