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This template is used on approximately 681,000 pages, or roughly 1% 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.

Redirect

((Dablink))

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)) →
Example hatnote text

Errors

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

Error: no text specified (help).

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 role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">hatnote text</div>

The code is produced by Module:Hatnote.

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 storms)) ((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

TemplateData documentation used by VisualEditor and other tools

See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Hatnote in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Hatnote

Template for creating a standard Wikipedia hatnote. A hatnote is a short note placed at the top of an article to provide disambiguation of closely related terms or summarise a topic, explaining its boundaries.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
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

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Hatnote/doc.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.