User:Waddie96/sandbox2
Search box
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The search bar is an input box with the placeholder text "Search Wikipedia" in it. In Wikipedia's default Vector 2022 skin, it is located in the header of the page at the top of the screen.
To use the search bar, click in it, or jump to it by pressing ⇧ Shift+Alt+F, and type in your search string.
If your search matches a page name exactly, search will navigate to the page directly instead of showing search results. To get search results instead, prepend the first word of the search string (i.e., the page name) with a tilde ("~"). (Or choose "Search for pages containing" from the suggestions that drop down as you type.)
In the former default skin Vector, the search bar is located in the top right hand corner, and instead of a search button, there is an icon of a magnifying glass on the right-hand end of the search box. Pressing ↵ Enter or clicking on the magnifying glass when the box is empty takes you directly to Wikipedia's search page. Prior to that, in Monobook it was in the middle of the sidebar on the left of the screen.
JavaScript, and thus possibly user scripts, and skins have an effect on the search/navigate default behavior. Monobook's default is to navigate, and Vector's default is search; however, when JavaScript is on, the Vector skin will navigate. Monobook's Go will navigate, and is the default, but Monobook has a Search button.