Template:Short description
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![]() | This template is transcluded in one or more cascade-protected pages, so only administrators can edit it. |
![]() | Please do not use redirects/shortcuts for this template, as they cause problems with the short description editing gadget and other maintenance tools. |
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Template:Short description is used to add a short description (which can be edited from within Wikipedia) to a Wikipedia page. These descriptions appear in Wikipedia searches and elsewhere, and help users identify the desired article.
Usage
{{Short description|Write your short description here}}
This should be limited to about 40 characters, as explained at WP:SDFORMAT, along with the other guidance at WP:SDCONTENT.
If the page's title is sufficiently descriptive that a short description is not needed, use the following:
{{Short description|none}}
Parameters
TemplateData for Short description
Creates a short description for a Wikipedia page, which is displayed in search results and other locations.
Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Description | 1 | The short description of the article or 'none'. It should be limited to about 40 characters.
| Content | required |
No replace? | 2 | Should be unused or 'noreplace'. Templates with noreplace will not replace a short description defined by an earlier template. Mainly for use within transcluded templates.
| String | optional |
pagetype | pagetype | The type of page. This puts it in the appropriate category - Things with short description. Normally unneeded, since handled through namespace detection.
| String | optional |
About writing good short descriptions
This page is about the short description template; it does not provide guidelines for writing a good short description. If you plan to use this template, you should make sure you read and follow the detailed guidance at WP:HOWTOSD. General information can be found at Wikipedia:Short description.
Template information
Eventually all articles should have a short description:
- by directly using this template, in which case the short description will be unique to the article
- transcluded in another template, such as a disambiguation template, where a generic short description is adequate for a large class of pages
- where the short description is assembled from data in an infobox
Automatically generated descriptions within templates should set the second parameter as noreplace
so they do not override any short descriptions specifically added to the transcluding article.
Short descriptions are not normally needed for non-article pages, such as redirects, but can be added if useful.
If the article title alone is sufficient to ensure reliable identification of the desired article, a null value of {{Short description|none}}
may be used.