Help:Start a new page

There are numerous ways to begin a new page or, alternatively, to simply begin editing a blank page.

Does the page already exist?
Before you make a new page you should check to see if the page, or a similar page, already exists. There may also be an existing page that has some information about your topic. Enter appropriate search terms related to your topic in the search box (upper right side of the page) and click on Search. You should try a few different searches with various terms to try to be somewhat thorough.

Every name proposed for an ant that meets the requirements of the Zoological Code (see ICZN or Wikipedia) should already have a page of its own. Antwiki discourages creating new pages for these names. To understand why you can read Ant Name Pages.

Choosing a Page Name
The software will let you enter a page name that has hundreds of characters. Even so you should be a little conservative when choosing a page name. The terms you use should provide, as best as possible, a concise description of the page content. A short example will hopefully provide a good idea of what you should aim for when naming a new page. If I choose to write about ant nests in temperate forests I might name my page "Temperate forest ant nests." Perhaps even better would be "Temperate forest nests." The page name "Ant nests" would be to general. "Forest Ant Nests" is also too general since I have no intention of writing about Rainforest or Boreal forest ant nests.

You should not make new pages with a title that only contains ant names. Pages with titles that are only made up of ant names already exist Help:Naming_Species_Pages

Initial Page Creation Methods
The following is modified from this Mediawiki Manual editing page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page

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 for page creation. You might not be able to create a new page unless you are logged in. Notably this applies to the English Wikipedia. Another way to start a new page, on the English Wikipedia, which uses the w:MediaWiki:Nogomatch option, is to perform a search for the new title with the Go button (as you should have done before). When the search finds nothing, click on the link at the top of the page where it says "You searched for your search term".

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. Links are not only convenient for navigation, but also make people aware of the new page (those who read a related page and also those who watch the related page). New page links are not really broken as long as the name correctly identifies the intended content. (A new page link with a "wrong" or misspelled name, or that duplicates content found under another name is "broken", but in a different sense.)

New page links typically look different from links to existing pages. Depending on settings, a different color or a question mark is used. (Sometimes links to new pages are called "red links", the display option of one of the settings). Links to non-existent pages are created with New page name from the wiki editor. (In this case, the empty page "New page name" would be created).

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 an 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 URL for the new page displays the default 'no article' message (see MediaWiki:Noarticletext). The default page has the usual Edit this page link, which can be used to begin adding content.

An interwiki link to a non-existent page gives the same result, but is not recommended.

To get access to a MediaWiki project page, with the links at the edges but without the loading of a page, use a bookmark to a non-existing page. The default 'no article' page will display the edge links.

Creating an empty page
A new page is distinguished from a blank page: the latter has a page history. However, creating a new page is just like editing a blank page, except that a new page displays the text from MediaWiki:Newarticletext (which may vary by project).

Occasionally it is useful to create an empty page - For example a template can be made such that, depending on a parameter, it produces either just a standard text or also an additional text. This is done by having it call another template, of which the name is a parameter; one version of the other template contains the additional text, the other version is blank. See optional text.

To create an empty page, save a page with the wikitext __END__. This code will not be saved, it just prevents refusal by the system to create an empty page. Alternatively, first create a non-empty page, e.g. with just one character, then edit the page to make it empty. A page with one or more blank spaces at the end, including a page only containing one or more blank spaces, is not possible.

Non-existing pages showing info
Category and image pages are partly dynamically generated, and partly editable. A category page contains a list of pages in the category, an image page may contain an image and info from Commons. Thus if the page does not "exist" it may still show info.

The edit page of a "non-existing" category page shows the pages it contains. However, the edit page of the local page of an image on Commons neither shows the image, nor the editable content on Commons, not even in preview, it does not even indicate that viewing the page provides an image and other content from Commons.

A link to a "non-existing" category page is treated as a link to a non-existing page, even if the category is non-empty. A link to a "non-existing" local image page of an image on Commons is treated as a link to an existing page, e.g. Image:Cow-on pole, with horns.jpeg, except in the case of a link from an edit summary or log. An indication of the "non-existence" is the lack of a page history link and a related changes link.

Search Box
Type the name of the page you want to create into the search box, which is found on the upper right of every page. If your search cannot find a page with the name you entered you will see a line of text, with a link in red, that tells you you can create a page with that name with a simple click of the mouse.

Clicking on this link will take you to a new empty page. From there you are just a few steps away from creating your page.

URL
Enter a unique page name in the URL address bar, just after http://antwiki.org/ ). If there is more than one word in your title just type the terms like you would in a document, putting spaces between each word. Once you enter the name in the URL hit the enter or return key. This will lead you to a page that tells you this page does not exist and you will given an option, via a link, to "edit this page."

XXX Clicking on this link will take you to a new blank page. From there you are just a few steps away from creating your page. XXX

An Existing Red Link
You can create a link on an existing page for a page that does not exist. Any words placed between a set of double brackets are automatically linked to an Antwiki page that has that name. this would link to a page if entered in edit mode If the page exists the letters are blue. If the page does not exist the link is shown in red letters.

XXX Clicking on this link will take you to a new blank page. From there you are just a few steps away from creating your page. XXX