View source for Help:Redirects

{{shortcut|S:REDIRECT|S:REDIR}}
'''Redirects''' are used to forward users from one page name to another. They can be useful if a particular article is referred to by multiple names, or has an alternate punctuation or spelling.

A list of redirects can be found at [[Special:ListRedirects]].
==Creating a redirect==

You may start a new page with the name you want to direct from (see [[Help:Starting a New Page]]). You can also use an existing page that you are making inactive as a page by going to that page and using the "edit" tab at the top. In either case, you will be inserting the following code at the very first text position of the Edit window for the page:
 <nowiki>#REDIRECT [[</nowiki>''pagename''<nowiki>]]</nowiki>
where ''pagename'' is the name of the destination page. The word "REDIRECT" should be capitalized, and there must be no space before the "#" symbol. Any text before the code will disable the code and prevent a redirect. Any text or regular content code after the redirect code will be ignored (and should be deleted from an existing page). However, to put or keep the current page name listed in a Category, the usual tag for that category is entered or kept on a line after the redirect code entry.

You should use the 'preview' button below the Edit window, or Alt-Shift-P, to check that you have entered the correct destination page name. The preview page will look like the resulting redirect page, with the destination page in blue.

If the ''pagename'' as you typed it is not a valid page, it will show in red. Until there is a valid destination page, you should not make the redirect.

==Viewing a redirect==
After making a redirect at a page, you can no longer get to that page by using its name or by any link using that name; and they do not show up in wiki search results, either. However, near the top of the destination page, a notice that you have been forwarded appears, with the source pagename as an active link to it. Click this to get back to the redirected page, showing the large bent arrow symbol and the destination for the redirect.

A redirect page to this page would look like this:


[[File:Redirect.png|link=]] <span class="redirectText">[[Help:Redirects#header|Help:Redirects]]</span>

By going to this page, you can do all the things that any wiki page allows. You can go to the associated discussion page to discuss the redirect. You can view the history of the page, including a record of the redirect. You can edit the page if the redirect is wrong, and you can revert to an older version to remove the redirect.

==Double redirects==

A double redirect is a page redirecting to a page which is itself a redirect, and it will not work. Instead, people will be presented with a view of the next redirect page. This is a deliberate restriction, partly to prevent infinite loops, and partly to keep things simple. 

However, you could look out for double redirects and eliminate them, by changing them to be 1-step redirects instead. You are most likely to need to do this after a significant [[Help:Moving a Page|page move]]. Use the "what links here" toolbox link to find double redirects to a particular page, or use [[Special:DoubleRedirects]] to find them throughout the whole wiki.

==When to make redirects==
* When the other title could refer to the same topic in a non-obvious way. For example, [[Glitch]] redirects to [[Bug]], but bugs and glitches are two very different things.
* When the other title is likely to be searched for, but is not exactly the same as the target.

==When not to make redirects==
* Minor copyedits to the title
** Capitalization
** Minor spelling changes
** Differences in punctuation

==A redirect to a page in the category namespace==

Do not create redirects between categories. Categorizing pages under redirect categories does not categorize them under the target category.

[[Category:Help|Redirects]]

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