A shortcut is a specialized type of redirect page that provides an abbreviated wikilink to a project page or one of its sections, usually from the Wikipedia namespace. They are commonly used on community pages and talk pages rather than in articles themselves. If there is a shortcut for a page or section, it is usually displayed in an information box labelled 'shortcuts:', as can be seen at the top of this page.
Lists of available shortcuts can be found at:
How to use a Wikipedia shortcut
A Wikipedia shortcut can be entered into the Wikipedia search box to quickly bring you to a project page. For example, you can type WP:R into the search box and then press the enter key (or click the magnifying glass icon), to get to the Wikipedia:Redirect page, instead of having to type in the complete phrase.
Alternatively, you can use a shortcut in the URL in your browser's address bar. For example, you are currently viewing the Wikipedia:Shortcut page. The URL for this page is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Shortcut. You could then get from here to the Wikipedia:Redirect page by replacing Wikipedia:Shortcut with WP:R in the address bar, followed by pressing the enter key.
Shortcuts are presented in all capital letters (ALL CAPS); however, the search box is case-insensitive. For example, in the search box, you can type wp:r, instead of WP:R. However, when using the URL method (or when making links) it is generally necessary to match the capitalization of the shortcut itself.
Readability
Shortcuts are often used on talk pages in their abbreviated form, without any piped links, decreasing readability for the general reader. For example, some editors are familiar with the bulk of the Wikipedia namespace shortcuts, even recognizing what they stand for on sight; however, others are faced with pages full of incomprehensible jargon, the meanings of which are not immediately decipherable, if the reader happens to be offline.
While shortcuts can help with linking, it is best, when referring to a project page, to be mindful of the general reader and not use the shortcuts as a title, without piping their links. For example, the piped link: WP:SHC|shortcuts, gives readers an idea of the subject of the target page, while just using the abbreviation: WP:SHC, is unintelligible to those unfamiliar with the term.
Small link boxes, listing the names of the page's shortcuts, appear at the top of many pages, especially those on policies and guidelines. A shortcut link box can be added to a page, by placing the template {{shortcut|WP:<x>}} at the top of the page's text, while editing.
The point of these template boxes is not to list every single redirect for any given page (indeed, that's what Special:Whatlinkshere is for); instead, they generally should list only one or two common and easily remembered redirects.
Guideline pages with shortcuts pointing to them typically use {{guideline|WP:<x>}} or the {{subcat guideline}} template, such as on this page, instead of the shortcut template {{shortcut}}. Another frequently used template is: {{MoS-guideline|WP:<x>}}.
To learn more about the different shortcut box templates and their functions, see documentation at {{shortcut}}. Among other things, there are templates for making boxes flow to the left and now, anchors are automatically added, making it much simpler to link to a page section.
The abbreviations "WP:" and "wp:" for the namespace "Wikipedia:" are automatically translated by the Wikipedia servers, so they work anyway regardless of redirects. Similarly "WT:" and "wt:" are automatically translated to the namespace "Wikipedia talk:". Thus WP:TS = Wikipedia:TS.
Note: The following is an example, the shortcut WP:TS already exists.
Say you want to create the shortcut WP:TS to an existing page like Wikipedia:Template standardisation. Then create the desired new Wikipedia:TS page with a single line:
- #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.
Please note, when creating a shortcut for a category, it is necessary to insert an additional colon (":") at the beginning of the link, as follows:
- #REDIRECT [[:Category:Redirects from shortcut]] {{R from shortcut}}
Procedures
- See also: Wikipedia:Template messages/Redirect pages
Shortcut class redirects should be tagged with {{R from shortcut}} so they will auto-categorize in Category:Redirects from shortcuts. Like this:
- #REDIRECT [[Pagename]] {{R from shortcut}}
Technically that's easy. All it takes is to 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:
- If the shortcut is already listed on Wikipedia:List of shortcuts or a similar list like Wikipedia:Shortcuts to talk pages, please update that entry showing the new target page.
- If the old target page mentions its shortcut, then that also should be updated, typically in {{Shortcut}} or similar Wikipedia header templates.
- Above all check the shortcut backlinks with "what links here"; changing a shortcut used elsewhere can be highly disruptive. If you do change a shortcut under these circumstances, you should be sure to change it in the pages that linked to it as well, so that they link to the old target. If they were used in any closed deletion discussions, it is not a good idea then to change the redirect because these discussion cannot be edited.
- 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.
- For controversial cases, go to Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion.
An incomplete list of shortcuts can be found at Wikipedia:List of shortcuts, and as expected this page has itself various shortcuts like WP:WP, WP:CUTS.
Other shortcuts for shortcut lists are WP:WPR for Wikipedia:List of shortcuts/Project shortcuts and WT:WT for 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.
The following abbreviations (namespace aliases) are automatically translated by the Wikipedia servers. They are case-insensitive (so wp: or wP: or Wp: have the same meaning as WP:).
| WP: |
Wikipedia: |
| WT: |
Wikipedia talk: |
| Project: |
Wikipedia: |
Commonly used pseudo-namespaces include the following. (These are case-sensitive, so mos: does not have the same effect as MOS:.)
| MOS: |
Wikipedia:Manual of Style |
| CAT: |
Category: |
| P: |
Portal: |
The following pseudo-namespaces are less commonly used, for a variety of reasons:
| T: |
Template: or Template talk: |
| H: |
Help: |
| C: |
Category: |
| Cat: |
Category: |
| MP: |
Main Page |
| MoS: |
Wikipedia:Manual of Style |
| Mos: |
Wikipedia:Manual of Style |