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| − | Creating '''links''' to other pages is a key part of creating a complete and well-formatted wiki page. A well-linked page permits readers to easily access other topics that they may be interested in learning more about, and encourages readers to continue to explore the site.
| + | There are four sorts of links in MediaWiki: |
| | + | # internal links to other pages in the wiki |
| | + | # external links to websites |
| | + | # [[Help:Interwiki linking|inter-wiki links]] (links to other wikis) |
| | + | # inter-language links to other language versions of the same wiki |
| | | | |
| − | ==General Information==
| + | To add an internal link, enclose the name of the page you want to link to in double square brackets. When you save the page, you'll see the new link pointing to your page. If the page exists already, it is displayed in blue, empty pages are displayed in red. Selflinks to the current page are not transformed in URLs but displayed in bold. |
| − | Links are a vital part of the wiki, and are strongly encouraged on all pages in order to refer the reader to other relevant pages (and prevent unnecessary duplication). However, it is also possible to [[Project:Style Guide#Avoid Cluttering Links|go overboard with links]]. In general, a link should only be added the first time a topic is mentioned on a page, rather than every time the topic is mentioned.
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| − | When creating links on a page, you may want to also check what links '''to''' that page. In general, if there is enough overlap for page A to link to page B, then page B should probably also have a link to page A. On the left side of any page, in the toolbox, you can use "What Links Here" to see which pages link to that page. This is one way to check whether a page is fully cross-linked. If you're creating a new page, this is the best way to make sure that people will be able to find your new page.
| + | The first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link will have a similar effect as typing a space, but is not recommended, since the underscore will also be shown in the text). |
| | | | |
| − | ==Link Basics== | + | == How to link == |
| − | The bare minimum necessary to create a wiki link is to put two square brackets on either side of a word. So to change <tt>UT2004</tt> into a link, just add brackets: <tt><nowiki>[[UT2004]]</nowiki></tt>. When you [[Help:Editing Pages#Previewing the Page|preview]] your edit, the word should now be displayed using blue text rather than black text. If, however, your link is in red text then you have tried to create a link to a page that does not exist. You should probably double check whether you have spelled the word correctly.
| + | {| {{Prettytable}} |
| − | | + | |
| − | On the wiki, most links that you add to a page will be transformed by the wiki software after you save the page. So don't be surprised when your links suddenly look a lot more complicated after you have saved. All that has happened is that the wiki software has expanded the links to make them fully match the expected link syntax, as explained in the following section.
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| − | | + | |
| − | ==Internal Links==
| + | |
| − | Internal links are those created to other pages on the wiki; this is by far the most common type of link. Some examples are:
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| − | {| class="wikitable" | + | |
| − | ! You Type !! You See
| + | |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament (series)]]</nowiki></tt>||[[Unreal Tournament (series)]] | + | |{{Hl3}}|'''Description''' |
| | + | |{{Hl3}}|'''You type''' |
| | + | |{{Hl3}}|'''You get''' |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament (series)|]]</nowiki></tt>||[[Unreal Tournament (series)|Unreal Tournament]] | + | |Internal link |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[[Main Page]]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[[Main Page]] |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament (series)|the UT series]]</nowiki></tt>||[[Unreal Tournament (series)|the UT series]] | + | |Category link |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[[:Category:Help]]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[[:Category:Help]] |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament 2004#Demo]]</nowiki></tt>||[[Unreal Tournament 2004#Demo]] | + | |Piped link |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[[Main Page|different text]]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[[Main Page|different text]] |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament 2004#Demo|Demo]]</nowiki></tt>||[[Unreal Tournament 2004#Demo|Demo]] | + | |Anchor link |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[[#External links|Anchor link]]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[[#External links|Anchor link]] |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament 2004#Demo|the demo]]</nowiki></tt>||[[Unreal Tournament 2004#Demo|the demo]] | + | |External link |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>http://mediawiki.org</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |http://mediawiki.org |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[[#External Links|External Links]]</nowiki></tt>||[[#External Links|External Links]] | + | |Internal link to image file |
| − | |}
| + | |<tt><nowiki>[[media:example.jpg]]</nowiki></tt> |
| − | | + | |[[media:example.jpg]] |
| − | An internal link always uses two square brackets. Within the brackets, the various parts of the link are:
| + | |
| − | # The [[#Page Names|name of the page]] that you would like the reader to jump to if they click on the link, for example <tt>Capture the Flag</tt>. This can be omitted if you are linking to somewhere else on the same page
| + | |
| − | # An [[#Anchors|anchor]], starting with <tt>#</tt>, if you would like the reader to jump to somewhere in the middle of the page. This can be omitted if you just want to link to the top of a page.
