How to Add a Word Document to Wikipedia

Wikipedia runs on the MediaWiki software, which is also used for a variety of collaborative wiki sites on the Internet and on internal networks. Microsoft Word Documents have their own formatting method that's different from the MediaWiki markup used on Wikipedia. If you try to copy and paste the contents of a Word document directly into Wikipedia, you will lose formatting, including bolding, links, headings and other information. Microsoft provides an official add-in for Word that allows you to save a Word document in MediaWiki format, preserving the document's formatting.

 

Instructions

1. • 1
     Close any open Microsoft Word windows.
     
   • 2
     Open the Microsoft Office Word Add-in For MediaWiki download page on Microsoft.com/Download in your Web browser.
     
   • 3
     Click the "Download" link on the Web page and save the installer file to your computer.
     
   • 4
     Double-click the "MicrosoftOfficeWordAddinForMediaWiki.msi" file on your computer and click "Run."
     
   • 5
     Click "Next" on the welcome screen, click "I Agree" and click "Next" on the license screen.
     
   • 6
     Click "Next" twice to install the add-in to the default location, then click "Close" after it's finished installing.
     
   • 7
     Double-click a Word document on your computer to open it in Microsoft Word.
     
   • 8
     Click the "File" menu in Microsoft Word and select "Save As."
     
   • 9
     Click the "Save As Type" box in the Save As window and select "MediaWiki (*.txt)" in the list.
     
   • 10
     Type a name for the document into the file name box and click "Save."
     
   • 11
     Double-click the .txt file you saved the document to on your computer to open it in Notepad.
     
   • 12
     Click the "Edit" menu and click "Select All" to select the entire document, then click the "Edit" menu and click "Copy" to copy it to your clipboard.
     
   • 13
     Navigate to the article on Wikipedia you want to import the Word document to and click "Edit" at the top of the page.
     
   • 14
     Right-click the text box on the edit page and click "Select All" to select the entire document.
     
   • 15
     Right-click the selected text in the text box and click "Paste" to replace the existing article with the contents of your Word document.
     
   • 16
     Click the "Save Page" button to save your changes to Wikipedia.
     

Tips & Warnings

• The add-in doesn't support images. Any images in the Word document are discarded in the conversion process.