Wikinews:Merge

Merging

Why to merge a page

Pages are merged if the same story is reported twice. This usually happens when two or more reporters independently begin reporting on an item of wide interest and use different headlines.

Merging should always leave a redirect in place.

How to merge a page

1. Go to the source page (e.g. "Rabbits overrun NY")
2. At the top of your screen, click the tab named "edit this page"
3. Open the destination page (e.g. "Giant Rabbits overrun New York") in a second window (or browser tab) and also edit this
4. Select, cut and paste the entire content of the source page to the bottom of the destination page
5. Select and copy the name of the destination page
6. In the (now empty) source page, type #redirect [[PAGENAME]] (pasting the name of the destination page instead of PAGENAME)
7. In the edit summary, type something like merged with PAGENAME
8. Save the source page (this is now a redirect, and it retains its edit history)
9. Click "show preview" on the destination page
10. Edit the destination page until the layout is consistent
11. In the edit summary, type something like merged from SOURCEPAGE (pasting the name of the source page instead of SOURCEPAGE)
12. Save the destination page. Note that it will not have the source page's edit history (but that still remains with the source page)
13. Test the merge by typing the name of the original page. You should be redirected to the destination page which will contain the article including the newly merged text.

The short version

If the above seems overly verbose, it can be a lot easier once you get the hang of it...

1. Open source and destination pages in two separate windows
2. Cut/paste source page into destination page
3. Put #redirect [[PAGENAME]] into the source page
4. Preview and edit destination page until it looks good and consistent
5. Save both, and note the merging in edit summaries

Redirecting

Why to create a redirect

A reason for creating a redirect is if you wanted to merge a short stub article into a report that is already complete, but all of the information contained in the short article is already there. In that case, you can simply overwrite the short article with a redirect, as explained here.

How to create a redirect

1. Go to the short stub page
2. Click edit
3. Type in #redirect [[PAGENAME]], where PAGENAME is the correct page
4. Save