wikiHow:Reuse a wikiHow Image on wikiHow

wikiHow is full of articles that already have images on every step. Some guides really do best if step-by-step images are created especially for the method being covered, but on other topics, you may be able to reuse existing images to illustrate the new advice, instead. If you want to do that, you don't have to re-upload the image; you can use the existing one that's already uploaded to the site.

Copying an Image Tag to Reuse an Image

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    Open the article you're adding images to.
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    Find the image you want to reuse on an existing article. You might have to hunt around before you find a good fit, and the advice in the second part of this article might help.
  3. 3
    Click on the image to open it in a pop-up lightbox. Locate the tag/code of the image you want to reuse, towards the bottom. It will look something like: [[Image:Write a Target Market Analysis Step 5 Version 2.jpg|center]] .
    • If you're logged out, the image tag won't appear on the lightbox, but you can find it by going into edit mode, or looking at the URL of the image.
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    Copy the entirety of the image syntax, from [[ through ]] .
    • Once you have the hang of the image syntax, you can also just write the image tags yourself, if you have a direct link to the image page, or to the image within a lightbox on an article page. Just note the image name in the URL and insert that same exact name (capitalization counts!) into your image tag.
    • For example, if you see this in your URL bar: https://www.wikihow.com/Sing#/Image:Sing-Step-1.jpg or https://www.wikihow.com/Image:Sing-Step-1.jpg , you know that the image tag will be: [[Image:Sing-Step-1.jpg|center]]
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    Switch back to the article you want to add the image to. Find the step where you want the picture to display, and paste the image code directly at the end of the step.
    • In order for the image to show above the main step, as is typical in our layout, put it right after the main step (#), not after a substep (#*).
    • Avoid any extra lines (line breaks) between the text of the step and the image code. Having extra blank lines will break the auto-numbering of the step.
  6. 6
    Publish your changes. Use an edit summary to make your additions clear; something simple like "adding images" should do.

Picking the Best Images

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    Think about the topic in question and whether image reuse is appropriate. There are some topics this works well for, and others it doesn't. If the method really requires specific, clear step-by-step images that don't already exist on the site, you probably don't want to reuse existing images for it.
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    Surf around existing topics that are similar to the one you want to edit. You may find many different options for images that you could reuse. You can take the image code from any article that exists on wikiHow, but you'll probably have the best luck in finding appropriate/fitting ones if you start with topics that are similar to yours.
  3. 3
    Double check the license if you're in doubt. If an image was added by the Wikivisual team, it's almost certainly safe to re-use here on wikiHow. However, if you're not sure who added it, you can click on the image to see the license that's been applied to it and check it's appropriate for use on wikiHow. Avoid reusing an image if there isn't a license currently applied (e.g., it says "Unknown" or "No license").
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    Consider using the images that are all the same style as one another. This isn't necessarily essential, but using images that are all in one general style can really help the article feel cohesive. Use your best judgement here; there are some cases where mixing and matching is entirely okay, and others where it feels "off".

Tips

Warnings

  • Avoid downloading and re-uploading the images you find here, unless you know enough about image licensing to apply the correct license again once you've re-uploaded the image. If you just want to reuse an image that already exists, as is, the steps above should do the trick. If you need to change the image and aren't sure how to re-license it, check with our Help Team .

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