Editing Encyclopedia:Redirect (section)

== How to edit a redirect or convert it into an article ==
{{shortcut|WP:EDRED|WP:RTOA}}
Sometimes an existing redirect should really be handled by a full article, per [[:Category:Redirects with possibilities]]. For example, the name of a notable musician (who does not yet have an article) may instead be a redirect to an existing article about a band of which the musician is a member. In this case, you can edit the redirect to make it into an article. Also, if an existing redirect points to the wrong page, you can edit the redirect to point to a different page.

If you want to edit a redirect page you must use a special technique in order to get to the redirect page itself. This is because when you try to go straight to the redirect page and edit it, the redirect page will automatically redirect you to its target page (because this is what a redirect page is meant to do). Below is an example of why you might need to go to a redirect page itself (to do a small edit) and how to actually get there.

For example, say [[Trygve Halvdan Lie]] did not have his own article, and so this link was a redirect to the page [[Secretary-General of the United Nations]]. If, later on, the page [[Trygve Lie]] was created as a biography, the page [[Trygve Halvdan Lie]] should be changed to redirect to [[Trygve Lie]] per [[WP:COMMONNAME]]. To do this, go to the redirect page by clicking the existing redirect note on the target page, which in this case would read "(Redirected from {{-r|Trygve Halvdan Lie}})". Once there, you may click the "Edit" tab, and change the page from

<code><nowiki>#REDIRECT [[Secretary-General of the United Nations]]</nowiki></code>
: to
<code><nowiki>#REDIRECT [[Trygve Lie]]</nowiki></code>

When adding or changing a redirect, always verify the links that already point there. For instance, if another person named Trygve Lie becomes very well known, it would make sense to make [[Trygve Lie]] a redirect to his page (after renaming the existing [[Trygve Lie]] page). Such a change cannot be made without changing all the preexisting links to [[Trygve Lie]]; these links can be found by clicking on [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Trygve_Lie|What links here]] in the left hand menu. Also, when changing the target of a redirect verify that its talk page is not also a redirect and if it is, either retarget it to the current target's talk page, replace the redirect with {{tl|talk page of redirect}} or if you turned the redirect into an article, remove it entirely unless [[WP:TALKCENT]] applies.