Help:Moving pages
Moving a page changes the URL and display name of a page on the wiki. As such, it should only be done when necessary, but it is fairly simple to do.
Preparing to move a page
If a page does not obviously need to be moved or is a high-profile page, then {{Move}} should be put on the page in question and a discussion started on the talk page before the page is moved.
How to move a page
Moving a page can be done by clicking the "move" tab at the top of the page. (If this does not appear, you do not have permission to move pages yet.) This will take you to a form with several fields.
- The dropdown box is for selecting a namespace. This is typically left alone unless you're moving a userspace draft to mainspace.
- The top text box is for changing the title of the page, which has the old title by default. This is what needs to be changed.
- The bottom text box is for the reason you're changing the title. This should always be filled out.
- Unchecking the "Leave a redirect behind" box will cause a redirect to not be generated. This should always be checked off for templates and files not used on many pages, but is usually left on for articles. Note that this only appears once you are autopatrolled, and if you are not autopatrolled then {{Delete}} will have to be applied to the redirect at the old name so it can be deleted manually.
- "Watch source page and target page" adds the old and new titles to your watchlist.
- Not shown: checkboxes for moving the associated talk page and moving associated subpages. These should almost always be checked.
When all fields are filled out, click the blue "Move page" button.
After moving
Moving a page does not automatically change links. If the page/file is linked/used on a large number of pages, ask an admin to perform the move so they can run a text replacement afterwards. If it is not used on as many pages, go to the old title and click "What links here" on the sidebar to see any pages with links needing to be changed. You can also load this page before clicking the move button in order to reduce the time in which links are not up to date.
