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Three Parts:Preparatory StepsChanging the TitleFinishing Steps

If you are either a wikiHow Admin or New Article Booster, you realize that you can officially retitle an article. Whether it's been templated with the {{title}} template or not, you can make these changes. (If you are not currently a wikiHow Administrator or New Article Booster, please see the instructions in Request a Title Change for a wikiHow Article to learn how to correctly apply a Title Tag template to an article.) If you have forgotten how to retitle an article or are just learning the next steps (after becoming one of these types of editors), this article can teach you these steps so it's title can be properly searched and found.

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EditPart 1 of 3: Preparatory Steps

  1. Change title title policy.jpg
    1
    Locate the article that needs the title change. Review the Title Policy before you begin.
    • If you're looking for articles that need to be retitled, open the Title Category here.
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  2. Change title discussion post.jpg
    2
    Check the Discussion Page of the article for any comments or alternative title suggestions.
  3. 3
    Pick the new title. If there is a suggestion present on the Discussion page or in the {{title}} template, evaluate the suggested title for accuracy and economy of phrasing.
    • Not all suggested titles are the better than the existing title. If the current title is better than the suggested one, remove the {{title|Please change me}} template and explain your reasoning on the discussion page or edit summary.
    • You can skip the consensus building portion of the title change process in several instances. For example: if the article is fairly new, and the author just made a simple typo when writing it, or if you are not changing anything other than simple grammar issues such as spelling, punctuation, first person usage, or capitalization.
    • The more well-established the article (determined by how old it is and how many page views it has), the more careful you need to be about changing the title. For example: You should be extra cautious about changing a title if an article has a high view count and has been read by a wide audience over a good period of time.
    • Occasionally, with newer articles that have very few views or comments on their talk pages, it is simpler to copy/paste an entire body of an article into a better title rather than creating multiple REDIRECT pages.

EditPart 2 of 3: Changing the Title

  1. 1
    Go to the article that needs adjusting. Then get to the Special:Movepage for that article.
    • As an Admin, choose "Move" from the admin buttons on the top of the page.
      Change title move.jpg
    • As a Booster or Admin, click on that article's URL bar and Revise the URL that appears, so that, in between the www.wikihow.com and the article title, you can add the text Special:Movepage/. You'll see a page that contains both the original article that is "bound" to the page, along with a line labeled "To Move Page".
      Change title url.jpg
  2. Change title action page.jpg
    2
    Make the changes to the title. State your reasoning for changing the title in the box. Click "Move Page".
    • If you have Admin rights, decide whether to check the box to "Leave redirect behind." This should be checked if the titles are totally interchangeable, per the title policy and merge policy, but not if they are not. If you have Booster rights and don't feel the titles are totally interchangeable, you can ask an Admin to delete the redirect for you.
  3. Change title success.jpg
    3
    Check the confirmation screen to see that the page was moved correctly. Then complete the other general steps listed below.

EditPart 3 of 3: Finishing Steps

  1. Change title go to old.jpg
    1
    Change all incoming links to the old title. To do this, click on the old title from your confirmation screen.
  2. Change title what links here.jpg
    2
    Choose "What Links Here" from the toolbox drop-down menu.
    • Go through each link, find references to the old title, and replace them with the new title that's been agreed upon. This isn't mandatory, since the redirects will keep all the old links fresh. However in the cases of a radical name change it will reduce reader confusion.
    • In each of these pages, use an edit summary of something similar to "updated link to reflect moved page" or just "updating link" to explain why you are completing this action.
  3. Change title remove template.jpg
    3
    Remove the title template. Open the article for editing to remove the {{title}} tag from the article. Remove the title tag, include an edit summary, and save your changes.
  4. Change title discussion confirmation.jpg
    4
    Document your title change on the discussion page. Leave a note saying that you changed the title and that anyone can view the page history for details.
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EditTips

  • The discussion and waiting period are optional and can be skipped if both of the following apply:
    • The wikiHow article is relatively new.
    • Your reason for changing the title is to fix spelling, grammar, punctuation, first person usage, or capitalization, all of which are straightforward and usually not debated.
  • If you're a booster and you don't have access to the quick move button that the admins have, you can make your own. Just add "[[Special:MovePage/{{PAGENAME}}|Move this Page]]" to your My Links bar.
  • The more well-established the article (determined by how old it is and how many page views it has), the more careful you need to be about changing the title. Consider that if the article has a high view count and thus has been read significantly for a good period of time, the existing title must already have decent merit in attracting readers.
  • In some cases, it might be helpful to delete the old title altogether by deleting the redirect.
  • If you discover that you have a knack for finding good titles, regularly browse title change requests and new pages to help.
  • Always return to checking the Double Redirects page, to make sure no other double redirects created need the new title of the redirect changed too.

EditWarnings

  • Only Admins and New Article Boosters are able to permanently change the title to any wikiHow article.
  • Resist the urge to just manually create a new article, and move the items over to it. It's improper to do, creates more problems in the long run (a big no-no) loses the most-useful prior history of that article, and creates duplicate titles. Use only one of these approved methods above, assuming you have either New Article Booster or Admin rights.


EditRelated wikiHows

How to
Change the Title of a wikiHow Article (from Recent Changes Patrol App)

How to
Request a Title Change for a wikiHow Article

How to
Handle Recipes on wikiHow

How to
Nominate an Article for Deletion in wikiHow

How to
Find a wikiHow Administrator

How to
Merge a wikiHow Article

How to
Delete a Redirect on wikiHow

How to
Act as a wikiHow Admin

How to
Title

How to
Title Policy

Article Info

Categories: Being an Admin | Writing and Editing

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Español: Cómo cambiar el título de un artículo de wikiHow

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