[edit] [purge] Template documentation

This is the documentation for {{shortcut}} and its sister templates. The shortcut family of templates is put in context here, but they each have there own documentation pages.

A shortcut template is a sort of evolved anchor template, but it adds a visual box graphic to the rendered page as well as providing an alternative name. Creating a redirect page is a requirement to fulfill the shortcut mechanism.

The characteristics of the box graphic are determined by which of the family of shortcut templates are chosen. For example the policy shortcut box has the word policy on it for use on policy pages. The graphic alignment of the box depends on the whether its a shortcut or a shorcut-l.

• {{shortcut}} — right-aligned box.
  
• {{shortcut-l}} – left aligned box.
  
• {{policy shortcut}} – shortcut that also says "policy".
  
• {{Ombox/Shortcut}} – shortcut that embeds into message boxes.
  

This template is not normally used for articles in the main namespace because the graphic produces an avoidable self-reference.

Usage

1. Insert the shortcut. If it is to a section, put it on the line above the section title.
2. Create a redirect page with the {{R from shortcut}} template suffixed to the redirect. Name the page after your shortcut name. Include the namespace name in both the shortcut name and the redirect page name. For example, substituting your own shortcut name as the title of the page, and substituting the proper namespace, add the following as the top-line on your redirect page:

   #REDIRECT [[Namespace:Title of page with#Optional very long section name]] {{R from shortcut}}

3. Verify operation. Note that shortcut templates should display in all capitals, but operate without all capitals.

Be careful not use a policy template on a guideline or essay.

These templates are mainly used on user pages and talk pages in reference to Wikipedia, Help, and Portal namespaces. These templates inform about the shortcuts available to the page they are on. For example, WP:SHORT redirects to Wikipedia:Shortcut and therefore Wikipedia:Shortcut renders a shortcut box listing WP:SHORT. It is a self-reference that is normally avoided in the main article namespace.

The point of these templates is not to list every single redirect for a page (indeed, that's what "What links here" is for), instead they should list only one or two common and easily-remembered redirects.

The shortcut template can take up to five shortcuts as parameters.

For policy pages you can use {{policy shortcut}} which takes up to ten shortcuts as parameters.

Examples

Anchors

These templates automatically add anchors. If a shortcut box with the shortcut WP:SHORT is placed on the page Wikipedia:Shortcut then the link Wikipedia:Shortcut#WP:SHORT will take you to the position in the page where that shortcut box is placed.

For instance, try this link: #WP:SHORT

Thus if you make a shortcut for a section of a page then you can use the anchor in the shortcut redirect itself. Like this:

#REDIRECT [[Pagename#WP:SHORT]] {{R from shortcut}}

See also

• Wikipedia:Shortcut – The how-to guide and guideline about how and when to create shortcuts and shortcut boxes. A must-read for anyone handling shortcuts.
• {{R_from_shortcut}}
• {{anchor}} - a way to overcome the otherwise permanent fact that section titles are the only way to link to a section
• {{shortcut-l}} – For left aligned normal shortcuts.
• {{policy shortcut}} – For shortcuts to sections of policy pages.
• {{template shortcut}} – Use this one to show the names of shortcuts/redirects to a template.
• {{Ombox/Shortcut}} – for embedding into message boxes.