Create or move a disambiguation page

There are many instances where a new disambiguation page is needed.

Use "Foo" rather than "Foo (disambiguation)" as the disambiguation page name unless there is a primary topic. If "Foo" is a redirect to "Foo (disambiguation)", the disambiguation page is malplaced, and should be moved from "Foo (disambiguation)" to "Foo". In some cases, you may be able to use the move tool immediately. If the move requires technical assistance, you can report it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Malplaced disambiguation pages#Manual list or list it at Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests.

Add missing entries to a disambiguation page

There are still many disambiguation pages that do not yet contain all entries they are supposed to. To help with that, go to the reports list and select "Missing entries". This will take you to the report where you can choose a dab page to expand. When you click on it, you will be presented with the Dabfix interface where that page is preloaded with the missing entries added and further changes suggested. Review the missing entry and the linked article to ensure they are suitable for inclusion (you can Ctrl+click (PC) or ⌘ Command+click (Mac) on a blue link to be taken to the corresponding article) and then copyedit the automatically generated descriptions before saving. You can also work manually using the information found in the report.

Please note these reports haven't been updated since April 2019.

Find additional ambiguous terms for 2-DAB pages

Pick a page from Category:Disambiguation pages containing one non-primary topic, and see if you can find (or create) other articles in the wiki that can be added to turn a 2-DAB into a 3-or-more DAB.

If you come across a page with only 2 ambiguous terms, one of which is the primary topic, you can tag the top with {{One other topic}}, which will notify users that the page needs additional disambiguation terms, and will place the page in 2-DAB category listed above.

Clean up a disambiguation page

Pick a page from Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup. Check the recent edit summaries in the history and the talk page for comments earlier editors may have left. When you finish cleaning up a page, please change its {{disambiguation cleanup}} to {{disambiguation}} (or change {{hndis-cleanup}} to {{hndis}}).

If you see that a disambiguation page needs to be cleaned up, but you cannot or do not want to do it yourself, you can tag the page for cleanup by changing the {{disambiguation}} template to {{disambiguation cleanup}} (or changing {{hndis}} to {{hndis-cleanup}}). These -cleanup templates add the page to Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup and change the descriptive text on the page. You can describe specific problems on the talk page of the disambiguation page to help other editors see what needs to be done.

You can also use dabfix (see above) to help you cleanup a dab page.

Repair incoming links

Most links from articles to disambiguation pages are in error and need to be repaired. They can be repaired by choosing an article and repairing all its links to disambiguation pages, or by choosing a disambiguation page and repairing all incoming links to it from articles.

To choose an article, type its page name into the dablinks tool (see below). For help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Fixing a page.

To choose a disambiguation page, see the "Finding disambiguation pages" section below. There is a Wikipedia Project devoted to this: Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links.

Do not guess how to fix the link; if you have trouble, tag the link with {{disambiguation needed}}.

If you want a challenge, try to repair difficult links, those tagged with {{disambiguation needed}}. Articles with such tagged links can be found in Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation, and tips on repairing them are given in Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Fixing links.

You may also consider "adopting" a disambiguation page.

When you fix or tag a link, leave an edit summary pointing to this project. Suggested edit summary:

Repaired link to disambiguation page: [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation|please help]]

Repair redirects

• Malplaced disambiguation pages

Merge incomplete disambiguations

Incomplete disambiguation pages are disambiguation pages that also have a disambiguated title (a title with a parenthetical phrase appended). These disambiguated titles are supposed to be unambiguous; if they are still ambiguous, the incomplete disambiguation should normally redirect to the disambiguation page or a section of it.

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Incomplete disambiguations

Finding disambiguation pages

• Linkclassifier, a script highlighting links based on type of target, including disambiguation pages
• Special:DisambiguationPages lists up to 10,000 disambiguation pages
• Category:Wikipedia disambiguation contains all the pages that are in the scope of this WikiProject
• Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links lists pages that relate to the goal of eliminating links to disambiguation pages
• Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/The Daily Disambig lists pages that are known to have had incoming links repeatedly in the past and require monitoring
• Current disambiguation collaboration at the Dab-pages-with-links page
• Wikipedia:Offline reports/Is this really a disambiguation page?, pages labeled as dabs that have only one article referenced on them (inactive page)
• Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup, dabs that have been tagged for needed attention
• Category:Disambiguation pages containing one non-primary topic, dabs that need more ambiguous terms to be added
• Candidates for disambiguation by extending link
• Possible hatnote disambiguation links
• Potentially intentional dablinks

Project watchlist

• Project watchlist

Templates

Disambiguation templates are listed under the "general" category of template messages. Most of these templates do not have usage guidelines associated with them on their Talk pages, however, some direction is provided for hatnotes at Wikipedia:Hatnote#Hatnote templates and Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Disambiguation links.

