Help:Starting a new page

There are several ways to start a new page.

These can vary based on the type of page started, as well as the wiki and namespace.

Using Wikilinks
MediaWiki makes it very easy to link wiki pages using a standard syntax (see ).

If you (or anyone else) create a link to an article that doesn't exist yet, the link will be colored red, like this.


 * Notes:
 * This sample displays that underline style unconditionally. The underline displayed below the text of actual links will normally be hidden by default and made visible only when the link is hovered by the mouse or selected by keyboard navigation, if the wiki (or the user's preferences) uses the default MediaWiki styles.
 * The actual color of links is also dependent on the default wiki styles, and the design of Wiki pages may still override these default colors.

Clicking a red link will take you to the edit page for the new article.

Simply type your text, click save and the new page will be created.

Once the page has been created, the link will change from red to blue (purple for pages you've visited) indicating that the article now exists.

Usually this is the best way to create a new page, because it means that right from the start, the page will be linked from at least one other place on the wiki (and typically you will want to mesh it into other related pages later).

If you are creating a new page without creating any link to it, you may need to ask yourself: Does this page really fit in with the topics already covered in the wiki?

Also, how are you expecting visitors to find this page?

Normally there is no reason to create a page without first creating a red link to it.

From the search box
If you search for a page that doesn't exist, then you will be provided with a link to create the new page.

Using the URL
You can use the wiki's URL for creating a new page.

The URL to an article of the wiki is usually something like this:


 * or

If you replace  with the name of the page you wish to create, you will be taken to a blank page which indicates that no article of that name exists yet.

Clicking the "" tabs>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Navigation#Page Tabs|page tab at the top of the page will take you to the edit page for that article, where you can create the new page by typing your text, and clicking submit.

Using article creation template
Copy the following text into a page in the wiki:

This generates a box where users can simply type the article title and generate a page with that name.

This allows unexperienced editors to easily create pages.

Create redirects to your new page
Don't forget to set up redirects when you create a page.

If you think another person may search for the page you've created by using a different name or spelling, please create the proper redirect(s).

See .

Protecting your new page
Normally a new wiki page can be edited by other people (that is one of the main ideas of a wiki!).

However, a sysop could prot>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Protected pages|protect the page, if desired, to prevent normal users from editing it.

Limitations

 * 1) MediaWiki doesn't have tools to present one topic for very specific audience. MediaWiki does not know about this and does not provide additional tools for this. MediaWiki's use in education is very limited after decades...
 * 2) MediaWiki does has few options for visibility and access control. MediaWiki is almost never used in banks and for many commercial purposes after dacades...
 * 3) Authentication is also questionable... Years later, MediaWiki barely supports national identifiers. The developers don't even know about them!

Splitting a topic for no reason
One page ==English alphabet== ===A=== ===B=== ===C=== is better than 26 pages which should have an introduction, links to each other... But it should also be noted that not all topics are as simple, linear, unambiguous and consistent as the English alphabet...