Wikipedia:Shortcut

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"Shortcuts" in Wikipedia are a specialized type of redirection page that can be used to get to a Wikipedia project reference page more quickly. Lists of available Wikipedia shortcuts can be found at WP:WP = Wikipedia:Shortcuts, WP:WPR = Wikipedia:Project shortcuts, and WT:WT = Wikipedia:Shortcuts to talk pages.

Contents

[edit] Procedures


Example: #redirect [[Pagename]] {{R from shortcut}}.

[edit] How to use Wikipedia shortcuts

A Wikipedia shortcut can be entered into the Wikipedia search box to quickly bring you to a reference page.
For example, you can type "WP:R" into the search box and click the "Go" button to get to the Wikipedia "Redirect" reference page, instead of having to type "Wikipedia:Redirect".

Alternatively, you can use the shortcut in the URL (web address). For example, you are currently viewing the Wikipedia:Shortcut page in English. The URL for the English-language page is:

http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/h/o/Wikipedia%7EShortcut_2a54.html

You could get from here to the Wikipedia:Redirect project reference page by replacing "Wikipedia:Shortcut" with "WP:R" in the URL (web address) field (followed by "Enter").

Shortcuts are presented in all capital letters ("All-Caps"), but the search box is case-insensitive. For example, in the search box, you can type "wp:r" instead of "WP:R".

However, using the URL method typically requires that you match the capitalization of the shortcut itself.

[edit] Adding shortcut link boxes

A shortcut link box can be added to a page by placing {{Shortcut|[[WP:<x>]]}} at the top of the text while editing. A note from the "shortcut template" page:

Please do not use this template on other templates, e.g. to state that the shortcut to Template:Foo is in fact {{Foo}}. There's no need to state the obvious like that, each template uses its own name as a shortcut, by default.

Guidelines with shortcuts pointing to them typically use {{guideline|[[WP:<x>]]}} instead of {{Shortcut}}, for an example see above. Another example is {{Style-guideline|[[WP:<x>]]}}, see also Wikipedia header templates.

[edit] How to create a shortcut

For an existing page like Wikipedia:Template Standardisation create the desired new WP:TS page with a single line: (example, this shortcut already exists)

#REDIRECT[[Wikipedia:Template Standardisation]] {{R from shortcut}}

Many shortcuts are acronyms, others are abbreviations, quite a lot are simply WP:BAD, but technically they are redirections.

[edit] Changing shortcuts

Technically that's easy, click on the shortcut wherever it is, on the page it leads to (a shortcut is a redirect) click on the "redirected from" link (forcing &redirect=no), edit the target #REDIRECT [[Wikipedia:Whatever]], then add {{R from shortcut}} if that expression doesn't already appear. But there are some potential traps and pitfalls:

  1. If the shortcut is already listed on WP:WP or a similar list like WT:WT please update that entry showing the new target page.
  2. If the old target page mentions its shortcut, then that also should be updated, typically in {{Shortcut}} or similar Wikipedia header templates.
  3. Above all check the shortcut backlinks with "what links here"; changing a shortcut used elsewhere can be highly disruptive.
  4. If it has no backlink folks might still use it directly with search forms, if you're not 100% sure that the old target is unused; so ask about it on the shortcut's talk page.
  5. For controversial cases there is a "redirects for deletion" procedure WP:RFD.

[edit] List of shortcuts

An incomplete list of shortcuts can be found at Wikipedia:Shortcuts, and as expected this page has itself various shortcuts like WP:WP, WP:CUTS, or just WP:.

Other shortcuts for shortcut lists are WP:WPR with some Wikipedia:Project shortcuts and WT:WT with some Wikipedia:Shortcuts to talk pages. Obviously many shortcuts are (ab)used to make a WP:POINT and best described by WP:WOTTA.

On Meta shortcuts start with WM:, the list is at m:WM:WM. As shown, links to shortcuts on other projects work as expected, but redirects (incl. shortcuts) to pages on other projects won't work - this former feature was abused and hence it has been disabled.

Use special pages to find uncategorized or unlisted pages starting with a given prefix, e.g. Special:Prefixindex/CAT: for some category shortcuts.

[edit] List of prefixes

Pseudo-namespaces sometimes used include:

Wikipedia:
WP: Wikipedia: (in rare cases, User:)
WT:, WPT:, WP talk: Wikipedia talk:
Special talk: Wikipedia talk:Special
WPP: Wikipedia:WikiProject
MOS:, MoS:, Mos: Wikipedia:Manual of Style
Me:, ME: Wikipedia:WikiProject Middle-earth
Category:
CAT:, C: Category:
Portal:
P: Portal:
Template:
T:, TP: Template: or Template talk:
Help:
H: Help:

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/h/o/Wikipedia%7EShortcut_2a54.html"