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When using the Visual Editor, starting a line with equal signs still work as a way to create a section heading. On mobile, this is even the only way one can create sections. On Desktop, you can alternatively insert new headings by using a dropdown menu (see image). Finally, there are shortcuts in the Visual Editor: Ctrl+2 gives you a level-2 heading, Ctrl+3 a level-3 heading, etc.

The TOC on the sidebar of a page may still be disabled by certain TOC templates, such as {{Compact TOC}}. To hide the TOC on legacy skins but allow it to be displayed on the sidebar in the default Vector 2022 skin, replace __NOTOC__ in the specific page or template code with {{Hide inline TOC}}. Some templates also allow you to re-enable the TOC manually on specific pages by adding a parameter, usually specified in their documentation pages. The sections below only apply to the Legacy Vector 2010 skin and are no longer relevant on the English Wikipedia, which defaults to Vector 2022 since 2023.

A link that specifies a section of a redirect page corresponds to a link to that section of the target of the redirect.

A redirect to a section of a page will also work, try e.g. the redirect page Section linking and redirects.

A complication is that, unlike renaming a page, renaming a section does not create any redirect from the old section name. Therefore, incoming links to the old section name will have to be fixed. This problem can be fixed by adding a manual anchor link to the old name, using the Anchor template.

However, if you do not want to retain links to the old names, you will need to track them down and fix them. There is no separate What links here feature for sections: the list contains links to the entire page, as well as links to all sections (and anchors) therein. The following possible workarounds will help "future proof" incoming links you make to a section, but they will not help with tracking down simple links to sections during a rename:

• Instead of linking directly to a section, link to a page that redirects to the section; when the name of the section is changed, just change the redirect target. With this method, pages linking to the section can be identified by using What links here on the redirect page.
• Use a manual anchor when you wish to link to a section, so that you do not have to rely on the section name being stable.
• Put a comment in the wikitext at the start of a section listing pages that link to the section.
• Make the section a separate page/template and either transclude it into, or just link to it from, its parent page; instead of linking to the section one can then link to the separate page.

Redirect pages can be categorized by adding a category tag after the redirect command. In the case that the target of the redirect is a section, this has, to some extent, the effect of categorizing the section: through the redirect, the category page links to the section; however, unless an explicit link is present, the section does not link to the category. On the category page, redirects are displayed with class redirect-in-category, so they can be shown in e.g. italics; this can be defined in MediaWiki:Common.css. See also WP:Categorizing redirects.

"WP:+" redirects here. For information about good articles, which are marked with small green plus signs (), see Wikipedia:Good articles.

Navigation on pages from "talk" namespaces provides a special link labeled "New section", "+", or "Add topic" used to create a new section to the end of the page.^[b] The link can be removed from a page with the magic word __NONEWSECTIONLINK__ or added with __NEWSECTIONLINK__.

The URL for such an action looks like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&action=edit&section=new.

In this case, a text box having as title "Subject:", will appear and the content you type in it will become the name of the new section heading. There is no input box for the edit summary; it is automatically created.

By default, there is no link to edit the lead section of a page, so the entire page must be edited. Lead section editing can be enabled through Preferences → Gadgets → Appearance → Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page. You can also click "[edit]" at another section and manually change section=n in the url to section=0.

Section edit links can be removed, for example in archives, with the magic word __NOEDITSECTION__. Some templates automatically add it.

The preview in section editing does not always show the same as the corresponding part of the full page, e.g., if on the full page an image in the previous section intrudes into the section concerned. Also, <ref>s usually become hidden; see #Editing a footnote for a solution.

The edit page shows the list of templates used on the whole page, i.e., also the templates used in other sections.

To edit a footnote rendered in a section containing the code <references />, edit the section with the footnote mark referring to it (see Help:Footnotes). Previewing the section will show a preview of the footnote.

This help page needs to be updated as the information related to section transclusion and edit sections links is incorrect. Please help update this help page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.

Note: Use Labeled Section Transclusion to transclude a template containing multiple headings. The extension can now account for sections that are skipped in the beginning of the page and the edit section links will point to the correct section. (See Extension:Labeled Section Transclusion and § Notes about skipped headings.)

When conditionally (using a parser function) transcluding a template with sections, the "edit" links of this and subsequent sections will edit the wrong section or give the error message that the section does not exist (although the page (including TOC) is correctly displayed and the TOC links correctly). This is because for the targets of the "edit" links the content of conditionally included templates is considered part of the page itself, and the sections are counted after expansion.

Thus, the "edit" links of the sections of the included template link to the page itself instead of the template, and the "edit" links after the included template link to the correct page but the wrong section number.

More generally, conditional sections give such a complication.

The problem does not occur when transcluding a template with a conditional name (which has more advantages). Use {{void}} for the template to transclude to produce nothing.

Advantages of separate pages:

1. what links here feature
2. separate edit histories
3. some template limits apply per page
4. automatic redirect on renaming
5. loading one small page is faster than loading one large page—but are readers more likely to want to use just one section or to browse many of the sections of the topic? – see advantages of combined pages
6. can separately be put in categories (however, see also below)
7. with Semantic MediaWiki: have separate annotations

Advantages of one combined page with sections:

1. loading one combined page is faster and more convenient than loading several divided ones
2. searching within one large page or its wikitext with a local search function is faster and has advantages over searching several pages using the site search engine or a web search engine
3. the TOC provides for convenient navigation.
4. more likelihood of editorial cohesion of a concept compared to having several definitions likely to be independently edited
5. duplication of items relevant to each section, such as navigation templates and infoboxes is avoided

An alternative is composing a page of other pages using the template feature (creating a compound document by transclusion). This allows easy searching within the combined rendered page, but not in the combined wikitext. As a disadvantage, a title for each page has to be provided. For the pre-expand include size limit, this is disadvantageous even compared with one large page: the pre-expand include size is the sum of the pre-expand include sizes of the components plus the sum of sizes of the wikitexts of the components.

Template-style section transclusion (TST) is an older method of transcluding sections.

<onlyinclude>{{#ifeq:{{{transcludesection|}}}|chapter1|
content
}}</onlyinclude>

{{:pageX|transcludesection=chapter1}}

This section is linked to from #Section linking.