Help:Introduction to navigating Wikipedia/3
Introduction
Navigating Wikipedia
Namespaces
The different types of pages
Searching pages
Tricks to find what you want
Page histories
See past revisions
Redirects and shortcuts
Redirecting traffic
Useful links
Handy pages for editors
Summary
Review of what you've learned
The search box is at the top of every page. Start typing, and it will begin to suggest pages you might be looking for — you can click on one to go directly to that page. Alternatively, if you type in a complete page title and hit ↵ Enter, you'll be taken straight to that page.
If you type a word or phrase that isn't an article title and hit ↵ Enter, you will see a full search page, which lists articles where your search term occurs. You can also reach this page by clicking the magnifying glass, or by typing something into the search box, then clicking the "containing..." link at the bottom of the list of suggestions. For example, you might do this if you wanted to search for occurrences of the word "Fish" across Wikipedia, rather than be taken straight to the article Fish.
The search page also allows you to select which namespaces to search in. You can choose a preset option (Default, Discussion, General Help, or All) or add/remove namespaces individually.
Categories
| organisms | ||
|---|---|---|
| / animals |
\ plants | |
| / dogs |
\ cats | |
Another useful way to find pages is by browsing categories grouping related pages, which are listed at the bottom of a page. They form hierarchy trees from generalized topics to more specific ones, so pages should have only the most specific applicable categories. For instance, do not add [[Category:Musicians]] to an article already categorized under [[Category:Irish musicians]].