Wikipedia:Template messages

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WP:TM redirects here. For the Wikipedia Manual of Style section on trademarks, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks) or MOS:TM.

This page provides an index for a wide range of standard templates in use within Wikipedia. Whether you are providing a custom message or a pastel box or are flagging articles, adding tags, or adding templates, this page also gives an overview of what subjects are covered within each heading.

There are two main ways to use templates on articles: transclusion (also called "inclusion", and accomplished by using {{Template name}}), and substitution. The former will include the content of {{Template Name}} on the fly whenever the article is loaded, while the latter will permanently insert the content of the template into the article. With substitution, even if the template content is modified at a later date, the article's content will not change. The common method for using template messages is transclusion, implemented by usage of a tag with the form {{template name}}, in whatever article or talk page one wants the template code/text to be shown. A less common usage is to implement an automatic one-time copying of a template's code/text to the location of a template tag; a method called substitution or subclusion, implemented simply by adding subst:.

Substitution is the preferred method for long-term, permanent notices because it is less confusing, and it even helps to lighten the load on the database. Substitution has the further advantage in that a template's content may be de-linked from any associated category or slightly modified to suit the circumstances, such as when the template is used on a talk page. Transclusion is preferred for displaying material that is normally updated, that way, all the places it appears are updated in a single operation.

[edit] Using this page

The bold links at the top of each cell lead to detailed pages which describe the templates in that section in detail and explain how and when to use them.

If you cannot find the template you are looking for, please click on the section headers that seem most relevant, since there may be templates for a particular usage covered on the detailed pages, but not listed in the table below.

If, after searching, you still cannot find the template you need, you can request it on Wikipedia:Requested templates. For help on creating templates, see Help:Template or contact a user who has identified himself or herself as an adept template coder. Note that in order to maintain consistent design of templates, there have been significant discussions about a variety of templates at both Wikipedia talk:Article message boxes and Wikipedia talk:Talk page templates.

A more comprehensive category system may also be viewed at Category:Wikipedia templates.

[edit] Can improvements be made easily?

Before placing templates on a page, it is worthwhile to cast a critical eye over the page to determine whether or not the improvements could be made easily, thus eliminating the need for a tag.

[edit] Article-related namespace

Please list navigational templates (as, for example, between pages relating to a specific topic) at Wikipedia:Navigation templates or at the appropriate WikiProject page.

[edit] General Disambiguation and redirection Section Timing-related (Current events, etc) Title-related (distinguishment between deceptively similar titles, etc) Special character warnings Footnotes and references Expansion requests Miscellaneous (Lorem ipsum, etc)	[edit] Sources / Citations / References Requesting sources and verification General sources Citations of generic sources Citations of specific sources (GFDL, public domain, U.S. government, etc) Footnotes and links	[edit] Links Internal links (articles, namespaces and categories) Templates German titles External links (databases and websites, etc.) Film and television (IMDb, YouTube, etc) Games (board and video games, etc.) Geography (locations and maps) Literature (books, etc.) Music Religion Wikis (sister projects, etc.) Miscellaneous (science and the internet, etc.)	[edit] Cleanup Tag Consolidation: combining the other cleanup tags into one messagebox General cleanup: Complete rewrite, section, remainder, copyediting, grammar/punctuation/spelling Style of writing: Clarity, tone, etc Structures and sections Potentially unwanted content: Copyright, content policy, spam, trivia, etc Context and detail: Too specialized or technical off-topic Expand and add: General, diagrams/images Expert needed: Authenticity/verification Time-sensitive Contradiction and confusion: Misleading/vague Neutrality and factual accuracy: Dubious, opinion, weasel words, etc Importance and notability: Significance Verifiability and sources: Consistency, absent/broken citations, original research, etc Introduction: Length, vague, complete rewrite Lists Images (blur, exposure, size, etc) Wiki tech: Wikify, uncategorized, disambiguation, orphans Infobox needed Cleanup of specific subjects: (Fiction, etc.) Miscellaneous Merging Splitting Template:Subsections Moving: Articles, sister projects, etc Translations
[edit] Deletion / Renaming / Discussion Deletion of: Articles (AfD) Categories (CfD) Images and media (IfD) Redirects (RfD) Speedy deletion (D) Templates (TfD) Stub types (SfD) Moving or Renaming (within Wikipedia or to other wikis)	[edit] Disputes and warnings Accuracy Suspected hoax Neutrality Original research Contradictory Controversial Unencyclopedic Notability Autobiography	[edit] Maintenance Articles undergoing major edits Protected articles, pages and images Copyright violations Articles requiring significant attention and other issues General attention needed ISSN issues Lack of geopolitical balance IPA conversion Categorization issues	[edit] Wikimedia Sister Projects Wikiquote Wiktionary Wikibooks Wikisource Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wikiversity Wikispecies Mediawiki Meta-Wiki InterWikimedia links Soft redirects Transwiki copy
[edit] Compact tables of contents (TOC) Non-Category Alphabetical (A-Z) Numeric lists (0-9) Category pages Alphabetical (A-Z) Numerical (0-9)	[edit] Lists Dynamic lists Incomplete lists Subject or topic lists Disputed content/length	[edit] Redirect pages To be placed at the end of the same line as the redirect tag.	[edit] Standard boxes Calendars Court Decisions Diagrams Game and Puzzle layouts Grids Periodic Table
[edit] Formatting Division boxes Multiple columns Image holders Hide/show boxes

