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<languages />
{{PD Help Page}}
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Categories, a software feature of MediaWiki, provide automatic indexes that are useful as tables of contents.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
You can categorise pages and files by adding one or more '''Category''' tags to the content text. These tags create links at the bottom of the page that take you to the list of all pages in that category, which makes it easy to browse related articles.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
== Summary ==
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<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Each of the pages in the '''Category''' [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Namespaces|namespace]] represents a so-called '''category''', a grouping of related pages, and contains an index for the pages of its category. For example, this page belongs to "{{ll|Category:Help}}". If you open the category page, you will see a link to this page there.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
When a page belongs to one or more categories, these categories appear at the bottom of the page (or in the upper-right corner, depending on the [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Preferences|skin]] being used).
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<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The category pages themselves contain 2 parts:
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
* at their beginning, an optional part may contain text that can be edited, like any other page,
* at their end, an ever present, automatically generated, alphabetical list of all pages in that category, in the form of links. In fact, in the Unicode sort order.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To assign a category to a page, simply add the link "<nowiki>[[</nowiki>Category:''Category name'']]" to the page's wikitext. The usual place to add it is at the bottom of the page.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To link a category page within a page as a normal wiki link (without adding the page to the category), prefix the link name with a colon.  For example: {{tmpl|0=<nowiki>[[</nowiki><ins>:</ins>$1]]|Category:Not in this category}}
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
A new category can be [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Starting a new page|created]] before assigning any page to it, in the same way as any other regular page.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Individual wikis may have their own top-level categories, such as [[w:Category:Contents|Category:Contents]] on Wikipedia.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
For a complete list of all categories which have at least one page, see [[Special:Categories]].
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
For a complete list of all created/edited categories, including the ones that don't have any pages, see [[Special:Allpages/Category:]] (note the colon at the end).
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Adding a page to a category==
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<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To add a page or uploaded file to a category, simply edit the page and add the following text (where '''''Name''''' is the name of the category you want to add it to).
</div>

<nowiki>[[</nowiki>{{ns:category}}:'''''<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Name</span>''''']]

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Any number of {{ns:category}} tags may be added to the page and the page will be listed in all of them.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">{{ns:category}} tags, along with {{ll|Manual:Interwiki#Interwiki links to other languages|interwiki language links}} placed in the sidebar, are usually added at the very bottom of the page for the convenience of other editors.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
On a categorised page, categories are displayed in the <code>{{int|pagecategories}}:</code> box strictly in the order they appear in the wikitext.
</div>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">(At least in MediaWiki 1.18.2) if a category is a subcategory of more than one parent, both hierarchies will be listed, but the tagged category will be stripped off all but one of these.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">This creates the potential for what appear to be duplicate entries if a category with multiple parents ''and'' one of its parents are both tagged on a page.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">For example suppose Maryanne is a subcategory of both Mary and Anne.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">If a page tags categories Maryanne and Anne then the Category breadcrumbs will show</span>

Anne 
 Anne
 Mary -> Maryanne

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
"Anne" appears to be duplicated, but what is meant is
</div>

Anne 
 Anne -> Maryanne
 Mary -> Maryanne

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This is a bug, and has been reported in [[phab:T35614]].
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
===Sort key===
</div>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">By default, a page is sorted within a category under the first letter of its name — ''without the namespace''.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Also, MediaWiki groups accented characters separately from their unaccented version, so pages starting by À, Á, Ä, will be listed under separate headings, instead of under heading A.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">(If you have shell access, these defaults can be changed using {{wg|CategoryCollation}}.)</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
A ''sort key'' specifies under which letter heading, and where in the category list, the page will appear.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
There are two ways in which you can customise the category sortkey:
</div>

* <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Generically, for all categories, by adding the {{ll|Help:Magic words#DEFAULTSORT|DEFAULTSORT}}  magic word on the page.</span> 
* <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">On an individual 'per category' basis, by placing the value inside the tag after a pipe character.</span> <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">For example, the tag below will add the page under heading <code>S</code>.</span>
 <nowiki>[[</nowiki>{{ns:category}}:'''''<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Name</span>'''''|'''''<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Sort</span>''''']]

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Whether or not sort keys are case-sensitive depends on your configuration settings.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The order of the sections within a category follows the Unicode sort order. The sort key does not change the page title displayed in the category.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Spaces and other characters are perfectly valid.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Creating a category page==
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<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Categories exist even if their page has not been created, but these categories are isolated from others and serve little purpose for organisation or navigation.
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<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
A category is created by creating a page in the '''''Category:''''' namespace. A category page can be created the same way as other wiki pages (see {{ll|Help:Starting a new page}}); just add "<code>{{ns:category}}:</code>" before the page title.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To avoid extra work, try searching within your wiki before creating a new category. The list of all categories can be found in <code>{{int|specialpages}}</code> in the "{{lcfirst:{{int|toolbox}}}}" box of the [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Navigation#Sidebar|sidebar]].
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Managing the category hierarchy==
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Categories may belong to other categories in a hierarchy. Since category pages are much like any other page, a {{ns:category}} tag may be added to the bottom of a category page.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
It is a good idea to organise all categories into a hierarchy with a single top level category. The category structure can take the form of a tree with separate branches, but more often will have a graph structure. Generally, there should be a contiguous chain of parent-child links between each category and the top level category.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
=== Category tree ===
</div>
{{main|Extension:CategoryTree#Usage|l1=<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">CategoryTree extension manual</span>}}

