The {{shortcut}} template places a notice on pages that there is a shortcut available. This may make it easier for people to easily link to pages (especially in the Appropedia and Help namespaces).
It may be appropriate for a bot to update piped links from time to time, in order to provide clearer results in search engines, if someone is using a search engine to look for a page. However, this is less of an issue with pages in the Appropedia and Help namespaces
Format[edit | edit source]
Capital letters are preferred for shortcut names. This is so that links to policy and help pages stand out clearly in discussions, e.g. Appropedia:BOLD. All-uppercase shortcut names also distinguish them from ordinary page names, and make shortcuts more legible when the {{Shortcut}} template displays them in a small font. This reflects the standard usageW in Wikipedia's help and project namespaces.
Internals[edit | edit source]
A shortcut is a type of redirectW,W page. Its content is very simple, for example the Appropedia:BOLD shortcut contains:
#REDIRECT [[Appropedia:Be bold!]]
where {{R from shortcut}} is a template that adds the shortcut to the Category:Redirects from shortcuts category.
Prefixes[edit | edit source]
Shortcut prefixes resemble namespace prefixes, but they do not correspond to literal namespaces on Appropedia. All the shortcut pages are actually pages in the main (article) namespace.
Ideally, shortcut prefixes should reflect the namespaces that the linked-to pages are in:
A: | Appropedia: (Project:) |
H: | Help: |
CAT: or C: | Category: |
P: | Portal: |
U: | User: |
(none) | shortcuts to articles |
but some shortcuts on Appropedia do not follow this rule.
Note that "A:" is an alias - that is, it will automatically direct the link to the "Appropedia:" prefix. It is impossible (and unnecessary) to edit a page starting with "A:". For any page in this namespace (e.g. Appropedia:Portfolios) the "A:" prefix link will also work (Appropedia:Portfolios).
List of shortcuts[edit | edit source]
Shortcuts in edit summaries[edit | edit source]
Shortcut links are useful in edit summaries, particularly when making formal edits. A formal edit is an edit which does not appreciably change the content of a page, but brings its form, layout, naming, etc. into better compliance with Appropedia's policies and guidelines. Edit summaries can contain wikilinks, but the limited space in an edit summary leaves little room for links to long page names. Linking to shortcuts saves space and is informative to other editors who may not be familiar with the policy or guideline that motivated an edit.
See also[edit | edit source]
- Commons:Commons:Shortcuts - shortcuts on Wikimedia Commons
- Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Shortcut - guidelines for shortcuts on the English Wikipedia
- Wikipedia:Wikipedia:List of shortcuts
- Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Redirects - Wikipedia's guidelines for redirects
- Wikipedia:Help:Redirect - technical information about redirects, how they work, how to edit