Help:Categories

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This Help page contains technical information on categorising pages and creating categories.

See Help:Categorising Guidelines for some guidance on which categories to add where.
See Fanlore:Categories for general information about Fanlore's categorization protocol and sitemap.


Fanlore allows you to categorize pages by adding one or more category tags to the text. Adding these tags creates links at the bottom of an article. These links take you to the list of all pages in that category, making it easier to browse related articles.

How to Add a Page to the Categories

To add an article to a category, type the following at the bottom of the page you are editing: 

[[Category:NAME]]

where NAME is the name of the category you want to add. You can add as many category tags to the page as you like; the page will be listed in all of them. However, if you have added a page to a particular subcategory, there is no need to add its parent category as well.

Many templates include categories automatically.

If you're not sure where an article belongs, see Help:Categorising Guidelines.

How to Sort the Page Alphabetically in the Category

You can also specify an additional SORT parameter that dictates where the page will appear alphabetically within the category. Use the following markup: 

[[Category:NAME|SORT]]

For example, to sort Francesca Coppa in a category by LastName, FirstName: 

[[Category:People|Coppa, Francesca]]

Without the added 'Coppa, Francesca', the page would be listed under 'F' for 'Francesca Coppa'. When listed in the category the article title will still appear as Francesca Coppa.

To change the way an article sorts in every category it appears in, add this text to the page: 

{{DEFAULTSORT:SORT}}

For example, to sort The Holmesian Federation under H instead of T, add this text:{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmesian Federation}}

A fancy way to sort the article under the correct letter without the namespace is 

[[Category:Help|{{PAGENAME}}]]

Note: the SORT parameter does not affect how the page title is displayed, just how it is ordered. To change how a page title displays, use {{DISPLAYTITLE:title goes here}}. Note that DISPLAYTITLE can only change capitalization.

How to Link to Category Pages

To link to a category page, type 

[[:Category:NAME]]

For example, if you were linking to the category page for Help on Fanlore, you would type [[:Category:Help]], and the link would show up on the page as Category:Help.

If you want to display alternate text for the link, type 

[[:Category:NAME|TEXT]]

Here is an example of the same link to the category page for Help on Fanlore as above, but with alternative text: Super Fun Help Index!.

How to Create a New Category

In general, editors can create a new category if there are at least five existing Fanlore pages that can be added to that category when it is created.

Creating a category is just like creating any other page:

  1. Type "Category:Name" into the search box
  2. Click on the red link to open an edit window for the new page.
  3. Add the parent category, like this: [[Category:Parent]]
  4. Save the page.

What notes to include on the category page

Although the category's primary function is to generate a list of wiki pages and files, you can also include a few brief instructions and useful links for editors and readers, such as

  • the scope of the category (e.g. pages related to Doctor Who fandom)
  • links to templates that most pages in the category would need
  • links to relevant help pages
  • links to other categories that the reader might be looking for

How to Add a Category to the Category Hierarchy

In Fanlore's sitemap, categories are arranged hierarchically. To make a category the "child" or "subcategory" of another category, you can "categorize" the category, exactly like normal pages, by adding the text [[Category:Parent]] to the page. (Replace Parent with the actual name of the parent category.) Categories should be linked only to their parent this way, not to their grandparent, etc.

Categories can have more than one parent. For example, see Category:Merlin Podfic.

Once categories are created, you can always rearrange them in the hierarchy if it makes sense to do so.

"Top-level" or "main" categories are uncategorized. New top-level categories should not be created without consulting the Fanlore committee.

How to Move a Category

Categories can be moved like other pages. However, renaming a category page will not update the category on each page where it is used. For this reason, category names should be chosen carefully.

If the pages in a category use a template that includes the category, users with gardener privileges can move the category, then update the category in the template, and the pages will automatically appear in the new category. Otherwise, you will need to manually edit the category name in each page.

More Category Help

For any other questions, you can use the Talk page or contact the Fanlore Committee.

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