A shortcut is a specialized type of redirect page that provides an abbreviated wikilink to an administrative page or one of its sections, usually from the Wikipedia namespace or Help namespace. These shortcuts' abbreviations in all-caps text are commonly used (linked or unlinked) on community pages and talk pages, but should not be used in articles themselves. If there are one or more shortcuts for a page or section, one or more will usually be chosen to be displayed in an information box on the right labelled Shortcut or Shortcuts, as can be seen at the top of this page.
On Meta, shortcuts start with WM:; the list is at m:WM:WM
Special:PrefixIndex can be used to find uncategorized or unlisted pages starting with a given prefix; for example, Special:PrefixIndex/CAT: will find some category shortcuts
Template:Useful links contains common shortcuts that are often used linked or unlinked in editor discussions or edit summaries; hover your mouse pointer over a shortcut to see a pop-up with its article's full name in it (see §See also)
How to use a Wikipedia shortcut
A Wikipedia shortcut can be entered into the Wikipedia search box to quickly bring you to a project page. For example, you can type WP:R or H:R into the search box and then press the enter key (or click the magnifying glass icon), to get to the Wikipedia:Redirect page, instead of having to type in the complete phrase.
Alternatively, you can use a shortcut in the URL in your browser's address bar. For example, you are currently viewing the Wikipedia:Shortcut page. The URL for this page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Shortcut. You could then get from here to the Wikipedia:Redirect page by replacing Wikipedia:Shortcut with WP:R in the address bar, followed by pressing the enter key. (If your browser has relative URL entry, simply prefix the shortcut with ./ instead of having to edit the existing URL.)
Shortcuts are presented in all capital letters (ALL CAPS); however, the search box is case-insensitive. For example, in the search box, you can type wp:r, instead of WP:R. However, when using the URL method (or when making links) it is necessary to match the capitalization of the shortcut itself.
As explained below, only the most common and easily remembered shortcuts should appear in link boxes.
Shortcuts are often used on talk pages in their abbreviated form, decreasing readability for the general reader. For example, some editors are familiar with the bulk of the most common Wikipedia namespace shortcuts, recognizing what they stand for on sight. Others, however, are faced with pages full of incomprehensible jargon, the meaning of which is not immediately clear. Shortcuts also are sometimes (ab)used to make a WP:POINT, best described by WP:WOTTA.
To avoid these problems, a good practice when creating shortcuts is to choose common English words that are easily identifiable and memorable. Another good practice is to be mindful of the general reader and use meaningful terms when citing an obscure shortcut. For example, the piped link[[WP:SHC|shortcut]] gives readers an idea of the subject of the target page, while the bare abbreviation [[WP:SHC]] is unintelligible to those unfamiliar with the term.
It should also be remembered that shortcuts are a convenience, not a substitute for titles. Shortcuts should not appear in "See also" sections, hatnotes or any other place where a page title is expected.
At the top of many pages, such as those on policies and guidelines, there are small link boxes listing the names of the page's shortcuts. These boxes can be added to a page by placing the template {{Shortcut|WP:X}} (for project namespace), {{Shortcut|H:X}} (for Help pages), or {{Shortcut|MOS:X}} (for the Manual of Style), at the top of the page's text. They can also be placed below a section header or inline within the page content, to link to a specific section or paragraph; in these cases, the boxes are placed above other templates such as {{See also}} and {{Main}}.
Policy and guideline pages with shortcuts pointing to them typically use {{Guideline|WP:X}}, such as on this page, instead of the shortcut template {{Shortcut}}. Another frequently used template is: {{MoS-guideline|MOS:X}}. For template redirects, {{Template shortcut}} is used instead.
The point of these template boxes is not to list every single redirect for any given page (that's what Special:WhatLinksHere is for). Instead, they generally should list only the most common and easily remembered redirects. One way to check which is the most common is through the Pageviews tool (replace the examples with the shortcuts you are testing).
To learn more about the different shortcut box templates and their functions, see the documentation for the {{shortcut}} template. Among other things, anchors are added automatically and there are options for making boxes flow to the left.
Shortcut names are almost always in uppercase. A shortcut is typically named using the following convention:
PREFIX:SUFFIX
In the above form, the prefix is typically one of the prefixes in the following section, and the suffix is an acronym or abbreviation of the redirect target.
If the target is a sub-page, the following conventions are common (where 'Y' is an additional sequence of uppercase characters or numerals):
Shortcuts that do not follow the above naming convention are discouraged, and are typically deleted.
