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This page in a nutshell: Article message boxes have a standard design and colours. They use CSS and a meta template to achieve this.

By topic area

There is a standard and consistent design for article message boxes — templates which are inserted into articles/sections, and identify problems or issues with the article. The design was standardized and implemented in September 2007.

Scope[edit]

The scope of this effort is the design of article message boxes ("amboxes"). Article message boxes are template messages, in a rectangular frame (box), which are placed in articles, and are also about articles. They identify issues or important information about the article, but are not part of the article content itself.

The following are presently outside the scope of this effort:

The wording (text) inside article message boxes (present focus is on appearance/formatting)
Other kinds of article templates, such as navigation boxes and infoboxes
Talk page templates, which were standardised in 2005 by Wikipedia:Talk page templates
Project namespace templates, used in the Wikipedia: namespace

Terminology

Template: A page which is transcluded into other pages, typically to re-use the same content in multiple pages. See Help:Template.
Message box: Any template that looks like a box and contains a specific message about a specific issue with a page, section, or other thing on Wikipedia.
- This is in contrast to templates which are used for info boxes, to automate processes, or any of the other myriad things templates are used for.
Article message box: Message boxes about articles
- Info boxes, nav boxes, and such are part of an article, not about the article
ambox: Short for "article message box"

Design[edit]

What amboxes looked like before they were standardized...

The ambox tags that we use to notify people of problems within an article are on thousands of our pages. Our readers see them and judgements are made not only about the article at hand, but about the project itself. In the past, we had a myriad of templates that often shared some level of consistency, but still looked very mismatched.

This effort aims to address these issues. Design principles include:

Colour-coding is good, but avoid excess
- Coloured/shaded backgrounds can make text hard to read for some people, especially those with color-vision deficiencies
Consistent widths make multiple adjacent amboxes easier to read
This is a deliberate design effort, while the old templates evolved organically over time
Easily implemented
The use of CSS allows appearance customization/override on a per-user or per-skin basis

Categories and colours

Amboxes are divided into various categories. Each category has a corresponding colour code. The colour-coding helps to inform of the severity of the issues at a glance.

Code	Name	Description	Example Templates
#b22222	Speedy	Immediate deletion	((db-meta))
#b22222	Deletion	Full-discussion deletion; proposed deletion	((afd)), ((prod))
#f28500	Content	Problems with the content of an article, i.e., what the article actually says	((POV)), ((globalize))
#f4c430	Style	Problems not with the content, but how it is formatted/presented	((cleanup)), ((underlinked))
#1e90ff	Notice	Information readers/editors should be aware of	((current)), ((recent death))
#9932cc	Move	Merge, split and transwiki proposals	((split)), ((copy to commons))
#bba	Protection	Page is locked against edits	((pp-protected))

The choice of colour is partly inspired by the ANSI standard safety "Signal Words" and their corresponding colors: Danger (Red), Warning (Orange), Caution (Yellow), and Notice (Blue).

Most amboxes have a background colour of #fbfbfb (slightly off white), which is intended to contrast slightly with the full white (#ffffff) used for articles, while still being easy to read. The exception is the Speedy category, which uses a pink background (#fee) to highlight the immediate nature of the problem.

Implementation[edit]

Most article message boxes use this design.

The design of these article message boxes is controlled by the Ambox classes, which are styled by MediaWiki:Common.css.

The meta template ((ambox)) makes it easy to create article message boxes in the new design. It has usage documentation and examples. Note that ((ambox)) is just a thin wrapper for the classes.

The classes can also be used directly within a wikitable or HTML table, especially when special functionality is needed. Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes describes how.

Alternate skins

It is possible to customize the appearance of ambox templates on a per-user basis. To do this, you need a named account. Then add to or alter the code in your common.css page (or vector.css, monobook.css, etc. as appropriate). There are several pre-made "skins" available for this at Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes/Skins.

Examples[edit]

Please note:

The wording (text) of these message boxes is outside the scope of this effort. The wording in the examples below is for illustration purposes only.
The following box has a white background to mimic article pages.

Speedy deletion[edit]

This project page may meet Wikipedia's criteria for speedy deletion as an article that contains no content whatsoever, or consists only of external links, categories, a "see also" section, a rephrasing of the title, chat-like comments, template tags, and/or images. Disambiguation pages and redirects are not eligible for this criterion. A very short article may still be a valid stub if there is sufficient context to identify the subject. See CSD A3.

If this project page does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion, or you intend to fix it, please remove this notice, but do not remove this notice from pages that you have created yourself. If you created this page and you disagree with the given reason for deletion, you can click the button below and leave a message explaining why you believe it should not be deleted. You can also visit the talk page to check if you have received a response to your message.

Note that this project page may be deleted at any time if it unquestionably meets the speedy deletion criteria, or if an explanation posted to the talk page is found to be insufficient.

Nominator: Please consider placing the template:

((subst:Db-nocontent-notice|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Article message boxes|header=1)) ~~~~

on the talk page of the author.

Note to administrators: this page has content on its talk page which should be checked before deletion.

Administrators: check links, talk, history (last), and logs before deletion. Consider checking Google.
This page was last edited by HeyElliott (contribs | logs) at 22:20, 21 December 2023 (UTC) (3 months ago)[reply]

Deletion[edit]

This template is being used in the wrong namespace. To nominate this project page for deletion, go to Miscellany for deletion.

An editor has nominated this article for deletion.You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion, which will decide whether or not to retain it.Feel free to improve the article, but do not remove this notice before the discussion is closed. For more information, see the guide to deletion.Find sources: "Article message boxes" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR%5B%5BWikipedia%3AArticles+for+deletion%2FManual+of+Style+%28article+message+boxes%29%5D%5DAFD Steps to list an article for deletion: ((subst:Article for deletion)) ((subst:afd2|pg=Manual of Style/Article message boxes|cat=|text=)) ~~~~ (categories) ((subst:afd3|pg=Manual of Style (article message boxes))) (add to top of list) Please consider notifying the author(s) by placing ((subst:Afd notice|Manual of Style/Article message boxes|Manual of Style (article message boxes))) ~~~~ on their talk page(s). Unregistered users placing this tag on an article cannot complete the deletion nomination and should leave detailed reasons for deletion on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Article message boxes and then post a message at Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion requesting that someone else complete the process. If the nomination is not completed and no message is left on the talkpage, this tag may be removed.

Content[edit]

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view. (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Style[edit]

This Wikipedia page may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this Wikipedia page if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions.

This article needs more links to other articles to help integrate it into the encyclopedia. Please help improve this article by adding links that are relevant to the context within the existing text. (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Notice[edit]

This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. Feel free to improve this article or discuss changes on the talk page, but please note that updates without valid and reliable references will be removed. (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Move[edit]

It has been suggested that this page be merged with Example. (Discuss)