| + | |
| − | # A [[#Labels|label]], starting with <tt>|</tt>, if you would like to customize the text displayed for the label. This is optional.
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| − | | + | |
| − | A link to an existing page will always be displayed using blue text. After creating a link, it is recommended to [[Help:Editing Pages|preview]] the page and double check that the link is indeed blue. If it is red, you have made a typographical error (unless you are intentionally trying to make a link to a page that needs to be created). Sometimes links can show up as black, meaning that the wiki isn't even treating it as a link: check that your link starts with <tt><nowiki>[[</nowiki></tt> and ends with <tt><nowiki>]]</nowiki></tt>; see also [[#Labels|labels]].
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| − | | + | |
| − | ===Page Names===
| + | |
| − | The wiki will automatically convert a page name into a URL-friendly equivalent. Web page names cannot contain common characters such as spaces or many types of punctuation. However, when creating an internal link you can type the name in whatever way is most convenient for you, and the wiki will take care of the details of the conversion.
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| − | | + | |
| − | ===Anchors===
| + | |
| − | The pound sign (#, shift+3 on US keyboards) is used if you would like to link to somewhere other than the top of a page. The HTML terminology for the spot you link to is an "anchor". This is very useful if you want to refer the reader directly to the most relevant part of the page, especially for long pages.
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| − | | + | |
| − | Any [[Help:Formatting#Section Breaks|section title (header)]] on a page can automatically be used as an anchor. In other words you can use any text that is enclosed in equal signs (=) when you look at the page in the editor. On pages with table of contents, those section titles will all be shown in the table of contents; if you click on one of those entries, the URL including the anchor will be shown in your browser window.
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| − | | + | |
| − | The same convenient URL conversions described under [[#Page Names|Page Names]] are also done for anchor names. So section titles or item names can be used exactly as they appear on a page; there is no need to replace spaces with underscores.
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| − | | + | |
| − | ===Labels===
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| − | Without a label, the text shown for your link will just be the page name, which in most cases is not the best choice. To create a label, you use the pipe sign (|, shift+\ on US keyboards, often shown as two vertical lines instead of just one).
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| − | | + | |
| − | A pipe all by itself at the end of a link tells the wiki to automatically create a label, by stripping out the namespace and using just the page name. Any parts of the page name in parentheses will also be dropped. For example, <tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament (series)|]]</nowiki></tt> produces the link [[Unreal Tournament (series)|Unreal Tournament]]. When you save the page, the wiki explicitly fills in the label part of the link, so if you come back and edit this link, it will now read <tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament (series)|Unreal Tournament]]</nowiki></tt>. There are some situations, however, where the wiki will not automatically create a label (if the link contains an anchor, for example, or in some templates); in these cases the wiki will not even create a link, but will just add the text to the page unformatted.
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| − | | + | |
| − | Any text entered after the pipe symbol is used as a custom label for the link, i.e., that is the text that will appear to the reader.
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| − | | + | |
| − | ===Special Cases===
| + | |
| − | There are a few types of links that have a special meaning.
