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Automatic wikification is a feature that was implemented for a time in the old Wikipedia Phase II software. It is no longer available in the new Phase III software, due to concerns raised by some users and developers, though there is some discussion about reintroducing it.
This is a description of how the feature worked under the old Phase II software:
The "working title" is automatic wikification, but it could also be wikification assistance. The key element is a new button on the edit pages, right after Save and Preview. It only appears for logged-in members, as not to confuse newcomers (this setting can, of course, be changed).
Basically, what it does is to change HTML tags to wiki tags where possible, and to alter the article source in ways the wikipedia community (with the possible exception of 24;) seems to have more or less agreed upon. Hitting the button produces the altered article source and its preview. It does not alter the article in the database! You will have to hit Save to commit the change, as usual. That way, you can check the alterations, revert some, or hit the back button in case the article got messed up.
Currently, the function is as follows:
- <b>, <i>, <h2>, <h3> and <h4> tags are replaced with the matching wiki codes
- Some [[broken] links are fixed
- Links to the talk page of that very article are removed
- Self links (like this) are removed
- Multiple links from that very article to the same page are removed; only the first of these links stays
- Plural [[link|links]] are converted to [[link]]s (I know some of you don't like this; I'll leave it in for now, can be taken out later)
- The page title is marked bold if it occurs in the first line and if there are no bold marks already in place in this line. So, a manually set bold title will prevent any change
- nowiki and pre tags, as well as their contents, stay untouched
All of this can be changed; it should be expanded. Please add functions to include within this feature below. The feature will go online with the next software update. --Magnus Manske, Monday, April 8, 2002
There is an offline tool that converts HTML to wikipedia markup, called html2wikipedia. You can download the tool from http://www.dwheeler.com/html2wikipedia (it's designed to be used on Unix-like systems).