Help:Reusing page layouts

You do not need to open someone else's editor to borrow their page structure.

Start with a clean layout

Choose Document, Character, Story, Report, or Sermon/prayer. Enter your new title and open the draft. These layouts leave room for your writing without carrying over another page's facts or approval labels.

In the source editor, a new wikitext page also has a Start with a layout selector. Load layout fills the unsaved page; if it already contains text, it asks before replacing it. Pick a layout before writing, or keep a copy of your work first.

Copy an existing page's source

While signed in, open the page you want to learn from.
Open the page's More actions menu and choose Copy page source. On a narrow screen, open the page tools menu first.
Press Copy source. If clipboard access is blocked, select the displayed text and use Ctrl+C / Command+C.
Open your own new page in source mode and paste. The tool copies the saved revision, not somebody's unsaved editor buffer, and does not create or save a page.

The same source is available through Edit source or View source when you have read access. Without JavaScript, the copy action opens raw wikitext so you can select it manually.

Before you reuse it

Replace the original name, image, infobox values, links and page-specific IDs.
Review every category. Remove categories and tracking calls that belong to the original.
Start new writing as {{Document status|Draft}}. Do not copy Canon, Approved or acceptance claims as if they apply to the new page.
Prefer the existing template call over duplicating its underlying HTML or styles. Copying {{Character Panel|…}} uses the shared panel; editing the shared template changes it for everyone.
If you reuse text or a substantial layout, credit the source page in your edit summary. A permanent/revision link is helpful. Retain original source and creator credits.

Private copies stay private. Copying Gatekeep text does not make it safe to paste on a public page. Keep the destination in Gatekeep unless an authorised publication decision has been made. A user sandbox, a Draft label and a category do not provide privacy.

For small reusable components, use templates. For a renamed article, use Move so its history stays with it.