Help:Categories

A category is a software feature of MediaWiki that provides automatic indexes, that are useful as table of contents. Together with links and templates they can structure a project and aid navigation.



How can I categorize pages?
Any page can be put in a category by editing the page and adding a link to the category. Just type [[Category:]], and put the name of the category between the colon and the brackets.

Pages can belong to more than one category, by putting multiple category tags.

All categories will appear at the bottom of an article page, in a "Categories" box. Clicking the category name will take you to a Category description page which will list all articles and subcategories contained within that category. You may click "edit" on a category description page to add additional text or images to the top of the page above the subcategory lists, and to place the c

Clicking the word "categories" in that box will take you to Special:Categories, a list of all categories in the wiki.



How do I create subcategories?
A category becomes a subcategory when you edit the category description page to add a Category tag for a "higher level" category. There is no limit to the number of subcategories a category may contain, or to the number of levels of categories. It is possible (though rarely desirable) to create category "loops".

The root category on most wikis is called Category:Browse. It is good practice to build a complete Category Tree, ensuring that all categories on your wiki have a place as subcategories of Category:Browse or its descendants.



How do I link to a category page?
To create an internal link to a category page without placing the edited page into the category itself, you must put a colon before the word "category":
 * Category:Category name



Can I redirect a category to another category?
No -- attempting to redirect a category will not work correctly. What you can do is add a notice (such as Wikia:Template:Category redirect) to ask users to change to another category anything that is or might be in the category concerned. (See Wikipedia:Template talk:Category redirect for discussion.)



Where can I see the currently used categories?
You can see a list of all currently used categories for each Wikia at Special:Categories. This list also displays how many pages are within each category.



What is the Category Tree extension?
Special:CategoryTree is an alternate way to display the contents of a category. It can be transcluded in other pages. See mw:Extension:CategoryTree for details.

The extension also adds the ability to expand subcategories on a category page, allowing you to see further subcategories.