Help:Moving Pages

Moving (renaming) a page means giving it another name. This is done by using the "Move" tab at the top. This tab is not visible if you are not logged in. After clicking the Move tab, simply enter the new name for the page you wish to move and click "Move Page". Normally you would want to leave the "Move associated talk page" option ticked.

If you move page "A" to a new title "B", this operation will do the following:

• Renames the title of page "A" as "B"
• Renames all the editing history of page "A" as "B"
• Creates a new page "A", whose content is a redirect to page "B"

The second point is important. By using the "Move" feature, you also move the editing history, which is desirable in most situations. The editing history allows people to see how the contents of the page were built up, and who contributed what. If you move contents around by copying and pasting (not using the move feature), you do not achieve this.

Because the move operation leaves behind a redirect (see Help:Redirects), it should not result in any broken links, however you might want to locate the pages or even other redirects which link in to the newly created redirect, in order to change their text to link directly to the new title. The "What links here" feature, which can be used through the link in the Tools (at top of the sidebar on the left) is useful during this operation.

Proposing a move

Deciding on a page title can be a difficult aspect of organizing the wiki, and one which can provoke debate. If the move you have in mind is one which might cause upset or could be considered controversial, you should propose the move first. Do this by leaving a note describing your reasons for the proposed move on the talk page of the page being moved.

Undo a move

As with almost all wiki editing, a move operation can be reversed (by any user). To reverse a move operation, simply move the page back, e.g. move page "B" back to "A".

The page title "B" will still be left behind, as a redirect from "B" to "A". Any user can remove the redirect and propose that the page be deleted. However the final deletion will require sysop privileges (see Help:Deleting Pages).

Moving a page without creating a redirect

Users with the suppressredirect user right can optionally move a page without creating a redirect. This is particularly useful when undoing a move.

When the right is enabled, one additional check box will appear when one needs to move a page.