Wikipedia:How to create a page

This help page is a how-to guide.

It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.

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This page sets forth the nuts and bolts of creating a page in any namespace – the mechanics of doing so. Please note that only logged in users can create pages in non-talk namespaces.

This page does not delve into the reasons one should or should not create a page, what to consider before doing so, nor what content would or would not be appropriate. For a more general treatment regarding the DOs and DON'Ts of article creation, please see

Wikipedia:Tutorial. For a guided process to create an article (and for which these technical instructions will not be needed), see the article wizard and Wikipedia:Articles for creation

, where a proposed article will first be created as a draft and then submitted for review before possible "publication" by a move to the article mainspace.

For relevant considerations before creating an encyclopedia article, please see the

article layout guideline. For what title to choose for an article, see the article titling policy

.

You can also create a page by entering the page name in the input field below.

How a page is created

All Wikipedia pages are created by accessing a page title that does not yet exist, usually by clicking on a

red link

, you will be transported to a blank page. Once there, enter any text and then click the Publish changes button. That's it; the page should have been created.

Many pages are created after a user sees an existing red link on a page, and then follows these steps. The methods explored below describe how to access a non-existent page when a red link is not already presented to you, in order for you to follow these steps to creation.

Method 1: searching

Enter text in the search field that you seek to create as a page title. If the title you entered does not already exist, is not

creation protected, the resulting page will i) tell you that it does not exist; ii) advise that you can create the page, and iii) will provide a red link to the page title. It will normally appear in the following form (it may vary depending on the skin

you have set):

There were no results matching the query.

You may create the page "Red-linked Text You Searched For".

Method 2: previewing a red link

Click edit on any accessible page;
Surround the page title you want to create in doubled brackets, e.g., [[Proposed Title]];
Click the Show preview button (not the Publish changes button);
Click on the red link revealed.

Method 3: saving a red link

Often you will want to have easy continuing access to a page you create. One way is to save a link at your user page, or sometimes, on your user talk page. Once you save a red link there, and create the page, the link will turn blue and will be accessible anytime you visit it.

Go to your user or user talk page (both permanently linked at the top of any Wikipedia page);
Surround the page title you want to create in doubled brackets, e.g., [[Proposed Title]];
Click the Publish changes button;
Click on the red link revealed.

Method 4: changing a URL

If you click edit on any existing page or page section and then change the title of the page shown in the URL of your browser's address bar to the name of a non-existent page, and then hit return/enter, the resulting page shown will be the same as if you clicked on a red link, allowing you to create a page by the title entered. For example, were you to click edit at the top of this page, you would see this URL in your browser's address bar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:How_to_create_a_page&action=edit

To make a page called "Proposed Title" using it, you would change it to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Proposed Title&action=edit

Namespace considerations

Wikipedia data structure
Namespaces
Subject namespaces		Talk namespaces
0	(Main/Article)	Talk	1
2	User	User talk	3
4	Wikipedia	Wikipedia talk	5
6	File	File talk	7
8	MediaWiki	MediaWiki talk	9
10	Template	Template talk	11
12	Help	Help talk	13
14	Category	Category talk	15
100	Portal	Portal talk	101
118	Draft	Draft talk	119
710	TimedText	TimedText talk	711
828	Module	Module talk	829
Deprecated
2300	Gadget	Gadget talk	2301
2302	Gadget definition	Gadget definition talk	2303
Not installed
90	Thread	Thread talk	91
92	Summary	Summary talk	93
108	Book	Book talk	109
442	Course	Course talk	443
444	Institution	Institution talk	445
446	Education Program	Education Program talk	447
2600	Topic		2601
Virtual namespaces
-1	Special
-2	Media
Current list (API call)

Articles versus other namespaces

Only encyclopedia articles are created without a namespace prefix. All pages outside of the article mainspace are prefixed by the namespace followed by a colon before the title, e.g., your user page's title starts with the prefix User: The various namespaces are shown in the table to the right.

The red links one would thus create for any page that is not an encyclopedia article must start with the namespace prefix. For example, to create a proposed article in the Draft namespace, it would be created via a red link to [[Draft:Proposed Title]].

Category namespace exception

One exception to the instructions above regarding saving or previewing a red link is that links to pages in the Category namespace will not work unless a colon is also placed before the namespace prefix (missing this step will result in the page being placed into the category you typed). For example, if one wanted to create a category for "Canadian lute players", the red link would be invoked by previewing or saving the code: [[:Category:Canadian lute players]].

File namespace exception

The file namespace is another exception in that media files are not created directly by any of the methods discussed above. Rather, media files are uploaded, which is done through a separate and dedicated interface, accessed by clicking on "Upload file" from the tool menu on the left of a page. (Please note that media files that are in the

compatible with the free licenses borne by Wikipedia's content should generally be uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons

rather than to Wikipedia, so that all Wikimedia projects have access to the media file.)

Restricted namespaces

There are four namespaces that are restricted from creation except by administrators and certain other users with higher access levels: Special pages, MediaWiki pages, Module pages and Education Program pages. However, any user may create talk pages of these namespaces, except for those in the Special namespace, which do not have direct talk pages at all.