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Siobhan Leachman

Wiki: User:Ambrosia10

Email: siobhan_leachman@yahoo.co.nz

ORCID:0000-0002-5398-7721

Twitter: @SiobhanLeachman

Mastodon:@siobhan_leachman@mastodon.nz

Telegram:@siobhanleachman

Slide Deck DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7714291

Image by Retama, CC BY-SA 3.0

Gadgets & Tools

for

Wikipedia

&

Wikicommons

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Tools for Wikipedia editing

Sidebar tools
Gadgets
Scripts

Tools for Wikicommons editing

Sidebar tools
Gadgets
Scripts
OpenRefine
WikiShootMe

Other useful resources

Internet browser extensions
Wikipedia library
Cleanup page listings

Painting by Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (1863 - 1945), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview

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Wikipedia sidebar tools

What links here
Page information
Wikidata item
Expand citations
DYK check

Screenshot of Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0

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What links here

Where article is Wikilinked

Redirects

Editor pages listing article

Screenshot of Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0

Documentation : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:What_links_here

This tool gives you a quick overview of what other pages in Wikipedia are linked to this article.

As you can see from the screenshot, it includes other articles that wiki link to this article page. It also includes redirect pages and project or editor pages that wiki link to this article. This tool helps find these pages and can inform you about who has been working on the article or is using the article in their editing.

Use Case example: I tend to use this tool when updating Wikipedia about name changes or spellings of names. It helps me find where the article is linked to in Wikipedia, enabling me to correct article name changes across the encyclopaedia as a whole. I’ve used it when the taxonomy of a species has changed or the official place name now includes a Māori name or the spelling has changed.

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Page information

Basic information

Page protection

Edit history

Page properties

External tools including WikiChecker

Screenshot of Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0

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WikiChecker

Separate website

Information on articles & editors

Screenshot of WikiChecker, GFDL, v. 1.2 or later.

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Wikidata item

Screenshot of Wikidata CC BY-SA 3.0

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Expand citations

Checks references

Improves metadata

Improves formatting

Installed via Gadgets tab in Preferences

Screenshot of Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0

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Expand citations

Screenshot of CitationBot results CC BY-SA 3.0

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DYK check

Character counter

Who created article

Checks Did You Know eligibility

Documentation

Screenshot of main page of Wikipedia. Screenshot and Screenshot2 of results of DYK check All CC BY-SA 3.0

Documentation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Did_you_know/DYKcheck

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Did_you_know

DYK stands for “Did You Know”. Did You Know is a section on the main page of Wikipedia that highlights new or significantly expanded articles. You can nominate articles to appear in this section. If you do want to start nominating articles you’ll want to use this tool to check whether the article qualifies for nomination. It checks the prose character count as well as whether the article complies with some of the other DYK rules.

DYK check tool is installed via a script on your Wikipedia commons js page. And it then adds the DYK check tool to the sidebar. We will be covering scripts and your Wikipedia commons.js page later in this presentation. But the documentation for this tool is very helpful in explaining the commons.js page manual installation process.

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Wikipedia gadgets

Screenshot of User:Ambrosia10 account bar and Screenshot of Wikipedia preferences page CC BY-SA 3.0

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Image by Cadoraino, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia gadgets

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Image annotator

Adds annotations to Wikicommons images

Images with annotations reused in articles

Documentation Issues

Image by Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Documentation: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Image-Annotator

This gadget allows an editor to place annotations onto images. These annotations are shown on file description pages in Wikicommons. It is a tool that can be used in Wikicommons to help describe images and give the reader more information about what they are looking at.

Use case: This tool helps better describe images by adding text boxes that become visible when your mouse hovers over them. Images that can benefit most from annotations are group portraits, panoramas, aerial photographs, satellite images, maps and diagrams. By annotating each individual item within the image the editor makes it easier for the reader to work out what they are looking at.

Previously, the gadget was used on file description pages in Wikicommons only. The documentation tells me that the ImageAnnotator can also display the notes on a thumbnail image used in Wikipedia articles. In preparation for this presentation I’ve tried to follow the documentation but have been unable to get this to work in English Wikipedia. So if anyone at the conference can help me work out how to do this I’d be very grateful.

