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When a Wikipedia article is large, it is often rewritten in summary style. This template is used after the heading of the summary, to link to the sub-article that has been (or will be) summarised. This template can also be used in the Category namespace, but the preferred template for categories is {{Cat main}}.

This template can also be used in articles leads when an article is not the "main" article for its subject, but this is controversial. When there are multiple articles, distinct enough to warrant separate articles, but not enough to be very separate subjects. One to be the main article describing the topic, and the others avoiding unnecessary duplication of the main article. A good example would be geography articles where two terms have somewhat different meanings or "contexts", but refer to roughly the same geographic area, e.g. Balkans and Southeast Europe. The Balkans article is the main article, the Southeast Europe article doesn't try to be a duplicate of the Balkans article by having much info on History, natural resources, etc., it leaves that to the Balkans article. This can be thought of as a halfway point between having fully separate articles, and having a redirect.

Its usage should be restricted to the purposes described above. This template is not to be used as a substitute for inline links or as a "see also". The latter includes e.g. when a section has a title that happens to have a main article, but the section actually refers to a specific aspect of the article at hand. In Phthalate, for example, the template under the section Endocrine disruptor should not be Main: Endocrine disruptor, because the section specifically deals with phtalate as an endocrine disruptor and not endocrine disruptors in general.

Usage

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Basic usage
{{main|page}}
All parameters
{{main
| page1 | page2 | page3 | ...
| l1 = label1 | l2 = label2 | l3 = label3 | ...
| selfref = yes
}}

Parameters

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  • 1, 2, 3, ... - the pages to link to. If no page names are specified, the current page name is used instead (without the namespace prefix). Categories and files are automatically escaped with the colon trick, and links to sections are automatically formatted as page § section, rather than the MediaWiki default of page#section.
  • l1, l2, l3, ...; optional labels for each of the pages to link to (this is for articles where a piped link would be used). Note that the extra parameters use a lower case 'L', for example, l1, not 11.
  • 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.

Examples

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Hatnote templates

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Hatnotes must be at the very top of the page or section.

Generic hatnote

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  • {{Hatnote|CUSTOM TEXT}}
{{Hatnote|For other senses of this term, see [[etc…]]}}

If a link in a hatnote points to a disambiguation page, the link should include "(disambiguation)", even if that is a redirect. This indicates that the disambiguation link is intentional, and not an error (see WP:INTDABLINK):

Not {{hatnote|other uses|Springfield}}; but
{{hatnote|other uses|Springfield (disambiguation)}}, or
{{hatnote|other uses|Springfield (disambiguation)|Springfield}}

More pages on the same topic ("Further information ...")

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"Main article: …"

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{{Main}} is used to make summary style explicit, when used in a summary section for which there is also a separate article on the subject:

"For more details on …, see …"

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{{Details}} can supplement {{Main}} in summary sections, or can indicate more details in nonsummary sections:

  • {{Details|PAGE1}}
  • {{Details|PAGE1|TOPIC}}

{{Details3}} allows changing the displayed name for links. Unlike {{Details}}, it requires bracketed link notation:

Alternatively, the {{!}} magic word can be used to change the displayed name for links:

"See also …"

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Note: use only when OTHER TOPIC PAGE is related to current article and contains a self-explanatory parenthetical.

"Further information: …"

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Other uses of the same title ("For …, see …")

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"This page is about … For other uses …"

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{{About}} is the main template for noting other uses.

Note. When used in main namespace, the word "page" in the following hatnotes is replaced by "article".

