Using Categories

Overview

• Categories allow related pages to be grouped together easily.
• For example, if you have pages A, B, C and D, you could link A to B, C and D, and link B to A, C and D, and link C to A, B and D, and link D to A, B and C... or you could link A to category X, B to category X, C to category X and D to category X. You've created 4 links instead of 12. Category X will automatically link to A, B, C and D.
• The more related pages in a category, the better this works.

Categorizing a new page

• First, see if there is an existing category for the page.
• If so, create a link to the category at the bottom of the page. For example, this page is about using the wiki, so it belongs in the Wiki category:

[[Category:Wiki]]

• If a category belongs in more than one category, create a link for each category.

Creating a new category

• If no existing category really fits, make up a new category and create the link:

[[Category:Cetaceans]]

• Click on the category link and edit the category page.
  • Describe what belongs in the category. Example:

Whales, dolphins and related mammals.

• • If there's something similar that really belongs in a different but related category, point that out and link to the related category. Example:

Seals and walruses are listed under [[:Category:Pinnipeds|Pinnipeds]].

• • If the category belongs to a larger category (for example, Cetaceans are aquatic mammals), create a link to the larger category:

[[Category:Aquatic mammals]]

Linking to a category page

• To link to the Wiki category page, prepend a colon so that the parser sees a link (Category:Wiki) instead of a categorization:

[[:Category:Wiki]]

• To change the appearance of a category link, append a vertical bar and the desired text to display (Style guide):

[[:Category:Wiki|Style guide]]

Refactoring categories

• These pages will assist:
  • List of all categories
  • Pages without categories
  • Categories without pages
  • Categories without categories

See also:

• MediaWiki help on Categories