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| − | * Links created to [[Help:Images|image pages]] will by default insert that image, instead of creating a plain link. If you want to create a plain text link, insert a colon at the start of the link. For example, <tt><nowiki>[[:Image:UT2004.jpg]]</nowiki></tt> creates [[:Image:UT2004.jpg]].
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| − | * Links created to [[Project:Categories|categories]] will by default add the page to that category, and will not show any link at that spot in the text. If you want to create a link to a category page, insert a colon at the start of the link. For example, <tt><nowiki>[[:Category:Weapons]]</nowiki></tt> creates [[:Category:Weapons]].
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| − | * Very rarely you may need to link to a page that is not part of the wiki, for example, to create a link to a game review. In such cases, you must create an [[#External Links|external link]]. If you want to make the link look like a local link, you can embed the link in a span with the plainlinks class. So <tt><nowiki><span class=plainlinks>[http://www.beyondunreal.com/content/articles/86_1.php UT2004 review]</span></nowiki></tt> creates <span class=plainlinks>[http://www.beyondunreal.com/content/articles/86_1.php UT2004 review]</span>. This should '''only''' be used for links to BeyondUnreal, and should not be used to disguise external links.
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| − | | + | |
| − | ==Redirects==
| + | |
| − | Redirects are a special type of internal link, and are used to make readers completely bypass that page and instead open a different page.
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| − | | + | |
| − | An example of a redirect page is [[UT2004]]; if you follow this link you will instead pull up the page [[Unreal Tournament 2004]]. A message at the top of the page lets you know that you were "Redirected from UT2004". If you really want to see the "UT2004" page, you can click on the link in the "Redirected" message.
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| − | | + | |
| − | To turn a page into a redirect you would replace the entire page contents with a single line like:<br>
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| − | <tt><nowiki>
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| − | #REDIRECT [[Unreal Tournament 2004]]
| + | |
| − | </nowiki></tt><br>
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| − | The ''only'' other text that can be included on the page are [[Project:Categories|category]] links. Any permanent redirect pages should be placed into one of the [[:Category:Redirects|redirect categories]], so that other editors know why the redirect page exists.
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| − | | + | |
| − | There is no reason to add a label to the link, since readers will never see it. The link should include an anchor if the redirect should take the readers somewhere other than the top of the page. For example, the redirect page [[UT2004 Maps]] contains the redirect link <tt><nowiki>[[Unreal Tournament 2004#Maps]]</nowiki></tt> so that readers who follow the link end up at the most relevant part of the [[Unreal Tournament 2004]] page, instead of just ending up at the top of the page.
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| − | | + | |
| − | Most redirect pages are created automatically. Every time a page is moved, the original page name is turned into a redirect to the new page name. This ensures that any existing links to the page were not broken by the page move. The "What Links Here" feature (lower left corner of any page) can be used to identify internal links; correcting those links to point to the new page is highly recommended. If you wish to get rid of the original page completely, a [[Project:Deletion Policy#Proposed Deletion|proposed deletion]] can be used to request that an [[Project:Administrators|administrator]] delete the page. Before doing so, be sure to fix all internal links to the original page. However, in cases where there are ''external'' links to the original page, the deletion request may be denied.
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| − | | + | |
| − | ==External Links==
| + | |
| − | External links are links made to sites other than the wiki. There is a different syntax for external links. Also, external links have an additional arrow added to the displayed link; this is done to warn readers that following the link will take them to a different site.
