Scratchpad:Shortcut

A shortcut is a specialized type of redirect page that provides an abbreviated wikilink to a project page or one of its sections, usually from the namespace (i.e., the Project namespace). They are commonly used on community pages and talk pages rather than in articles themselves. If there is a shortcut for a page or section, it is usually displayed in an information box labelled shortcuts:, as can be seen at the top of this page.

Shortcuts are created for the convenience of editors. It is possible to create a shortcut for any page at all.

The existence of a shortcut does not imply or prove that the linked page is a policy or guideline.

How to use a Scratchpad shortcut
A shortcut can be entered into the  search box to quickly bring you to a project page. For example, you can type   into the search box and then press the enter key (or click the magnifying glass icon), to get to the   page (this page), instead of having to type in the complete phrase. Alternatively, you can use a shortcut in the URL in your browser’s address bar. For example, you are currently viewing the   page. The URL for this page is""You could then get from here to the   page by replacing   with   in the address bar, followed by pressing the enter key.

Shortcuts are presented in all capital letters (ALL CAPS); however, the search box is case-insensitive. For example, in the search box, you can type  , instead of  . However, when using the URL method (or when making links) it is generally necessary to match the capitalization of the shortcut itself.

Readability
Shortcuts are often used on talk pages in their abbreviated form, without any piped links, decreasing readability for the general reader. For example, some editors are familiar with the bulk of the namespace shortcuts, even recognizing what they stand for on sight. However, others are faced with pages full of incomprehensible jargon, the meanings of which are not immediately decipherable, if the reader happens to be offline.

While shortcuts can help with linking, it is best, when referring to a project page, to be mindful of the general reader and not use the shortcuts as a title, without piping their links. For example, the piped link   gives readers an idea of the subject of the target page, while just using the abbreviation    is unintelligible to those unfamiliar with the term. For this reason, many shortcuts are also created as common English words that are easily identifiable and memorable (e.g.,  ).

Link boxes
Small link boxes, listing the names of a page’s shortcuts, appear at the top of many pages, especially those on policies and guidelines. A shortcut link box can be added to a page, by placing the template  at the top of the page’s text, while editing.

The point of these template boxes is not to list every single redirect for any given page (indeed, that’s what Special:WhatLinksHere is for). Instead, they generally should list only one or two common and easily remembered redirects.

Guideline pages with shortcuts pointing to them typically use ' or the wikipedia:Template:subcat guideline template, such as on this page, instead of the shortcut template '. Another frequently used template is: wikipedia:Template:MoS-guideline.

To learn more about the different shortcut box templates and their functions, see the documentation at Template:Shortcut. Among other things, there are templates for making boxes flow to the left and now, anchors are automatically added, making it much simpler to link to a page section.

How to create a shortcut
The abbreviations SP: and sp: for the namespace Scratchpad: are automatically translated by the Wikia servers, so that they work anyway, regardless of redirects. Similarly ST: and st: are automatically translated to the namespace Scratchpad talk:. Thus SP:SC = Scratchpad:SC and SC = Scratchpad talk:SC.

The following is an example, the shortcut SP:SC already exists.''

Say you want to create the shortcut SP:SC to an existing page like Scratchpad:Shortcut. Then create the desired new Scratchpad:SC page with a single line:


 *  #REDIRECT Scratchpad:Shortcut 

Many shortcuts are acronyms, others are abbreviations, quite a lot are simply bad, but technically they are all redirects.

Please note, when creating a shortcut for a category, it is necessary to insert an additional colon (“:”) at the beginning of the link, as follows:


 *  #REDIRECT Category:Redirects from shortcut 

Procedures
Shortcut-class redirects should be tagged with so they will auto-categorize into Category:Redirects from shortcuts. Like this:



Changing shortcuts
Technically, changing shortcuts is easy: But there are some potential traps and pitfalls:
 * Click on the shortcut, wherever it is on the page it leads to
 * Click on the “redirected from” link up towards the top of the page
 * this forces &amp;redirect=no to be added to the URL in the address bar
 * Edit the target #REDIRECT [&#91;Scratchpad:Whatever&#93;]
 * be sure to add if the redirect is truly a shortcut
 * While all shortcuts are redirects, not all redirects are shortcuts
 * 1) If the shortcut is already listed somewhere (e.g., Scratchpad:List of shortcuts), please update that list entry showing the new target page.
 * 2) If the old target page indicates its shortcut (for example, in a shortcut box), then that should also be updated, typically in  or similar header templates.
 * 3) If you wish to usurp an existing shortcut that’s already in use, you should take into account how active its target page is.
 * 4) * For example, if you just created a policy page in the Project namespace, and want a specific shortcut for it, but the one you want is already in use by another page in the Project namespace, it’s generally recommended to post a message on that page’s talk page asking the community if you may usurp their shortcut link, even if the page is tagged as being obsolete, or out of date.
 * 5) Most importantly, check the backlinks for the shortcut via
 * 6) * Changing a shortcut used elsewhere can be highly disruptive.
 * 7) * If you do change a shortcut under these circumstances, you should be sure to change it in the pages that linked to it as well, so that they continue to link to the old target.
 * 8) If it has no backlink, then people might still use it directly with search forms.
 * 9) * If you’re not 100% sure that the old target is unused, then ask about it on the shortcut’s talk page.
 * 10) For controversial cases, contact an Administrator.

List of shortcuts
An incomplete list of shortcuts can be found at Scratchpad:List of shortcuts, and as expected this page has itself various shortcuts (e.g., SP:CUTS, SP:SHORTCUTS, etc.).

Use special pages to find uncategorized or unlisted pages starting with a given prefix, e.g. Special:Prefixindex/Scratchpad: for shortcuts in the Project namespace, or Special:Prefixindex/Help: for shortcuts in the Help namespace, etc.

List of prefixes
The following abbreviations (namespace aliases) are automatically translated by the Wikia servers. They are case-insensitive (so sp: or sP: or Sp: have the same meaning as SP:).

Commonly used pseudo-namespaces include the following.

The links in the table go to a page where the term prefix is not used in the meaning it has in this section. Rather the term prefix there means, as it does for the search parameter, the beginning string of characters in a title, whether that string ends before, during or after the colon character in a page name.