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Issues with documentation?

Write a “how to” document

Create a “how to” slide deck

Make a “how to” Youtube video

Upload “how to” to Wikicommons

Share on tool page

Image by frankieleon, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Now my issues with this tool and its documentation are not unusual. This is often an issue with tools created to assist with Wikipedia and Wikicommons editing. The situation is getting better but often the documentation for a tool is written by the creator of the tool rather than a user. And it shows. If you use a particular tool frequently, I’d highly encourage you to create a “how to” document or video, then upload it to Wikicommons or another repository. You can then add it on to the tool help page or share it as an external link. Showing the practical use of a tool in an editor workflow is extremely helpful to other users.

User:DrThneed has been doing this, and if you want to see some of her work click on the “video” link.

Examples: User:DrThneed has created some youtube “how to” videos which may give you some inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/@drthneed6733

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Screenshot of drop down menu CC BY-SA 3.0. Screenshot by Living Concrete of Article maintenance tagging, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Twinkle

Powerful anti-vandalism tool

Article maintenance tool

Article protection tool

Adds cleanup tags

Welcomes new users

Helpful use guide

Documentation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Twinkle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc

Twinkle is an anti-vandalism tool and is VERY powerful. As a result, it requires careful use. However those who fight vandalism on Wikipedia or undertake other cleanup tasks sing this tool's praises.

Twinkle can be used for multiple purposes to improve Wikipedia. Just some uses of this tool include tagging an article for speedy deletion, requesting an article be protected if it’s being vandalised, tag image files used in Wikipedia that lack fair use rationales, sources, or copyright information, restore or roll back an article after it has suffered vandalism, add multiple clean up tags to an article as well as create welcome messages for new users.

Once installed the tool adds a Twinkle “TW” tab which has a drop down menu containing links to all the options for using the tool. I’ve added a screenshot of that dropdown menu as well as what the tool looks like when an editor is adding clean up tags to an article.

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Shortdesc helper

Helps add short descriptions

Mobile friendly Wikipedia!

Creation guidance

Images top and bottom by User:Galobtter Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence

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HotCat

Removes, changes or adds Categories

Learn about categories!

Help:Category

FAQ /Categorization

WikiProject Categories

Commons:Categories

Screenshot of Wikipedia article categories being edited via HotCat CC BY-SA 3.0,

Documentation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:HotCat

HotCat is a tool that helps registered users easily remove, change, and add categories to Wikipedia. It is an extremely powerful way to ensure Wikipedia articles and Wikicommons images are more discoverable by people and internet search engines.

Adding categories is very important. Categories provide navigational links to Wikipedia pages via category hierarchies and inform readers about the essential characteristics of the article.

Before making a more indepth use of this tool I would HIGHLY recommend editors educate themselves about categories on Wikipedia. I’ve added three resources to help you with this including a help document, a frequently asked questions document and of course a link to the WikiProject Categories group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Category

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/Categorization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Categories

HotCat is also the default gadget on Wikicommons. Again I’d highly recommend folk educate themselves on how categories work on Wikicommons. I’ve added a link on the slide to help with this.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Categories

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ProveIt

Tool to help improve references

Uses the citoid service

Use when editing source code

“Normalized” & you’ve proved it!

Screenshots of the ProveIt tool in action on a Wikipedia page. CC BY-SA 3.0

Documentation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ProveIt

ProveIt makes it easy to obtain, create, edit and add references to Wikipedia articles. It also can assist editors in adding a bibliography. It is Wikipedia’s reference manager. It uses the citoid service to normalise all the citations in the article.

But ProveIt can only be used when editing in source mode. This is one reason why I recommend editors should ensure both visual editing and source editing tabs are available via their preferences. If you want to use this gadget go to your preferences, then the editing tab and then choose Editing mode: “show me both editor tabs” so you can choose to edit both in visual editor or source editor.

When source editing there will be a little yellow P initial on the bottom right of the page. Click the P and it will empower you to “normalise” the citations, making them consistent as well as adding missing metadata.

