This page sets forth the nuts and bolts of creating a page in anynamespace – themechanics of doing so. Please note that onlylogged in users can create pages innon-talk namespaces.
This page does not delve into the reasons one should or should not create a page, what to consider before doing so, or what content would or would not be appropriate. For a more general treatment regarding the DOs and DON'Ts ofarticle creation, please seeHelp:Your first article. For a general introduction to contributing, seeWikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia and consider taking a tour through theWikipedia:Tutorial. For a guided process to create an article (and for which these technical instructions will not be needed), see thearticle wizard andWikipedia: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.
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 thatdoes not yet exist, usually by clicking on ared-colored link (which denotes non-existence, as opposed to ablue link which, with some exceptions, indicates the linked page exists). Creation is simple: upon clicking ared link, you will be transported to a blank page. Once there, enter any text and then click thePublish changes button. That's it; the page should have been created.
Many pages are created after a user sees anexisting 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 nottechnically restricted and is notcreation 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 theskin you have set):
Often you will want to have easy continuing access to a page you create. One way is to save a link at youruser page, or sometimes, on youruser 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 thePublish 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 theURL 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:
Only encyclopedia articles are created without anamespace prefix. All pages outside of thearticle 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 theCategory namespace will not work unless a colon is also placedbefore 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 areuploaded, 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 thepublic domain or which bear a free copyright licensecompatible with the free licenses borne by Wikipedia's content should generally be uploaded to theWikimedia 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 byadministrators and certain other users withhigher access levels:Special pages,MediaWiki pages,Module pages andEducation Program pages. However, any user may create talk pages of these namespaces, except for those in the Special namespace, whichdo not have direct talk pages at all.
