Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host lounge/How-to guides/Redirects guide

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This guide explores why we use and how to create redirects.

Redirects

Sometimes article subjects have different spellings or similar meanings and a new article doesn't have to be created. This is called a redirect. Examples might include the article about the Wikimedia Foundation. If you type Wikimedia foundation you will be redirected to the actual Wikimedia Foundation article.

How do I create a redirect?

• Trevj's reply:
• Start a new article and use #REDIRECT[[Page name]] markup (or #REDIRECT[[Page name#Section title]] for a targeted redirect).
  • Appropriate redirect category templates should also be used—some are listed at {{Rcats}}, e.g. include {{R to related topic}} by adding {{R to related topic}} immediately after the #REDIRECT markup.
  • Note that targeted redirects are subject to link rot if other editors rename the destination section—therefore the use of anchors may be considered.
  • Further information is at Wikipedia:Redirect.

Please add your own reply here!

Moving

I misspelled the title of the article I just created, how do I fix that?

The move option in the Vector skin appears when you move your mouse cursor over the small drop-down menu, shown here.

• Nolelover's reply:

First, don't panic, or even break a sweat, as this is an easily correctable problem. Now, if you are not yet autoconfirmed (the automatic status that comes after four days of being registered and ten edits) you can request a move at WP:Requested moves or just ask a more experienced editor to do it for you. If the move is a simple typo, and not controversial in any way, most people will be happy to take a couple seconds and do it. Now, if you are autoconfirmed, you can move pages yourself. More extensive directions are here, but the gist of it is that you will click the move button in the drop-down menu next to the history tab, type in the new title name and a reason (maybe something like "typo in original creation") and hit 'Move page'. All done! Note that although it may seem easier, please don't try to copy and paste the content to the new page name and save it there. For copyright reasons we need to keep all the history together, and cut-paste moves do not save page histories.