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ProveIt

Add citations via tool

THEN “normalize”

Screenshots of the ProveIt tool in action on a Wikipedia page. CC BY-SA 3.0

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MoreMenu

(User Page)

Access to MULTIPLE tools!

Adds dropdown menu to toolbar

Analyzes editor contributions

Screenshot of MoreMenu on User:Ambrosia10’s user page CC BY-SA 3.0

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Analysis User page – XTools

Screenshot of xtools report of User:Ambrosia10’s Wikipedia page on 28 Feb 2023 CC BY-SA 3.0

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MoreMenu

(Article page)

Tools for analyzing articles

Xtools

Copyright vio detector

Tools for editing

Check external links

Expand bare references

Screenshots of the MoreMenu dropdown CC BY-SA 3.0

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MoreMenu

Tools for analysis

Xtools for Wikipedia article

Screenshots of Xtools visualisations of a Wikipedia page CC BY-SA 3.0

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Copyright violator

Screenshots of the Copyvio Detector CC BY-SA 3.0

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MoreMenu

Tools for Editing

Check external links

Uses Checklinks

Screenshot of the MoreMenu dropdown CC BY-SA 3.0 Screenshots of Checklinks tool CC BY-SA 3.0

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MoreMenu

Tools for Editing

Expand bare references

Uses reFill tool

ef

Before and after views of references on this Wikipedia article and a screenshot of the reFill tool. CC BY-SA 3.0

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Screenshot of New Zealand Wikipedia article CC BY-SA 3.0, Screenshot of New Zealand articles by quality and importance table CC BY-SA 3.0

Display assessment of article quality

Changes colour of title of article

Reflects quality assessment, stub, start etc

Works with Article Quality Loader script

See documentation on assessing quality

Documentation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Metadata_gadget

Back to the gadgets menu in your preferences. We are now going to discuss the Display assessment of article quality.

This tool assigns colours to article headers, giving you a quick visual clue on the current quality assessment of the article. It works well in conjunction with a Wikipedia script called ArticleQuality-loader which I’m going to recommend you install when we get to the Scripts part of the presentation.

The “display assessment of article quality” gadget turns the title of an article to the appropriate colour for its current quality assessment, as given on its talk page. For example, the New Zealand article is currently assessed on its talk page as a good article and as a result the gadget displays the title in green.

The table in the slide gives you an overall idea of the current quality of the articles WikiProject New Zealand oversees. This table gives the community a guide on which articles to work on to improve Wikipedia. So MANY stubs! But many of these articles are in desperate need of reassessment. Once reassessment takes place this table is improved, becoming a more accurate guide to the community on improvements needed.

This gadget, along with the ArticleQuality-loader script, can help you decide if you need to undertake a new assessment of an article's quality.

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Screenshot of gadget tab of preferences page CC BY-SA 3.0, Screenshot of rater script page CC BY-SA 3.0

Install scripts without having to manually edit JavaScript files

Makes your life easier!

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Screenshot of User:Ambrosia10’s Wikipedia commons.js page CC BY-SA 3.0

Wikipedia scripts

Wikipedia common.js page
Where to find scripts

How to install userscripts
Script list

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Wikipedia Scripts

Scripts are underutilised!

Ambrosia10’s Wikipedia common.js page

YOUR Wikipedia common.js page

Screenshot of Ambrosia10’s Wikipedia commons.js page, screenshots of other Wikipedia commons.js pages CC BY-SA 3.0

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Recommended scripts

Cropped portion of Recommended to Mercy , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Article quality loader

Adds ORES quality prediction

Adds edit history quality colour bars

Article quality loader documentation

Article assessment documentation �

Screenshots of Ann Bishop (biologist) Wikipedia article and edit history page CC BY-SA 3.0

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Screenshots of main article and talk page of Scoparia ustimacula CC BY-SA 3.0

Article quality loader

Guides article ratings

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Screenshots of article page and rater rating of Lucy Moore (botanist) CC BY-SA 3.0

Rater

Installs in dropdown menu

Assists in rating article

Rater documentation

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Web2Cit

Script to crowdsource Citeoid fixes

Web2Cit documentation

How to Video

Image By Diegodlh, CC0 via WikiCommons

Install:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Diegodlh/Web2Cit/script

Documentation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Web2Cit

Video demo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Web2Cit_workshop_at_LD4_Wikidata_Affinity_Group_call.webm (particularly 19 min 30s onwards to show how to fix a citation)

Wikipedia's automatic citation generator (Citoid) sometimes generates automatic citations that don't always work as expected. Web2Cit is a script created to help fix web citations. Once installed, a Web2Cit checkbox will be visible when you generate a citation in the visual editor via the Citoid tool.

