Help:Special pages
<languages /> Template:PD Help Page Template:Special page <translate> Special pages are pages that are created by the software on demand. They are located in their own [[<tvar name=ns>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Namespaces</tvar>|namespace]] (<tvar name=special>Special</tvar>) and are not editable directly as other pages.
Some special pages depend on the [[<tvar name=pref>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Preferences</tvar>|preferences]] that have been set by a user, e.g., the number of titles which is displayed on a user's [[<tvar name=watchlist>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Watchlist</tvar>|watchlist]].
Editing Special namespace pages
The <tvar name="1">Special:</tvar> namespace stands for special pages generated by MediaWiki. There is no matching talk space. The special pages are not made up of wikitext and are therefore not editable like other pages might be.
They usually contain [[<tvar name=1>Help:System message</tvar>|system messages]] from MediaWiki namespace, which are editable by [[<tvar name=2>Special:MyLanguage/Interface administrators</tvar>|interface administrators]].
Linking, transcluding, or redirecting to a special page
You can [[<tvar name=1>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Links</tvar>|link]] a special page as you would do for any other internal page; e.g. <tvar name="3">[[Special:Diff|see diff page]]</tvar>. Some special pages can take a parameter value after a slash character; e.g. <tvar name="4">[[Special:Diff/123]]</tvar> provides “123” value to <tvar name="param">diff</tvar> [[<tvar name=2>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Parameters to index.php</tvar>|URL parameter]].
Some special pages are [[<tvar name=1>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Transclusion</tvar>|transcludable]], some other ones are not. For example, you may transclude the list of [[<tvar name=2>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Recent changes</tvar>|recent changes]] with <tvar name="3">{{Special:RecentChanges}}</tvar>.
You cannot create a [[<tvar name=1>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Redirects</tvar>|redirection]] towards a special page: it will display a link towards the page instead of directly redirect to it. However, some special pages have [[<tvar name=2>#Page name alias and localization</tvar>|built-in aliases which redirect to them]].
Page name alias and localization
Unlike other namespaces, the first heading of pages in “Special:” namespace is not consistent with page name in the URL: the “Special:” prefix is not displayed, and the heading text may vary a bit from page name.
Each special page has a default English name, but it mays also have aliases, i.e. other special page names which redirect to it. Besides, on non-English wikis (i.e. <tvar name="var">$wgLanguageCode</tvar> different from “<tvar name="code">en</tvar>”), special page names are localized, and English names are aliases which redirect to the localized page name.
Note the localized aliases only work in one language per wiki, in addition to English ones; e.g. Italian special page names only work on Italian wikis. Multilingual wikis with [[<tvar name=1>Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Translate</tvar>|Translate extension]] only support English names.
The “Special:” namespace prefix itself may be localized depending on wiki content language.
List of special pages
[[<tvar name=special>Special:SpecialPages</tvar>|Special:SpecialPages]] shows a list of almost all special pages on a wiki. It is often linked in the [[<tvar name=nav>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Navigation#Toolbox</tvar>|toolbox]] on the side panel. </translate> Help:Special pages/list <translate>
See also
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[[Category:Help{{#translation:}}]]
