Help:Moving a page

From KnitWiki

There are several reasons why you might wish to rename a page (one that you have found or created):

• The title has been misspelled.
• The title does not follow the wiki's naming conventions
• The scope of the article has been reduced, extended or otherwise changed.

The terms "rename" and "move" mean the same in this context. They just refer to different ways of doing the same thing.

• rename: keep the page but give it another name; the page history is now attached to the new name; the renaming with the specified reason is recorded as an entry in the page history; a new page with the old name is created which redirects to the new name; the edit summary of the page creation records the renaming with the specified reason.

• move: move the contents and the page history to a new page, adding an entry for the move; change the old page into a redirect; change the page history into one that only records the renaming.

A page can not be moved if it is in the image or category namespace. To change the name of an image, one needs to upload it again, and copy the image description. To change the name of a category, one needs to change all category tags, and copy the editable part.

Contents 1 How to 2 Page histories 2.1 Moving redirect pages 3 Move-protected pages 4 Other notes 5 Undoing a move 6 Swapping two pages

How to

Note that you have to be logged in to rename a page this way.

With the correct page displayed, click on the "Move" tab near the top of the page. You'll be asked for a new name for the page, and given the option to also move the page's talk page. NOTE: Unless you know what you're doing, it's safest to say yes.

The reason for the move can be given, like an edit summary.

Click the "move page" button and the page will be renamed to the new title. The old title will become a redirect page, so any links to the old title will still go to the new page. However, note that double redirects (pages that redirect to the original page), will not automatically follow to the new page, so you will have to refer them manually (as explained below)

Page histories

The "move page" function keeps the entire edit history of the page, before and after the move, in one place, as if the page were always named that way. So, you should never just move a page by cutting all the text out of one page, and pasting it into a new one; old revisions, notes, and attributions are much harder to keep track of if you do that. (But you may have to if, for instance, you're splitting a page into multiple topics. If you do, be sure to include a note in the new page's edit summary and talk page stating where you took the text from.)

Moving redirect pages

A page that is a redirect can be moved like any other page. This is however not advised.

Move-protected pages

Pages that are protected from editing are automatically protected from moves. If you need to move a page please contact an administrator.

Other notes

Redirects to redirects aren't automatically followed (this prevents infinite loops and spaghetti linking). Always check the What links here for your page, and if there are multiple levels of redirects, go fix the links to point to the new location directly. But this can be troublesome because your new moving might be reverted soon. Take some time to make sure there is no objection to your moving; always check the talk page first.

Avoid moving a page while the edit box of the corresponding Talk page is open: when you hit "Save page" you overwrite the redirect to the new talk page (you do not get the usual warning that the page has been edited while your edit box was open) and get a duplication of the contents of the talk page, with your latest addition added to the old instead of the new one.

It is useful to copy the message "Page ... moved to ..." to the new talk page, especially if there has been discussion about the name of the page.

Moving a watched page does not show up on the watchlist; after the move both the old and the new name are watched.

Undoing a move

Normally, to undo a move from page A to page B, simply:

1. move page B back to page A
2. list page B (now a history-free redirect) on your project's "votes for deletion" (or "speedy deletion") page, or (Admins only) just delete it.

The software requires that, however, the redirect be pointing to the page you're moving it from. Therefore, if a vandal moved Page A to Page B to Page C, you would have to:

1. move page C to page B
2. move page B to page A

This doesn't work: move page C to page A.

If page A has subsequently been edited, or the move software is behaving weirdly, only an admin can sort things out:

1. delete page A (make sure it has no useful history - you may wish to add an explicit author credit on a talk page to compensate)
2. move page B to page A.
3. delete page B (should be a history-free redirect to page A)

Some large projects have a separate page (called "Requested Moves", or something like that) specifically for requesting help with these (and also for discussing potentially contentious) moves.

"Move wars" are highly unproductive, and leave vast numbers of pointless redirects littering the place, which some poor soul will have to fix.

Swapping two pages

To swap pages A and B, including history:

1. Move page A to page C (previously non-existing)
2. list A on the appropriate deletion page, or (Admins only) just delete it.
3. Move page B to page A (allowed because A is deleted)
4. delete B as above
5. Move page C to page B (allowed because B is deleted)
6. delete C as above

Again, some large projects have a separate page (called "Requested Moves", or something like that) specifically for requesting help with these (and also for discussing potentially contentious) moves.