Enter the URL you would like to cite and click on Generate. You should now get two citation results instead of one: the one at the top from Citoid, and the one at the bottom from Web2Cit. Often these two will be the same. But if they differ or aren’t complete you can edit the Web2Cit citation. This will ensure that if any other editor tries to generate the automatic citation while running the Web2Cit script, the Web2Cit tool will now return your improved citation to them.

Editing the Web2Cit citation is a little complex but I’ve included a detailed youtube video that explains the rationale for the tool and also takes you through the process.

But even if you don’t want to go to the effort of correcting web citations in Web2Cit, I’d highly recommend you still install the script to take advantage of the work of others.

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Tool hub

Screenshot of Tool hub page. CC BY-SA 3.0

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Tools for Wikicommons editing

Sidebar tools
Official gadgets
Scripts

Overview

Painting by Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (1863 - 1945), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Sidebar tools

Default tools

Many same as on Wikipedia

Some Installed via Gadgets

Screenshot of sidebar of a Wikicommons file page. CC BY-SA 3.0

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Screenshot of CropTool CC BY-SA 3.0

CropTool

Install via gadgets or Toolforge

Crops images in Commons

Documentation

Beware overwriting existing files!

Installation: Install this via gadgets tab on your preferences page if you want it in your sidebar. I prefer this as it is easier to access when you want to use it.

Otherwise you can access the tool via the Toolforge link https://croptool.toolforge.org/

Documentation: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:CropTool

Just as an aside, Toolforge different from the Toolhub. Toolforge is where the tools are hosted but the Tool hub is the catalogue of tools that have been created.

Anyway, the CropTool is a tool you can use to crop existing Wikicommons images. For example you want an image of an individual but the photo uploaded to Wikicommons has multiple people in it. You can use this tool to crop the image and create a new file with just the person you want in it.

I’ve included a link to documentation in the slides and a warning NOT to overwrite existing files. When using the tool, double check you are making a new file and not overwriting the original one. If you do make a mistake, go to the history page of the new file and revert it.

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Image by Icons: The jQuery UI-Team, Everaldo Coelho; Help icon: Markus Hohenwarter, Michael Borcherds; Thumbs: Rainer Rillke (User:Rillke) - Own work, File:GeoGebra icon help.png, Category:Crystal Project Easy Notice Icons, themeroller@jquery, CC BY-SA 3.0

Perform Batch task

Uses VisualFileChange tool

Batch tasks for groups of files

Documentation

VisualFileChange slideshow

Uses the VisualFileChange tool.

Installation: If you are autopatrolled you can install via your preferences, gadgets tab in the "Maintenance tools" section: click "VisualFileChange" and hit "Save" at the bottom of the page and then it will appear in your toolbar.

If you are not autopatrolled you can install it by adding code

mw.loader.load( 'ext.gadget.VisualFileChange' );

to your Wikicommons common.js page. Once installed a link will appear in the sidebar tools section.

Documentation: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:VisualFileChange.js

This tool is very powerful and can empower you to make significant batch edits on Wikicommons. I’ve previously used to add multiple files uploaded from Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research by multiple editors into the Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research category. I’ve included a slideshow link on the slide to give you an indication of how this tool is used. It is a great aid to categorising images.

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AC/DC

Add to Commons / Descriptive Claims

Installed via gadgets

Adds structured data to multiple files

Documentation

Screenshot of AC/DC tool being used on Category:Eudonia cymatias CC BY-SA 3.0

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Gadgets

Screenshot of gadget tab on Preferences page. CC BY-SA 3.0

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MoreMenu

Access to MULTIPLE tools!

