Help:Starting a new page
From The Muniment Room, a resource for social history, family history, and local history.
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General principles
- Search to see whether someone has written a similar page before you start one yourself. Choose the title carefully.
- Decide whether a separate page is justified; perhaps it is better to add the text to a related page (especially if the text is not very long); that page can always be split later, after it has grown.
- If nothing points to the new page, the page is isolated. Links to it will need to be added on other pages.
Starting a page from a link, or after a search
To start a new page, you can click a link to the new page. This takes you to edit mode of the non-existing blank page, which allows creation. You might not be able to create a new page unless you are logged in.
Another way to start a new page is to perform a search for the new title with the Go button (as you should have done before). When the search finds nothing, press "create the article".
Links to non-existing pages are common. They are typically created in preparation for creating the page, and/or to encourage other people to do so. They are red in colour.
Of course, you can also create the link yourself, in a related page, index page or your user page. However, it may be better to wait with creating links until after creating the new page, especially if the new link replaces one to an existing page. In this case, create the link but press Preview, instead of Save. From preview area, clicking the new link will create the new page (without updating the referring page).
Starting a page through the URL
Using the browser address bar to enter a URL to a new page is an easy way to start the new page process. Easier still is editing the pagename part of a URL for an existing page.
Using the sandbox
The sandbox can be used for temporary experimentation, and is emptied on a regular basis.
