Template:Contains special characters is permanently protected from editing because it is a heavily used or highly visible template. Substantial changes should first be proposed and discussed here on this page. If the proposal is uncontroversial or has been discussed and is supported by consensus, editors may use ((edit template-protected)) to notify an administrator or template editor to make the requested edit. Usually, any contributor may edit the template's documentation to add usage notes or categories. Any contributor may edit the template's sandbox. Functionality of the template can be checked using test cases.

This template was considered for deletion on 18 June 2022. The result of the discussion was "no consensus".

This template was nominated for deletion on March 4, 2006. The result of the discussion was keep.

Archives

Archive 1

I see this template is from 2006 or so. Is it still useful, given the progression of browsers/Unicode in these? e.g. IPA-related pages still have this thing. Can I propose phasing out somehow? -DePiep (talk) 22:37, 12 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, this is still essential: Unicode may be universally supported, but very few platforms come with fonts which cover the whole Unicode range. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 11:43, 14 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if this is the right place to talk about this, but I've noticed these text information templates pop up everywhere now, for every conceivable language.

Now, I was a contributor a long time ago, and if I remember correctly, they started with the Indic (Indian language) templates. These were used for a SPECIFIC purpose and it wasn't to inform casual readers. The reason it was introduced was because from Windows XP and before, complex text support was not enabled by default. This resulted in a peculiarity with some Indian scripts, where a word would look misspelt. Take the word 'Hello' as an example. Without complex text support, this may be rendered 'eHllo', and a good samaritan would correct this to 'Hello' again. However, if you had complex text support enabled, it would now appear as 'eHllo'. This resulted in a cat and mouse game of people (in good faith) changing the same text over and over and over again.

I don't think this problem occurs for other scripts, so I think all these templates are pretty pointless. 80.195.229.252 (talk) 21:24, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They're needed because the default install for Windows XP (at least) doesn't contain font support for any of the languages in question. Whether or not it actually results in layout artefects, it does result in square boxes where the glyphs should be. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 09:35, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 102#When should Foreign character warning boxes be used?. --115.67.34.95 (talk) 05:37, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

For posterity: The original post linked above didn't receive any replies, but it was later reposted: Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 107#When should Foreign character warning boxes be used? —Languorrises (talk) 15:16, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Could we get an inline and/or centrable option for this template? It doesn't play well with columns, as can be seen in the "Notes" section to Kanae Yamamoto (artist). Curly Turkey ¡gobble! 05:42, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The template usually aligns to right. How you can align to left? 46.130.136.192 (talk) 21:51, 29 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The documentation Usage section says that Each particular language should have a separate template. Is the implication that editors should use those more specific templates in place of the general one? (In which case the general template shouldn't be added to any articles in the future?) Or is that just a note that specific templates should always be available (and to create them if they're not)?

In the first case (the specific templates should always be used), should the general template be replaced wherever it's currently in use? If not, could they be? (The images in the specific templates are a nice, aren't they?) Or WP:DONTFIXIT?

—Languorrises (talk) 15:50, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It seems like if it worked it would have already been done, but is there a reason that MediaWiki couldn't use web fonts to fix this? Instead of relying on the user's computer to have a font that supports exotic characters, we could supply one for download that we know supports all relevant characters. -- Beland (talk) 17:42, 26 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Beland, Anypodetos, Primefac, and Mdaniels5757: "Recent" editors: Greetings and felicitations. There seems to be an inherent "Clear" template in this template, which interferes with the display of images in articles, e.g., in Qinghai (you'll need a browser window of about 2500 pixels or more to really see the effect). Is there a way to fix this? —DocWatson42 (talk) 09:04, 27 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This template uses ((side box)), and neither (as far as I am aware) uses any form of ((clear)) being employed. I believe the issue to which you're referring to stems from the fact that there are two infoboxes before this template, which makes for three sideboxes, followed by a number of poorly-placed images and tables. Primefac (talk) 10:34, 27 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

For ((contains special characters|apl)) add a link for APL. -- PythonSwarm ^{Talk | Contribs | Global} 06:58, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

PythonSwarm, it works properly when capitalized (APL). All parameters should probably just be made case insensitive to solve this. --Trialpears (talk) 08:10, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A reasonable alternative, but I feel like there's something odd about using ((specialchars|armenian)) as opposed to ((specialchars|Armenian)). I know it's just code and doesn't really need to be in MOS-approved format, so I'm just going on my personal opinion. Happy to code it as described if I'm in the minority. Primefac (talk) 14:38, 31 August 2020 (UTC) (see next)[reply]

Having looked again at the code, though, it will potentially cause issues. First, we be adding an extra half-dozen ((lc:...)) calls (which isn't really that big of a deal) but the output will also be affected; we shouldn't say ...instead of armenian letters in place of Armenian, and the section links for some of the values will be broken. Primefac (talk) 14:45, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the ((edit template-protected)) template. It will be needed to overcome the issues I mention above. Primefac (talk) 01:00, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there, need to add Phoenician to the list of foreign scripts. The Phoenician Aleph can be used as a symbol. ~ Elias Z. (talkallam) 13:13, 20 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This page contains Phoenician text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