Adds dropdown menu to toolbar

Screenshot of MoreMenu on Wikicommons image page CC BY-SA 3.0

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Top image by The RedBurn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Bottom image by user:Jarekt, CC BY-SA 3.0

Cat-a-lot

Adds, moves & removes files

to, from & between categories

Documentation

“How to” video

Workflow with SDC tool

Documentation: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Gadget-Cat-a-lot

How to video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_to_use_Cat-a-lot.webm

A VERY powerful tool for categorising Wikicommons images. Again I would HIGHLY recommend you read up on Wikicommons categories https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Categories before you start using this tool. It can be very powerful and can make bulk changes. You should know what and why you are doing something before you do it.

Saying that categorising images is EXTREMELY important as not only does it help folk find them it also assists those adding Structured Data to Wikicommons. If images are in a category it is easier to add depicts statements to the images in a whole category than each image individually. I’ll talk about the SDC script later in this presentation which empowers editors to do this.

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GLAMerous

Tracks use of Commons images on other projects

Screenshot of result of GLAMerous report on Category:Landcare Research. CC BY-SA 3.0

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Image by Sandra Fauconnier, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

PetScan

Powerful querying tool

Documentation

Video of use (at min 9)

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Screenshot of User:Ambrosia10’s WikiCommons commons.js page CC BY-SA 3.0

WikiCommons scripts

WikiCommons commons.js
Where to find scripts

How to install user scripts

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Scripts

Screenshots of the SDC tab and iNaturalist import button on Wikicommons Category. CC BY-SA 3.0

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SDC

Adds structured data to images

How to video

Creates a Wikidata item & adds {{Wikidata Infobox}} to category

How to video

Screenshots of SDC tool used on Wikicommons category. CC BY-SA 3.0

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iNaturalist2commons

Pulls research grade openly licensed images only

You choose your image

Uploads it with licensing & metadata

Screenshot of iNat2Commons tool on Wikicommons category. CC BY-SA 3.0

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OpenRefine

Bulk upload of images

Bulk editing of SDC

Documentation

“How to” Video

Possible tutorial session

Image by Sandra Fauconnier, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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Screenshot of Island Bay and surroundings on WikiShootMe. CC BY-SA 3.0

Wikishootme

Tool that allows uploads of images to Wikicommons & Wikidata

Documentation

“How to” video for smartphone

“How to” video for desktop

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Other useful resources

Internet browser extensions
Wikipedia library
Bots - Cleanup page listings

Painting by Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (1863 - 1945), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview

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Image by Toby Hudson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Internet browser extensions

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Image by Heather Piwowar and Jason Priem, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Unpaywall

Gives access to legal, author posted, scholarly articles

Install extension

Documentation (Chrome)

Documentation (Firefox)

“How to” video

Click the green tab & skip the paywall

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Image by Toby Hudson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Entity explosion

Discover links and information about the same topic on other sites

Install extension

Documentation

“How to” video

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Screenshot of image by Prtksxna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Who wrote that

Displays authorship information directly on Wikipedia articles

Install extension

Documentation

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Wikipedia Library Logo by Heatherawalls - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Screenshot of text from Wikipedia Library about page, CC BY-SA 3.0

Wikipedia Library

access a wide range of paywalled reliable sources for free

Go to Wikipedia Library

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Cleanup Page Listings

List of Wikipedia articles marked for cleanup

WikiProject New Zealand Cleanup Listings

Screenshot of text from WikiProject Cleanup Listings CC BY-SA 3.0

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Attendee tool & gadget suggestions

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Siobhan Leachman

Wiki: User:Ambrosia10

Email: siobhan_leachman@yahoo.co.nz

ORCID:0000-0002-5398-7721

Twitter: @SiobhanLeachman

Mastodon:@siobhan_leachman@mastodon.nz

Telegram:@siobhanleachman

Slide deck DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7714291

Image by Retama, CC BY-SA 3.0

Thank you!

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© Siobhan Leachman, 2023. Unless indicated otherwise for specific images, this slide deck is licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons CC0 licence. Please note that this licence does not apply to any images. Those specific items may be re-used as indicated in the image rights statements. In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt this slide deck, as long as you abide by the other licence terms.