Searching the Mathematics Wikia can be accomplished in many ways, depending on what kind of information you're looking for and whether you prefer to search by keyword or to browse.
Search box[]
On every page there is a text box labeled "search" into which you can type any word or phrase (usually this appears in the left margin, but sometimes it's at the very bottom of the page). What you do after typing your text determines what type of search will be performed:
- If you select Go or hit the Enter or Return key on your keyboard, you will be directed to the page having that exact title, if possible, or to a page of search results (see next point below) if there are no exact matches.
- If you select Search, you will be given a list of pages with matching (or partially matching) titles and/or containing matching text in the body of the page.
By default, only the main namespace is considered when you use the search box. This can be changed in your preferences if you have created an account and logged in, or by using the checkboxes that appear at the bottom of the search results page.
Browse "all pages"[]
Special:Allpages gives an alphabetical list of all articles in the main namespace, or any other namespace you specify, with redirects indicated in a different color (black instead of blue). You can jump to a specific point in the list by entering text in the box labeled "Display pages starting at".
Example
- Display pages starting at: F
- Namespace: (Main)
| Figure | Foundations of mathematics | Geometrical |
| Geometry | Greatest common factor | Group |
| ... |
Browse "prefix index"[]
Special:Prefixindex works very much like the "Allpages" feature, except that it only lists pages (and redirects) whose titles actually begin with the text you specify (in the box labeled "Display pages with prefix"). By using this feature, you can browse only the pages whose titles begin with a certain letter or word. As before, you can specify the namespace you want to use.
Example
- Display pages with prefix: F
- Namespace: (Main)
| Figure | Foundations of mathematics |
Browse categories[]
In addition to the methods already discussed, categories can be browsed in two other ways:
- Special:Categories is an alphabetical list of all categories actually being used on the wiki, regardless of whether pages for them have been created.
- Category:Browse is the "root" (or top-most) node of our category structure; you can start here to browse the categories in a (hopefully) logical way. Note that the category structure is still in the process of being developed; to help with this, see Project:Categorization.