Template:Hatnote/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Hatnote.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used on approximately 583,000 pages, or roughly 1502% of all pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template should not be substituted.

This template uses Lua:

Module:Hatnote (sandbox)

This template produces formatted text, following the guideline for a Wikipedia hatnote:

{{Hatnote|Example hatnote text.}} →

Broadly speaking, a hatnote should answer a reader's question (maybe preemptively): Am I on the right page?

Function

This template is primarily used to add a correctly formatted hatnote to a page. Often, but not always, this is a disambiguation link at the top of article pages. It places an HTML div- / div block around the text entered as its only argument, which provides standardized formatting (contents are indented and italicized in most displays); it also isolates the contained code to make sure that it is interpreted correctly.

This template is also used as the "meta-template" for additional specialized disambiguation link templates; see Category:Hatnote templates for a list.

The template does not automatically create links of any kind. Links and other desired formatting must be explicitly added, using normal Wikipedia markup.

Usage

Basic usage: {{hatnote|text}}

All parameters: {{hatnote|text|extraclasses=extra classes|selfref=yes|category=no}}

Parameters

This template accepts the following parameters:

1 – the hatnote text (required)
extraclasses – any extra CSS classes to be added, for example, the {{see also}} template adds the classes "|extraclasses=boilerplate seealso".
selfref – If set to "yes", "y", "true" or "1", adds the CSS class "selfref". This is used to denote self-references to Wikipedia. See Template:Selfref for more information.
category – If set to "no", "n", "false", or "0", suppresses the error tracking category (Category:Hatnote templates with errors). This has an effect only if the leftmost parameter (the hatnote text) is omitted.

Example

{{hatnote|Example hatnote text}} →

Errors

If no hatnote text is supplied, the template will output the following message:

If you see this error message, it is for one of four reasons:

No parameters were specified (the template code was {{hatnote}}). Please use {{hatnote|text}} instead.
Some parameters were specified, but the hatnote text wasn't included. For example, the template text {{hatnote|extraclasses=seealso}} will produce this error. Please use (for example) {{hatnote|text|extraclasses=seealso}} instead.
The hatnote text was specified, but that text contains an equals sign ("="). The equals sign has a special meaning in template code, and because of this it cannot be used in template parameters that do not specify a parameter name. For example, the template code {{hatnote|2+2=4}} will produce this error. To work around this, you can specify the parameter name explicitly by using 1= before the hatnote text, like this: {{hatnote|1=2+2=4}}.
You tried to access Module:Hatnote directly by using {{#invoke:hatnote|hatnote|text}}. Use of #invoke in this way has been disabled for performance reasons. Please use {{hatnote|text}} instead.

If you see this error message and are unsure of what to do, please post a message on Template talk:Hatnote, and someone should be able to help you.

Pages that contain this error message are tracked in Category:Hatnote templates with errors.

Technical details

The HTML code produced by this template looks like this:

<div>hatnote text</div>

The code is produced by Module:Hatnote.

Template parameters
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Text	`1`	This field should contain the text that will be displayed in the hatnote.	String	required
Extra classes	`extraclasses`	Extra CSS classes to be added to the <div> tags surrounding the hatnote text.	Line	optional
Self reference	`selfref`	Set to "yes" if the hatnote text is a self-reference to Wikipedia that would not make sense on mirrors or forks of the Wikipedia site. (E.g. "For the Wikipedia Sandbox, see [[WP:SAND]]".)	Line	optional
Category	`category`	Set to "no", "n", "false", or "0" to suppresses the error tracking category (Category:Hatnote templates with errors). This only has an effect if the hatnote text is omitted.	Unknown	optional

v t e Hatnote templates
Wikipedia:Hatnote Wikipedia:Disambiguation Wikipedia:Redirect
Generic	{{Hatnote}} {{Self-reference}}
For and about	{{For}} {{For-text}} (for custom text) {{For-multi}} (for multiple uses) {{About}} Variations: {{Other uses}} {{Other uses of}} {{Redirect-distinguish-for}} {{About-distinguish}} {{About-distinguish-text}}
Other topics	{{Other people}} {{About other people}} (adds "about" description) {{Similar names}} {{Other hurricanes}} {{Other places}} {{Other ships}}
Redirect	{{Redirect}} {{Redirect2}} (for two redirects) {{Redirect-multi}} (for multiple redirects) {{Redirect-several}} (for several redirects, without listing each) {{Redirect-synonym}} {{Redirect-distinguish}} {{Redirect-distinguish-text}} {{Redirect-distinguish-for}} {{Technical reasons}}
Distinguish	{{Distinguish}} (supports custom text) {{About-distinguish}} {{About-distinguish-text}} (for custom text) {{Redirect-distinguish}} {{Redirect-distinguish-text}} (for custom text) {{Redirect-distinguish-for}}
For use in sections	{{Main}} {{Main if exists}} {{Main list}} {{Further}} {{Further-text}} (for custom text) {{Further interlanguage link}} {{See also}} {{See also if exists}} {{See also-text}} (for custom text) {{For outline}} {{For timeline}}
Special	{{Broader}} {{For introduction}} {{See Wiktionary}} {{Transcluding article}} {{Transcluded section}}
Subject specific	{{About year}} {{Highway detail hatnote}} {{For LMST}} {{WikiIPA}}
Category:Hatnote templates modules for [family] names for lists hatnote templates for category pages