  • {{About|USE1}}
  • {{About|USE1||PAGE2}} (When the disambiguation page has a different name – Note the empty second parameter) →
  • {{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2}} (When there is only one other use) →
  • {{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2|and|PAGE3}} (Two pages for USE2) →
  • {{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2#SUBSECTION{{!}}PAGE2TITLE}} (Using the {{!}} magic word to give the link a different title) →
  • {{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2|USE3|PAGE3|USE4|PAGE4|USE5|PAGE5}} (When there are up to four other uses – You should generally create a disambiguation page at this point) →
  • {{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2|USE3|PAGE3|other uses}} (When there are several standard other uses and also a disambiguation page with default name – Note that the last page name is not specified) →
  • {{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2|USE3|PAGE3|other uses|PAGE4}} (When there are several standard other uses and also a disambiguation page with non-default name) →
  • {{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2|USE3|PAGE3|other uses|PAGE4|and}}
  • {{About||USE2|PAGE2|USE3|PAGE3|other uses}} (When you don't need to state the focus of this article/page – Note the empty first parameter) →
  • {{About|||PAGE1|and|PAGE2}}
Note: {{for||PAGE1|PAGE2}} produces the same result.
Note: this hatnote says "section", instead of "article" or "page".

"This page is about … It is not to be confused with …"

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{{About-distinguish}} is a template for noting other uses when there could be confusion with another topic.

"For …, see …"

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{{For}} can be used instead of {{About}} so as not to display: This page is about USE1. but still specify a specific other use. This effect can also be achieved by using an empty first parameter in {{About}} as in:

For example: {{for|OTHER TOPIC|PAGE1}} is the same as {{About||OTHER TOPIC|PAGE1}} (note the empty first parameter).

However, it is somewhat clearer when using the {{For}} template, since the word "about" does not appear in the statement.

Variations
As with {{Other uses}}, there is a whole family of "for" templates. {{For2}} allows custom text, such as quotation marks or a link from part of the "CUSTOM TEXT"
  • {{For2|OTHER TOPIC|CUSTOM TEXT}}

"For other uses, see …"

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When such a wordy hatnote as {{About}} is not needed, {{Other uses}} is often useful.

Variations
There are, historically, a whole family of "other uses" templates for specific cases. {{About}} is the standard hatnote for "other uses" and many of them can be specified using the {{About}} template. However, the individual templates may be easier to use in certain contexts.
Here are the variations and (when appropriate) the equivalents using the {{About}}, {{Other uses}} or {{For}} templates.
Note: adds "(disambiguation)" to whatever is input as the PAGE1.
Note: {{Other uses|PAGE1 (disambiguation)}} produces the same result.
Note: same as {{about}}, except it forces a second use to be noted if unspecified by parameters.

"For other uses of …, see …"

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"… redirects here. For other uses, see …"

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Variations
... Not to be confused with ...

Similar proper names ("For other people named ...")

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Other people

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Note: same as {{About}} except uses "other people" instead of "other uses" if only 1 parameter is used
Note: defaults to "named" as in {{Other people}}, exists for options like "nicknamed", "known as", etc.

Other places

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Other ships

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For articles on ships:

Distinguish

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"Not to be confused with …"

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"… redirects here. It is not to be confused with …"

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"For technical reasons, … redirects here. For … , see … ."

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Family names

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Miscellaneous (hurricanes, Pope Stephen, Wiki selfref)

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These hatnotes are topic-specific. They are documented at their template page.

Categories

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Category-specific templates:

This is a template for linking categories horizontally. Horizontal linkage is often the right solution when vertical linkage (i.e., as sub-category and parent category) is not appropriate. In most cases, this template should be used on both categories to create reciprocal linkage between the two categories.

Lists

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User pages

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Template:This user talk

Notes

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These templates are used in thousands of articles; therefore, changing the syntax could break thousands of articles. If you wish to create or edit a disambiguation or redirection template, first ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Is there already a template that will do this job? Since many disambiguation and redirection templates have already been created, first check: Category:Disambiguation and redirection templates.
  2. Do I really need a new template for this? Will it likely be used on any other articles or should I just use {{Hatnote}} instead? Before creating a new template, see the template namespace guideline.
  3. If I change the parameters around on an existing template, do I know what the result will be? Will it break existing uses of the template and if so, can I fix all of the errors? Before making any changes, see Template sandbox and test cases.

See also

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