Help talk:Starting a new page

''Discuss Help:Starting a new page here. ''

New page templates
I want a template so every time a new page is created, the same headers are created by default for each new page started. i.e. they create a new page, and on that new page is already header1/header2/header3 with special instructional text under each header as guidelines. Is this possible?

Creating Redirects
"Don't forget to setup redirects when you create a page. If you think another person may search for the page you've created by ussesrestesting a different name or spelling, please create the proper redirect(s)."

ok, but how do you create the redirect ??

-- 129.33.1.37  - 15:28, 29 November 2006


 * just read the text and click on Help:Links ;-) -- :Bdk: 01:33, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

The Links help doesn't actually explain redirects very well. Meta does, but like all the meta help pages, it needs to be severely pared down to be ported here (and in fact, it can't just be imported willy-nilly because meta is GFDL and not Public Domain). 64.121.2.59 21:25, 15 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I think this is clearer now (and we have a page Help:Redirects) -- Harry Wood 13:52, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Protect a page
How do I do a 'protect page'? I see no link to any explanation on this. Thanks for your feedback VReijs 10:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * If you are a sysop, you should see a "protect" tab on top of every page, if using the Monobook skin. You can also click on "edit this page", and on the address bar of your browser, replace  with  . If you get a permissions error, then you need to get a wiki admin to protect the page for you. You can also have a look at Help:Administration on Meta for more detailed instructions. Titoxd (?!?) 07:35, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

URL problem
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:

* http://www.example.com/index.php/ARTICLE   or    * http://www.example.com/wiki/ARTICLE

this doesn't work?? HOw com I have to do it like this instead:-

http://wiki.example.com/index.php?title=ARTICLE

-- 60.51.120.123 - 00:03, 11 April 2007


 * Yeah so you're seeing '?title=' in the URL. Actually that's the default way a MediaWiki URL looks, until the server administrator does installation steps to beautify the URL, so in a way it might make sense to chage the instructions here to show the '?title=' bit. On the other hand many administrators do often figure out how to beautify their URLs, so for users of these wikis...
 * That's not actually relevant to the instructions being given here anyway. The point is that you can create a new page, by replacing the article title appearing at the end of the URL.
 * -- Harry Wood 14:00, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

No Links for Spammers
The page www.my-wiki.org is a existing url which contains a lot of adverts. Please change the URL in the example to something like example.net from RFC 2606.

-- 89.244.74.23 - 17:43, 1 July 2007

how to put a new page in a namespace?
i'm trying to create a simple site:

main page child a  child b   child c

where main page would contain a table of contents for all its child pages, and each child page would contain links back to the parent page. i believe i need to use subpages to accomplish this, and in order to use subpages, i have to turn on namespace subpages. i also, seemingly, would need to put each of the pages into this new namespace. at this point i have no idea how to put a page into a namespace. i also have no idea how to get a table of contents on the main page. after sinking 3 hours into this i feel like an idiot.

-- 68.167.89.124 - 03:25, 22 January 2008


 * Wikis actually work best if you dont try to be too clever with heirarchical navigations structures etc. My advice is, write the main navigation points into the text of the wiki pages itself (rather than trying to auto generate it in any way), and keep your actual page naming entirely flat, especially for key pages linked off the main page. So even though you create the impression of 'Child' pages of the main page, you're actually linking to other pages on the same flat level. Your Main Page wikitext might look like...

Welcome to this wiki about fruit. Please feel free to edit.

Apple - Information about apples

Bannana - In depth analysis on bananas

Orange - A detailed look at oranges


 * Even though 'Apple','Banana' and 'Orange' are not "child" pages in any Content Management System sense of the word, psychologically and navigationally, they effectively are. The Main Page list must be maintained by hand.


 * That answer might seem lame to you, but remember that this allows the wiki community to develop an organic navigational structure, and really in my experience this is the best way to keep wikis simple and effective.


 * If you are wanting to ignore this, and activate sub pages. Set the variable $wgNamespacesWithSubpages e.g.

$wgNamespacesWithSubpages = array(       NS_TALK           => true,        NS_USER           => true,        NS_USER_TALK      => true,        NS_PROJECT_TALK   => true,        NS_IMAGE_TALK     => true,        NS_MEDIAWIKI_TALK => true,        NS_TEMPLATE_TALK  => true,        NS_HELP_TALK      => true,        NS_CATEGORY_TALK  => true );


 * ...to activate it across all namespaces (which is what you would want).


 * Sub pages give your wiki an inbuilt heirarchical mechanism, however I think you will still need to create the Table of Contents by hand (although I guess there's a good chance someone's created an extension to do this)


 * Another inbuilt heirarchical mechanism is 'Categories'. This creates an autmatically maintained list of 'child' pages (well pages which are in the category) but still this doesn't allow you to put that list as a table of contents on the Main Page.


 * -- Harry Wood 14:27, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Characters not allowed in a new page
Is there a list of characters we're not allowed to use when creating a new page?

I tried to create a page called 'Amquel+' and mediawiki dropped the '+'!

Why can't a '+' be used?

--Stuart Halliday 16:07, 21 February 2009 (UTC)