Proposal
This is a proposal to update the How to categorize a redirect section of this project page. While the major update is the addition of the utility of the {{This is a redirect}} template, there are also other updates included that have been needed for a long time. Please discuss major alterations to this proposal at Wikipedia talk:Categorizing redirects/Archive 2#This is a redirect before you actually make them. Thank you, and Joys! – Paine Ellsworth CLIMAX! 20:19, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How to categorize a redirect

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A redirect may be categorized in the same way as for any other page; however, when it is possible to use redirect category templates (rcats), then these should be used. For clarity, all category links should be added at the end of the page, after the redirect statement and rcat(s). Use of blank lines between these promotes readability of the code. The {{This is a redirect}} template is used to improve the appearance of text on redirects as well as to easily tag a redirect with up to six rcats. See its documentation and the This is a redirect/Comparison page for more information.

The redirect will appear in the specified categories in a style format that is different than non-redirects (by default, redirects appear in italics – see Technical note below). <!-- The Technical note is actually the next section, which is not included here, and may be read on the main project page. -->

Example 1
– a redirect to page Xxyyzz, which uses the {{R from modification}} and {{R printworthy}} rcats, and which is also sorted to categories Aaa and Bbb, may look like:
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz]]

{{R from modification}}
{{R printworthy}}

[[Category:Aaa]]
[[Category:Bbb]]
When This is a redirect is used, it is applied as follows:
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz]]

{{This is a redirect|from modification|printworthy}}

[[Category:Aaa]]
[[Category:Bbb]]
Note that the "R" in rcats may be omitted. Aliases (usually shortcuts) may also be used:
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz]]

{{Redr|mod|pw}}

[[Category:Aaa]]
[[Category:Bbb]]
Redr is an alias for "This is a redirect", R mod for "R from modification" and R pw for "R printworthy".
Note that the "R" in rcat names can either be used, {{Redr|R mod|R pw}}, or omitted in the This is a redirect template ("R" cannot be omitted when rcats individually tag redirects).
Example 2
– a redirect to an article subsection titled "Header":
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz#Header]]

{{R to section}}
{{R printworthy}}
When This is a redirect is used, it is applied as follows:
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz#Header]]

{{Redr|to section|printworthy}}
Example 3
– a redirect to an article that has an anchor titled "Anchor this" (see {{Anchor}}):
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz#Anchor this]]

{{R to anchor}}
{{R unprintworthy}}
When This is a redirect is used, it is applied as follows:
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz#Anchor this]]

{{Redr|to anchor|unprintworthy}}
Example 4
– one common redirect need to a geology page Xxyyzz, which uses the R to section rcat to point to the article and section where the common term is defined, and which should be in categories Aaa, Bbb, Ccc and Ddd (the parent article may be sorted to a few more, such as Eee, Fff, etc.), all of which are categories usually found in the parent article. This example would look like this:
#REDIRECT [[Xxyyzz#Section header]] 

{{Redr|to section|to related topic|printworthy}}

[[Category:Aaa|{{PAGENAME:Xxyyzz}}]]
[[Category:Bbb|{{PAGENAME:Xxyyzz}}]]
[[Category:Ccc|{{PAGENAME:Xxyyzz}}]]
[[Category:Ddd|{{PAGENAME:Xxyyzz}}]]
Notes
1. The #REDIRECT [[Article title]] must come first, on the top line, and must start from the left margin. [[Category:...]] types can be placed on their own lines after the above. Redirect category (rcat) templates, {{R from...}}, {{R to ...}}, etc and the {{This is a redirect}} template may be placed anywhere after the redirect. It is conventional to place them before categories and to leave empty lines between the types for readability.
2. {{PAGENAME}} is a Magic word in wikimarkup language that fills in the pagename (without the namespace) of the redirect unless the pagename of the target page (without namespace) is entered as its first parameter. The first category parameter represented by |{{PAGENAME:Xxyyzz}} (magic words are not templates – note that the colon (:) is used to pass parameters in magic words rather than the pipe (|), which is used in templates) above is in fact the sort parameter used to group pages together in a category list.
3. When the This is a redirect (or Redr) template is used, it will allow rcat parameters as described in its documentation. It takes seven rcat parameters, "p1" through "p6" and a "to" parameter that is associated with the language rcat, {{R from alternative language}}.
4. As shown above, printworthiness is an important type of sort. We are told in the style guide, "The ultimate goal of the guide is to have every redirect categorised in a standard format, as well as to have every main-namespace redirect categorised as either printworthy or unprintworthy." It is important to note that this only applies to main article namespace redirects and not to redirects in any other namespace.
5. For more detailed information about how to categorize redirects please see the documentation for individual rcats and for the This is a redirect template.
 General information note
ALL the {{R from...}}, {{R to...}} templates, have as their sole purpose the populating of a redirect subcategory (see Category:Wikipedia redirects) to aid in maintenance. Generally speaking, one such template categorizes redirect pages to the subcategory, though that template may be "aliased" by use of several alternative phrasings, themselves redirects to the template. Common alias choices are: other vs. alternative, capitalization vs. capitalisation and other such spelling/phrasing variants like "R to singular" vs. "R from plural" and "R from singular" vs. "R to plural".