Help:Disambiguation

A disambiguation page helps distinguish between two entries with similar or identical names. For instance, if there were two relevant people both named Maria Garcia, we might have pages for Maria A. Garcia and Maria L. Garcia, but also create a single Maria Garcia page that would mention both and give a few details to clarify which was which. For instance, it might read:

Maria Garcia may refer to:


 * Maria A. Garcia, professor at Hypothetical University
 * Maria L. Garcia, research coordinator at Hypothetical Government Agency

How to create a disambiguation page
Start a page as you would any other and add a bulleted list of the relevant terms or people. Add one internal link per entry. (For readability, only link to the term being differentiated, even if the identifying information you add contains terms that also potentially could be linked.)

Using the source editor
At the top of the page, include the following template tag and 'magic word':

Note: The 'magic word' __DISAMBIG__ has two underlines at the beginning and two underlines at the end.

Using the visual editor

 * 1) First you will add the template tag "Disambiguation":
 * 2) Click on "Insert" at the top of the window.
 * 3) Select "Template".
 * 4) In the box labeled "Add a template", type in "Disambiguation".
 * 5) Click the "Add template" button.
 * 6) You will then be asked to type the page name in the box labeled "page title". Type it exactly as shown at the top of the page.
 * 7) Click the blue "Insert" button. (Do not click on "Add more information"!)
 * 8) Second, you must mark the page as a disambiguation page:
 * 9) Click on the "Page options" button with the three horizontal bars at the top-right of the window.
 * 10) Select "Page settings".
 * 11) At the bottom of the page settings window, click the checkbox that says "This is a disambiguation page".
 * 12) Finally, click the blue "Apply changes" button.