[edit] Non article-related namespace

[edit] Wikipedia namespace Policies and non-policies Village Talk WikiProjects WP:Sandbox WP:FAQ	[edit] Category namespace Births in Years Books in Years Deaths in Years More information Categorization of people: Subjective Category Disclaimer Disputed categorisation	[edit] User namespace Languages Userbox licensing Userboxes User Sandboxes Disclaimer New page links Open tasks Picture of the day Wikimedia licensing Awards	[edit] User talk namespace Single & Multi-Level Warning Templates Experimenting & Vandalism Notices Shared IP Notices Spamming Notices Three Revert Rule User Talk Requests Welcome Messages Edit-summary request Minor-edit reminder Block notices Wide range of other warnings and notices
[edit] Talk namespace Talk namespace Featured articles (and candidates) Expansion requests Request Photo/Images Comments Discussion thread tags Free Images Translation requests Peer review To Do lists WikiProject notices	[edit] Image namespace See also: Wikipedia:Image copyright tags Copyright status unknown or unverified Creative commons licensed image Fair use claimed Free use image / Semi-free use image Government copyrights (UK, Canada, Poland) GNU/GFDL image Images and media for deletion Image categorization Non-free (copyrighted) image "not an orphan" Public domain image Screenshot	[edit] Template namespace Template documentation High-use and intricate Template talk page messages

[edit] Related pages for specific types of templates

Meta has related information at: Template messages

MediaWiki has a page about this at: Help:Templates

• Wikipedia:Template messages/Main page and alternatives for templates used on one of the Wikipedia's Main Pages.
• Wikipedia:Navigation templates and Category:Navbox (navigational) templates for list of the navigation templates.
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (infoboxes) and Category:Infobox templates for the list, designed to present summary information about an article's subject in a uniform format.
• Wikipedia:Taxobox usage describes taxonomical infoboxes for biological classification.
• Wikipedia:Inline templates linking country articles that provide a tiny thumbnail of a country's flag.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types is the full listing of thousands of stub types.
• Wikipedia:MediaWiki namespace controls interface messages for internal system use, and can only be modified by administrators.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject user warnings to create a complete, standardised set of user warning templates with full documentation and help pages.
• Category:Internationalisation maintenance templates noting a particular national or regional bias of an article, and asking for a worldwide view.
  • Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias#Related cleanup templates for useful examples.
• Wikipedia:Deprecated and orphaned templates to coordinate efforts to maintain the template namespace by removing unneeded templates in an orderly and systematic manner.
• Special:Unusedtemplates - lists all templates which are not transcluded in another page.

[edit] See also

• Wikipedia:Template standardisation
• Wikipedia:Colours in templates
• Wikipedia:Stub - guidelines for stub template creation
• Wikipedia:Template limits
• Wikipedia:Template substitution
• Help:Template - wiki template help page
• Help:Magic words
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Templates
• m:Help:Substitution - more detailed information on subst template (on the Meta-Wiki)
• Help:Link
• Historical list, Wikipedia:List of templates by usage