The directory of shortcuts contains several conflicts for prefixes of subpages, often caused by a shortcut being 're-targeted' (modified to point to a new target page) without the shortcuts to subpages also being re-targeted. For example, WP:CJ was originally used for Wikipedia:Community Justice, and several shortcuts for subpages were created (WP:CJ/E & WP:CJ/M/1). After several years, 'WP:CJ' was updated to point to Wikipedia:Centijimbos, but the subpage shortcuts have not changed.
Before creating a shortcut, use Special:PrefixIndex to ensure that the same prefix is not being used for different purposes. e.g. WP:CJ has several existing uses. No additional confusion would be caused by creating a shortcut WP:CJQ, however creating a shortcut WP:CJ/Q would be adding to the existing mess. There is a long-standing feature request to resolve shortcut subpages automatically. (See T14980.)
Prefixes that shouldn't be used for other purposes include:
The following namespace aliases are automatically translated by the Wikipedia servers.
Alias
Namespace
WP:
Wikipedia:
WT:
Wikipedia talk:
Project:
Wikipedia:
Project talk:
Wikipedia talk:
Image:
File:
Image talk:
File talk:
TM:
Template:
They are case-insensitive (so wp: or wP: or Wp: have the same meaning as WP:). For example, both WP:TS and wp:TS link directly to Wikipedia:TS.
One unique feature of the WP: alias is its utility in searching for the vast number of project pages. This is because most project pages outside the Wikipedia namespace, will have a redirect for the Wikipedia namespace prefix appended to their title and the same for most major shortcuts to them (e.g., Help:Watchlist, with the shortcut H:W, has redirects at Wikipedia:Watchlist and at WP:W. Thus, by extension, most project pages may be found by searching using the WP: alias alone, e.g. WP:Name. For more, see Help:WP search protocol.
Pseudo-namespaces
When the shortcut does not use one of the namespace aliases listed above (WP or WT), it is a cross-namespace redirect and is case-sensitive.
However, when a prefix is used by multiple shortcuts, and has broad community support, it is referred to as a pseudo-namespace to distinguish these shortcuts from other cross-namespace redirects. (Note that the term "pseudo-namespace" is also used to refer to namespaces without content that are provided by the MediaWiki software and extensions, such as Special:, Media:, Feedback:)
The following prefixes may be used freely for the target listed:
Technical note: The links in the tables above go to a page where the term prefix is not used in the meaning as it has in this section. Rather, the code PrefixIndex there means, as it does for the search parameter, "the beginning string of characters in a title", whether that string ends before, during or after the colon character in a page name.
How to create a shortcut
When creating a shortcut, consider that many shortcuts are acronyms or initialisms; others are abbreviations or single but memorable words from a longer page title.
Before changing a shortcut, consider its existing usage:
Above all, check the shortcut backlinks with "what links here"; changing a shortcut used elsewhere can be highly disruptive.
You should take into account how active its target page is.
For example, if you just created a WikiProject and want a specific shortcut for it, but the one you want is already in use by another project, it's generally recommended to post a message on that project's talk page asking the members if you may change the link, even if the project is tagged as {{WikiProject status|inactive}}.
If it was used in any closed deletion discussions, it is not a good idea then to change the redirect because these discussions cannot be edited.
If it has no backlink, folks might still use it directly when searching. If you're not 100% sure that the old target is unused, ask about it on the shortcut's talk page.
On the page it leads to, click on the "redirected from" link below the main title of the page or click again on the shortcut in the tag or on the side of the page.
This takes you to the actual shortcut page, which is a redirect. You should notice &redirect=no in the URL.
Edit the target #REDIRECT [[Wikipedia:Whatever]].
Add {{R from shortcut}} if that template doesn't already appear.
After changing a shortcut, there are other pages which may need to be updated:
If it's already in use, you should be sure to change it in the pages that linked to it as well, so that they link to the old target.
If the old target page mentions its shortcut, then that also should be updated, typically in {{Shortcut}} or similar Wikipedia header templates.
Limitations
Redirects (including shortcuts) to pages on other projects and special pages won't work—this formerly supported feature was abused and hence it has been disabled. The software will display the redirect page instead of redirecting the user to the target.
Some redirects to other projects and special pages use the template {{soft redirect}}; however, shortcuts that are soft redirects will appear in the pool of pages that are selected by Special:Random. Soft redirects are categorised into Category:Wikipedia soft redirects.
