Help:Special page

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Special pages are pages that have no wikitext, but are generated by the software on demand. They are found in the "Special:" namespace. It is not possible to make a redirect to a special page, or to create normal pages beginning with the "Special:" prefix.

Special pages often take arguments. Sometimes these can be supplied after a slash (as in Special:Log/block); in other cases an index.php call is used, as in http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&days=3&limit=10. Also the content of some special pages depends on preferences that have been set by the user, e.g. classic or enhanced Recent Changes, the number of titles in Recent Changes and the watchlist, etc.

Some information is generated by toolserver rather than by special pages. See WP:Database reports.

The special pages can be accessed from Special:Specialpages, which is found in the sidebar of every page on Wikipedia. It is located in the Toolbox section.

Modifying special pages

Although special pages are not themselves editable, they generally contain standard text which is modifiable (although only by administrators). This text is contained in pages in the MediaWiki namespace. To find the right portion of text, see Special:AllMessages. To propose a modification, leave an {{edit protected}} request on the talk page of the relevant MediaWiki page. An administrator will make the change if it seems appropriate.

Available special pages

General information

Page listings

Tools

Latest changes

Users

Personal

Maintenance

Miscellaneous

Restricted special pages

The following pages can be accessed only by users with certain privileges.

Wikipedia Education Program

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Inactive

The following special pages are stored, but are not currently updated. Some of these pages have analogues on the WP:Toolserver.

Linking and transcluding

To create a link to a special page:

It can take a label:

  • [[Special:PrefixIndex/HMS|All HMSs]]All HMSs

To present the list on a page, transclude the name:

  • {{Special:PrefixIndex/HMS}}

However, some pages cannot be transcluded and would produce only a wikilink (e.g., {{Special:Random}}Special:Random). When non-existent pages are linked or transcluded, a red link is produced (e.g., Special:Example).

More information on transcludable special pages can be found at Wikipedia:Transclusion#Special pages.

Special pages in other languages

The term in the site language equivalent to English "Special" is used in each project. E.g.

  • "Speciaal" in Dutch
  • "Spezial" in German
  • "Speciális" in Hungarian
  • "מיוחד:" in Hebrew
  • "특수" in Korean
  • and "خاص" in Urdu

These also appear in the URLs. The English word "Special" always works, even on foreign-language sites.

See also