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Since MediaWiki 1.31, {{ll|Extension:CategoryTree|nsp=0}} extension is packaged by default, allowing [[Special:CategoryTree]] and {{tag|categorytree|open}} to provide a tree-like structure display for the categories.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Hidden categories==
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<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The categories that a page is in are normally listed at the bottom of the page. In MediaWiki 1.13+, a category can be hidden from this list by adding the [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Magic words|magic word]] "<code><nowiki>__HIDDENCAT__</nowiki></code>" to the category page.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Users can choose to see hidden categories in a separate <code>{{int|hidden-categories}}</code> list, by checking <code>{{int|tog-showhiddencats}}</code> in the <code>{{int|prefs-rendering}}</code> section of [[Special:Preferences]].
</div>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Hidden categories are automatically added to [[:Category:{{mediawiki:hidden-category-category}}]].</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">This category is specified in the system message [[MediaWiki:Hidden-category-category]].</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Linking to a category==
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To create a link to a category, use a leading colon before the category name (without this colon, the current page would be added to the category):
</div>

:<code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>:{{ns:category}}:Help]]</code> &rarr; '''[[:{{ns:category}}:Help]]'''

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To change the link text, write the text inside the link tag after a pipe:
</div>

:<code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>:{{ns:category}}:Help|<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Help category</span>]]</code> &rarr; '''[[:{{ns:category}}:Help|<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Help category</span>]]'''

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
[[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Redirects|Redirect pages]] that redirect to categories must also use the colon, otherwise they will be added to the category instead of redirecting.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
== Categories and templates (transcluded pages) ==
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
If you add <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline>[[Category:Cats]]</syntaxhighlight> inside a template (a transcluded page), ''both'' the template and pages which transclude this template will be categorised in Cats.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
If you want ''only the template'' to be categorised, you should ensure to write category marker inside <code>{{ll|Transclusion#Partial transclusion|<nowiki><noinclude></nowiki>}}</code> tags.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
If you want ''only the pages which use the template'' to be categorised, but not the template itself, you should ensure to write category marker inside <code>{{ll|Transclusion#Partial transclusion|<nowiki><includeonly></nowiki>}}</code> tags.
</div>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Due to caching issues, editing categories applied through templates may take a while to be visible everywhere.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">You can perform a [[Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Null edit|null edit]] on a page to update immediately its categories.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Redirecting a category==
</div>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Like any other pages (templates, files, etc), category pages can be redirected to other normal or category pages.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">However, '''unlike''' templates, files, and regular content pages, when you ''use'' a category, redirects will ''not'' apply ([[phab:T5311]]).</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">For example:</span>

{| class="wikitable"
! <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Premise</span>
! <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">What you write</span>
! <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Result (categorization)</span>
! <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Result (link behavior)</span>
|-
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr"><code>Category:A</code> redirects to <code>Category:B</code></span>
| <code><nowiki>[[Category:A]]</nowiki></code>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The page is added to <code>Category:A</code></span>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Visitors cannot access the category page (it immediately redirects to <code>Category:B</code>)</span>
|-
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr"><code>Category:A</code> redirects to <code>Category:B</code></span>
| <code><nowiki>[[Category:B]]</nowiki></code>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The page is added to <code>Category:B</code></span>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Visitors can access it via <code>Category:B</code> or <code>Category:A</code> (normal redirect behavior)</span>
|-
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr"><code>Category:A</code> redirects to <code>Category:B</code></span>
| <code><nowiki>[[:Category:A]]</nowiki></code>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The page is not categorized</span>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">A direct link to <code>Category:A</code> is created; normal redirect behavior applies on click</span>
|-
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr"><code>Category:A</code> redirects to <code>Category:B</code></span>
| <code><nowiki>[[:Category:B]]</nowiki></code>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The page is not categorized</span>
| <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">A direct link to <code>Category:B</code> is created; it behaves as expected</span>
|}

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Because this behavior may be confusing, some Wikimedia sites use a "category redirect" template to mark redirected categories, allowing manual or automated cleanup of pages categorised there.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Tracking categories==
</div>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Certain syntax issues, such as a broken image link, or too many expensive parser functions, can cause a page to be added to a tracking category.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Also, extensions may add pages to tracking categories, for example {{ll|Category:Pages with math errors}}.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">See {{ll|Help:Tracking categories}} for details.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
== Renaming a category ==
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
If you move a category, since [[#Redirecting a category|redirect will not work for categorising]], all category tags will be wrong, so you have to fix them.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==See also==
</div>
* {{ll|Category:Category extensions}}
* <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">{{ll|Extension:CategoryExplorer|nsp=0}} - if this is set to true, under the first list each category is listed again, [[w:breadcrumb (navigation)|breadcrumb]]-style, with all its parent categories, sorted alphabetically.</span>

[[Category:Help{{#translation:}}|Categories]]
[[Category:Category{{#translation:}}]]