 Done. Example is at the right. Primefac (talk) 13:58, 20 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I wanted to add Vai syllabary as a hard-coded value but I'm not allowed :( Snizzbut (talk) 23:06, 13 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

((Contains special characters|Vai)) is shown at the right. Is there a thumbnail to use (see the languages for icon types), and should it link to anything other than the Vai syllabary? Primefac (talk) 23:16, 13 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) § Only displaying Template:Contains special characters when needed?. ((u|Sdkb)) ^talk 06:34, 30 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Add line
| Lydian = (({image|Lydian S-02.svg))}
between
| Lontara = Lontara.svg
and
| Manchu = (({image|Manju gisun.svg))}
To add support for the Lydian Alphabet/Language. The choice for the image is the Lydian character for Ś which is the first character of the name of Lydian in Lydian. snood1205^{(Say Hi! (talk))} 19:05, 16 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Snood1205: Shouldn't you also add something to the second #switch block, replacing "contains special characters" with something more specific. Currently your code produces

which feels easter-egg-y) * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:10, 16 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That's completely correct, let me look into that and update the request. Sorry about that. snood1205^{(Say Hi! (talk))} 21:28, 16 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Marking as answered since you still haven't updated the request. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 14:00, 20 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Seconding the above close, I'd like to see this sandboxed and tested before being implemented. Primefac (talk) 12:31, 21 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This page contains Lanna text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Tai Tham script.

Hi there, need to add Lanna text to the list of foreign scripts and use this symbol This alphabet belongs to the Northern thai language in Thailand It's not the same language as Thai language Because this language originated in the Northern Thailand, which was formerly the language of the Lanna Kingdom. At present, this Tai Tham script is still being used. Autoisme (talk) 07:54, 21 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

 Done. Primefac (talk) 08:46, 21 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

I have recently created File:Clicks.svg as a transparent vector version of File:Clicks.png. My edit request is to change the default Khoekhoe image to this new version. Cheers, ${\displaystyle swar}$e • 🗣 • 🏲 19:37, 18 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Primefac (talk) 20:23, 18 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Hi, could you please add an option for !Kung languages - or perhaps click languages in general? It would be the same as the option for Khoekhoe except with the option to change the language name. Sheila1988 (talk) 14:13, 4 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sheila1988, could you please provide me with the information that you'd want to see if we were to add in this code? I'll provide the default parameters for you, feel free to edit it and change them as appropriate. Don't worry about re-activating the TPER, as I have this page on my watchlist. Primefac (talk) 19:16, 6 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

((Contains special characters
| special    = uncommon [[Unicode]] characters
| fix        = Help:Multilingual support
| error      = [[Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character|question marks, boxes, or other symbols]]
| characters = the intended characters
| image      = Replacement character.svg
| link       = Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character
| alt        = <?>
| compact    = 
))

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please apply the following changes from the sandbox: diff. Rummskartoffel 11:25, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Primefac (talk) 12:01, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Description of suggested change: fix anchor for changed section title

Diff:

— Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 16:52, 28 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Special:Diff/1107202502. Also, added an anchor to the article. —⁠andrybak (talk) 18:51, 28 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please replace the PNG version of Javanese script with the SVG version. The diff can be seen here. Thanks! — Labdajiwa (talk) 04:30, 28 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 06:41, 28 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

The picture of this template is elder please change it to new picture Sultanselim baloch (talk) 15:46, 1 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done for now: It's not clear what changes you want to be made. There are multiple images used in this template. You will need to specify which to change, and provide a new file to replace it. Terasail^[✉️] 16:25, 1 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, could someone capitalize Nôm and Quốc as in the template, it isn't capitalized.

It should look like this,

This page contains Vietnamese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of chữ Nôm, chữ Hán and chữ Quốc ngữ. Lachy70 (talk) 19:28, 12 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sure thing. Primefac (talk) 08:58, 13 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

remove either the link from "special characters" or "rendering support". they both link to the same page. ltbdl (talk) 15:41, 27 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: "rendering support" links to different pages depending on the arguments to the template. Elli (talk | contribs) 18:14, 27 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Would it be theoretically possible to code this template so that it checks what rendering capabilities a reader has and displays only if the reader does not have the capability to render the characters? That would be nice, as it's a wasted warning in the situation where a reader's browser can actually render them. ((u|Sdkb)) ^talk 04:58, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to have had this thought already two years back, but it got basically no response at the time, so might as well re-up here. ((u|Sdkb)) ^talk 05:33, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No, not without some privacy-infringing or resource-intensive gadget. Nardog (talk) 10:48, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No, browsers won't tell you about this for privacy reasons. You can do some tricks with Javascript that are pretty expensive to detect it, but it's not really worth it. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:49, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Could the image be added to the Ottoman Turkish template, as in Special:Diff/1193170987? – anlztrk (talk | contribs) 10:35, 1 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Primefac (talk) 11:26, 1 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]