Making a new[[link]] that begins with a / (slash) is the common way to start a subpage. The page to which this link points is considered "subordinate" to its host page, and is titled and linked as[[Parentpage/Subpage]]. It is possible to create a subpage of a subpage (or a sub-subpage). At the top of each subpage or sub-subpage, you can find abacklink (a.k.a.breadcrumb) to the higher levels of the page.
Allowed uses
Test pages, following the rules of the sandbox.
User subpages—making extra pages within your own user namespace, e.g.[[User:Example/Draft of article]] or[[User:Example/About me]].
WikiProject subpages—for project-specifictemplates, discussion, or guidelines pages.
Portal subpages—for Portal-specific templates and content.
Dividing up Wikipedia process pages (e.g.,Wikipedia:Articles for deletion) which would otherwise get too big to be easily used.
Talk page archiving—both article Talk and User_talk pages are typically archived by moving discussion to numbered subpages. This allows the discussion to still be searchable, rather than requiring a hunt through thepage history.
Talk page adjuncts, such as an article's/to do list or the/Comments pages used forGood Article review. A particularly long and complicated{{ArticleHistory}} may also be put on an/ArticleHistory transclude page.
Temporary subpages in Talk namespace, usually formatted[[Talk:Example Article/Temp]] or[[Talk:Example Article/Dumping ground]], for example the kind of "/Temp" pages that can be created fromTemplate:Copyvio, which allow editors to begin creating an entirely new article from scratch while the copyright violation is being resolved. Avoid additional incoming and outward links that would make it appear as if this "/Temp" page is part of the encyclopedia: that is, in the case the Copyvio template is used, only this template, applied in article namespace, can link to the "/Temp" article from article or "main" namespace. SeeDisallowed uses below for further recommendations on how to avoid creating the impression a "/Temp" page is an encyclopedia page. Other common variants are[[Talk:Example Article/Draft]] and[[Talk:Example Article/Sandbox]]. Such temp pages are also sometimes used for template and Wikipedia-namespace development.
Writing drafts of major article revisions, e.g.,[[Example Article/Temp]] in the main namespace, as you can get there accidentally usingSpecial:Random—write these inyour sandbox or in thedraft namespace. SeeWikipedia:Workpages for detail. Also, avoid incoming and outward links regarding such "Draft:Example Article" page that might create the impression this is an encyclopedia page before it is, e.g.:
surround "category" links by "nowiki" tags, so that the temp page doesn't show up in a non-project categoryas if it were an article, example:<nowiki>[[Category:Incredibly smart people]]</nowiki>. The "nowiki" tags should be removed only when the "temp" content is moved to its place in article namespace. (This is anoutward link example.) Another solution: put a colon before word "Category", for example, write[[:Category:Shamanism]] instead of[[Category:Shamanism]]. In this case,it will be still linkable, but it will prevent the draft from appearing on category pages.
don't create navigational templates that make it appear as if this temp page is part of a series of encyclopedia articles, for example, don't do this:"... |[[John I of Doeland]] |[[Draft:John II of Doeland|John II of Doeland]] |[[John III of Doeland]] | ...". (this is anincoming link example).
Draft pages mistakenly created in the main namespace should be moved as appropriate without creating a redirect to it from mainspace, or deleted if they are inactive and redundant to the main article.
Using subpages for permanent content that is meant to be part of the encyclopedia.
Both reports can run with any number of initial characters as the "prefix" of thepagename, so excluding the final slash / character only adds the one pagename.
Only the "All pages with prefix" report shows subpages that are redirects. (The prefix search parameter does not find redirects.)
Only the "Search" report isnot case sensitive. (Prefix is not case sensitive,PrefixIndex is.)
From acontent point of view, rather than from a page name point of view, both reports require separate runs for each redirect.
To keep anactive display of subpages, see{{list subpages}}.To keep alink to an "All pages..." report, use{{subpages}} or [[Special:PrefixIndex]].To keep a link to a "Search" report, use a{{search link}}.
Outside of a single page name, there is no direct method for finding subpages.Standard subpagenames are searchable using theintitle parameter.
The MediaWiki software (which runs Wikipedia) supports selectively allowing or disallowing the creation of subpages in variousnamespaces.
The following namespaces in English Wikipedia donot have the subpage feature:
Main: This namespace (which is where articles reside) does not have this feature turned on because strictly hierarchical organisation of articles is discouraged, and other distinctions are better made by placing pages in other namespaces (e.g. discussions go in "Talk:", and templates in "Template:").
File: Unnecessary, and hierarchy among files is bad.
MediaWiki
However, the corresponding talk namespaces for the above spaces do allow subpages.
All other namespaces allow subpages. You can create a subpage simply by linking to the name of the subpage, prefixed with a slash (e.g.[[/Archive]]).
Some topics have a slash in the name, and should be named accordingly—e.g.OS/2 orProvidence/Stoughton Line. Care should be taken with the correspondingtalk pages, though, as subpagesare enabled in talk space—for example,Talk:OS/2 is treated by the software as a subpage ofTalk:OS.
History of subpages
Subpages were originally used on Wikipedia to differentiate between subjects to create topical hierarchies of articles, but this proved unworkable because articles tend to belong in more than one hierarchy. The present system ofdisambiguation was adopted instead, and theWikipedia:Do not use subpages policy had to be rigorously enforced and retroactively applied. Since 2004, thecategory system has supported hierarchical organization while still allowing an article to belong to multiple categories.
The subpage titles that became redirects when mainspace subpages were moved, are to be left alone (WP:RFD § K4), in case there are any existing links on external pages pointing to them.
Notes
^To add a Subpages link to your Tools in the sidebar,add this line: