Categories are one of the ways we organize the articles on the site so that our readers can find information they need quickly. The category system we use is hierarchical in a folder tree like setup, with Category:Categories on the top. Articles are placed in the best category possible, and occasionally multiple categories if the circumstances call for it.
Current Category SystemEdit
An alphabetical listing is also available at Special:Categories.
Before creating a new category, check whether or not there is already an appropriate category.
How to use CategoriesEdit
To place an article in a category, you simply insert a link to the category on the top of the page: for example, [[Category:Example]] would add the page to a category named "Example". You can also specify an additional sortkey parameter that dictates where the page will appear, alphabetically, within the category. This is achieved by using the following markup: [[Category:Example|Categories]], in which case the page would be sorted using "Categories" as the sortkey.
Without any sortkey, the page will be sorted using SORTABLECORENAME. Therefore, the page will be sorted according to the main section of the article's name, omitting any "The" or "A" at the beginning of the name. This is a UESP-specific change that was introduced in April 2009; prior to that, the site's categories worked the same way as all other wikis, namely the default sortkey was FULLPAGENAME. With this new default, most articles should no longer need to have any sortkey provided. However, until all of our articles are updated, many unnecessary sortkeys will remain in use.
If a sortkey needs to be provided for a page, a second option (in addition to [[Category:Example|Categories]]) is to use DEFAULTSORT. For example, [[Category:Example]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Categories}} would have the same effect as the first example. DEFAULTSORT is useful when an article belongs to multiple categories: a single DEFAULTSORT tag will change the default sortkey for every category used on the article. The other reason to use DEFAULTSORT is that it applies to any categories that are indirectly added to the article using templates. If both DEFAULTSORT and a manual sortkey are provided, then the manual sortkey takes precedence. For example, using [[Category:Example|Example]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Categories}} the article would be sorted under "Example".
If an article is a particularly important member of a category, then it may be appropriate to make the article always appear at the start of the category, before any other articles that are listed in the category. This is accomplished by starting the sortkey with a space, for example [[Category:Example| Categories]] -- note the space that appears before the word "Categories".
Creating a Category PageEdit
If you have added a category to a page, but the link to the category shows up in red, then that means that you have created a new category. If you intended to create the new category, then you will also need to create the page for the category: every category is also a standard wiki-style article. The article portion of the category is where the introductory text explaining the category contents is provided; it is also where the category's position in the overall category tree is specified. Clicking on the red link takes you directly to the edit box for creating the category page. The most important item to enter when creating a new category is the parent category. For example, if you are creating a new category [[Category:Oblivion-Items-Examples]], then the category's parent would be the Category:Oblivion-Items. To add that category, you would insert [[Category:Oblivion-Items]], or possibly [[Category:Oblivion-Items|Examples]] (to make the new category be sorted under "Examples" in the parent category).
See AlsoEdit
- Categories FAQ on Wikipedia
- Categorization FAQ on Wikipedia
- Help:Categories on MediaWiki
- Help:Category on Wikipedia
- Categorization Policy on Wikipedia