"*" = no usage guidelines

On disambiguation pages:

• {{Disambiguation}}
• {{Disambiguation cleanup}}
• {{Human name disambiguation}} – articles associated with the same personal name
• {{Human name disambiguation cleanup}}
• Topic-specific templates – these bring the disambiguation page to the attention of editors knowledgeable in the topic (through category includes or WikiProjects) and often include topic specific language
  • {{Airport disambiguation}} – airports with the same or similar names
  • {{Hospital disambiguation}}
  • {{Mathematical disambiguation}}
  • {{Number disambiguation}}* – lists articles associated with the same number
  • {{Place name disambiguation}} – distinct geographical locations with the same name
  • {{School disambiguation}}
• {{Incoming links}} – when many mainspace pages (articles) link to a disambiguation page, for example, as the result of a page move

On talk pages:

• {{WikiProject Disambiguation}} – Project banner for talk pages with discussion. Please do not use to create talk pages that have no discussion.

On set index articles. Note that set index articles are similar to, but are not the same thing as, disambiguation pages:

• {{Set index article}}* – The generic set index template.
• {{Lake index}} – For lists of lakes with similar names.
• {{Locomotive index}} – For lists of locomotives, or classes of locomotives, with similar names.
• {{Mountain index}} – For set index articles about mountain names.
• {{Road index}} – For set index articles about roads.
• {{Ship index}} – For lists of ships with the same or similar names.
• {{Sport index}} – For lists of sports related articles with similar names.

Link formatting (See Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Title templates):

• {{fti}} – put subject title, but not parenthetical disambiguating term, in italics
• {{ftq}} – put subject title, but not parenthetical disambiguating term, in quotes

On anthroponymy list articles. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthroponymy for specific guidelines. These are also not disambiguation pages, although short lists may be embedded on disambiguation pages.

• {{Given name}} – For given name pages or sections of disambiguation pages that list people by given names.
• {{Surname}} – For pages or sections of disambiguation pages that list people by family name.

Optional Wiktionary template, for use on disambiguation pages:

• {{Wiktionary}}*

Look from and In title, for use on disambiguation pages where the term is used to form compound terms:

• {{Look from}} <span class="selfreference">[[Special:PrefixIndex/term|All pages with titles beginning with ''term'']]</span>
• {{In title}} <span class="selfreference">[[Special:Search/intitle:"term"|All pages with titles containing ''term'']]</span>

Hatnotes, for use on articles where reference to a disambiguation page is useful

• {{About}}*
• {{For}}*
• {{Hatnote}}*
• {{Other people}}
• {{Other places}}*
• {{Other uses}}
• {{Redirect}}*
• {{Redirect-distinguish}}
• {{Similar names}}

Redirects, for use on redirects that point to a disambiguation page

• {{R from ambiguous term}}
• {{R from incomplete disambiguation}}
• {{R to disambiguation page}}

Inline, for use within article text where a link needs correcting, but it is unclear where it should link

• {{dn}} or {{Disambiguation needed}}

User talk, for alerting editors to the dab guidelines

• {{subst:uw-dab}}

Userbox, for your own userpage

• {{User WP Disambiguation}}

Barnstar, for awarding editors active in disambiguation

• {{subst:Disambiguator's Barnstar}}

Categories

Page views

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Popular pages, a monthly listing of the project's most viewed mainspace pages
• User:PrimeHunter/Pageviews.js, see page views for all wikilinks on a disambiguation page, e.g. Massviews on Wiki (disambiguation)
• WikiNav, a tool that can visualise the outgoing traffic from dab pages; the underlying data is from the Clickstream