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| − | | + | |
| − | {| class="wikitable"
| + | |
| − | ! You Type !! You See
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| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>http://forums.beyondunreal.com/</nowiki></tt>||http://forums.beyondunreal.com | + | |External link,<br /> |
| | + | different title |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[http://mediawiki.org MediaWiki]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[http://mediawiki.org MediaWiki] |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[http://forums.beyondunreal.com/]</nowiki></tt>||[http://forums.beyondunreal.com] | + | |External link,<br /> |
| | + | unnamed |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[http://mediawiki.org]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[http://mediawiki.org] |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | |<tt><nowiki>[http://forums.beyondunreal.com/ BeyondUnreal Forums]</nowiki></tt>||[http://forums.beyondunreal.com/ BeyondUnreal Forums] | + | |External link,<br /> |
| − | |}
| + | same host unnamed |
| − | | + | |<tt><nowiki>[http://{{SERVERNAME}}/pagename]</nowiki></tt> |
| − | ==Interwiki Links==
| + | |[http://{{SERVERNAME}}/pagename] |
| − | Adding an interwiki prefix to a regular link will create a link to that other wiki. These can include labels as well.
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | Common Interwiki Prefixes:
| + | |
| − | {|
| + | |
| − | ! Link Prefix !! Links To !! Example !! Result
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| | |- | | |- |
| − | | unreal || Unreal Engine Wiki || <tt><nowiki>[[unreal:Unreal Tournament 2004]]</nowiki></tt> || [[unreal:Unreal Tournament 2004]] | + | |Interwiki link |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[[Wikipedia:MediaWiki]]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[[Wikipedia:MediaWiki]] |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | | uadmin || Unreal Admin Wiki || <tt><nowiki>[[uadmin:Redirection and Compression]]</nowiki></tt> || [[uadmin:Redirection and Compression]] | + | |mailto |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>mailto:info@example.org</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |mailto:info@example.org |
| | |- | | |- |
| − | | wikipedia || English Wikipedia || <tt><nowiki>[[wikipedia:Unreal Tournament 2004|]]</nowiki></tt> || [[wikipedia:Unreal Tournament 2004|Unreal Tournament 2004]] | + | |mailto unnamed |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[mailto:info@example.org]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[mailto:info@example.org] |
| | + | |- |
| | + | |mailto named |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[mailto:info@example.org info]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[mailto:info@example.org info] |
| | + | |- |
| | + | |mailto named with subject line |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>[mailto:info@example.org?Subject=URL%20Encoded%20Subject info]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | |[mailto:info@example.org?Subject=URL%20Encoded%20Subject info] |
| | + | |- |
| | + | |redirect |
| | + | |<tt><nowiki>#REDIRECT [[Main Page]]</nowiki></tt> |
| | + | | → [[Main Page]] |
| | |} | | |} |
| | + | |
| | + | {{admin tip|tip= |
| | + | Which protocols (like http:) are allowed for links is controlled by the [[Manual:$wgUrlProtocols|$wgUrlProtocols]] setting. |
| | + | }} |
| | + | |
| | + | {{admin tip|tip= |
| | + | To remove the 'external link image' from next to each of the external links, add the following to the page located at <code>MediaWiki:Monobook.css</code> on your wiki. |
| | + | |
| | + | <pre> |
| | + | #bodyContent a.external, |
| | + | #bodyContent a[href ^="gopher://"] { |
| | + | background: none; |
| | + | padding-right: 0; |
| | + | } |
| | + | </pre> |
| | + | }} |
| | | | |
| | ==See Also== | | ==See Also== |
| − | * [[metawikipedia:Help:Link|Wikimedia help page on links]]
| |
| − | * [[metawikipedia:Help:Piped Link|Wikimedia help page on link labelling]]
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| − | * [[metawikipedia:Help:URL|Wikimedia help page on external links]]
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| − | * [[metawikipedia:Help:Redirect|Wikimedia help page on redirects]]
| |
| | * [[Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] | | * [[Project:Style Guide|Style Guide]] |
| | + | |
| | + | [[Category:Help|{{PAGENAME}}]] |
To add an internal link, enclose the name of the page you want to link to in double square brackets. When you save the page, you'll see the new link pointing to your page. If the page exists already, it is displayed in blue, empty pages are displayed in red. Selflinks to the current page are not transformed in URLs but displayed in bold.
The first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link will have a similar effect as typing a space, but is not recommended, since the underscore will also be shown in the text).
