Help:Categories
Categories are pages that group together pages which share similar purposes, subjects or other qualities. To add a page to a category, add it as a link at the bottom of the page. Some templates may also assign categories when added to a page.
Hidden categories are just that; categories usually not displayed on a page. This is done only for maintenance categories, like Category:TODO. To mark a category as hidden, add the magic word on that category's page.
If you want to simply link to a category on a page, put a : at the start of the page name, like this: [[:Category:Shaders]].
It may take some time for a page to appear or disappear from a category. Try adding ?action=purge at the end of the URL to nudge the server to do it faster. The wait time may be even longer if assigned through a template.
Note:Categories have been in a sort of frozen state since July 4-5 maintenance downtime, probably due to RunJobs.php not running at all. Attempts to contact Valve have been made.Sorting keys
A sort key allows you to change where in a category a page is listed. To change a page's location, simply add a | after the category name, and then specify where to put it. A sorting key can be as specific as needed. To make a page be categorized under the Es, just add |E. See Wikipedia:WP:SORTKEY for more information and uses.
See Also
- Special:Categories - Lists all categories.
- Special:CategoryTree - Insert a category and this will return categories included under it, categories this one is included under, and the pages in this category. Basically, it's visiting a category page but without actually visiting it.
- Special:MostCategories - Displays pages that have the highest number of categories.
- Special:MostLinkedCategories - Categories most frequently linked to by other categories (basically the biggest categories).
- Special:RandomInCategory - Takes you to a random page in a category.
- Special:TrackingCategories - Auto-generated categories.
- Special:UncategorizedCategories - Lists categories that are not categorized under any others.
- Special:UncategorizedFiles - Lists files that are not listed under any categories.
- Special:UncategorizedTemplates - Lists templates that are not listed under any categories.
- Special:UnusedCategories - Lists categories with no pages in them.
- Special:WantedCategories - Categories that are linked to a lot, but don't officially "exist". This list is not crucial. A category does not need a description to function.