https://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Help%3AColon_trickHelp:Colon trick - Revision history2026-05-14T16:20:06ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.0https://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:Colon_trick&diff=22628&oldid=prevRichardpruen: 1 revision imported2022-01-02T17:18:02Z<p>1 revision imported</p>
<table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface">
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<col class="diff-marker" />
<col class="diff-content" />
<tr class="diff-title" lang="en-GB">
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 18:18, 2 January 2022</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="4" class="diff-notice" lang="en-GB"><div class="mw-diff-empty">(No difference)</div>
</td></tr>
<!-- diff cache key uk_vapewiki:diff:1.41:old-22627:rev-22628 -->
</table>Richardpruenhttps://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:Colon_trick&diff=22627&oldid=prevWikipedia>Illuminati42: Added periods after the sentences in Examples for consistency since the ://Hus sentence has a period.2021-04-20T22:34:02Z<p>Added periods after the sentences in Examples for consistency since the ://Hus sentence has a period.</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{For|the style guideline about using colon in articles|MOS:COLON}}<br />
{{Wikipedia how-to|WP:COLON|WP:COLONTRICK}}<br />
{{Linking and page manipulation|linking and diffs}}<br />
The '''colon trick''' is a method of providing a link to a [[Wikipedia:Category|category]], [[Help:Images|image]] or [[Help:Interwiki linking|interwiki link]] without adding the page to the category, displaying the image or adding the interwiki link to the [[Help:Interlanguage links|interlanguage links]]. It also allows for linking to pages with titles beginning with a recognized external link prefix, such as [[:http://]] or [[://Hus]].<br />
<br />
By adding a [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]] just inside the opening double square brackets of the link, the default behaviour of the [[MediaWiki software]] will be bypassed. It will appear as a conventional [[Help:Link|wikilink]].<br />
<br />
==Examples==<br />
* <code><nowiki>[[Category:Help]]</nowiki></code> would list this page in Category:Help, but <code><nowiki>[[:Category:Help]]</nowiki></code> will produce a link to [[:Category:Help]].<br />
* <code><nowiki>[[File:Wikipedia-logo.png]]</nowiki></code> would display an image, but <code><nowiki>[[:File:Wikipedia-logo.png]]</nowiki></code> will produce a link to [[:File:Wikipedia-logo.png]].<br />
* <code><nowiki>[[pt:Internet]]</nowiki></code> will create an interlanguage link, but <code><nowiki>[[:pt:Internet]]</nowiki></code> will produce an interwiki link to [[:pt:Internet]] (in the Portuguese Wikipedia).<br />
* <code><nowiki>[[//Hus]]</nowiki></code> will produce an (invalid) external link wrapped in brackets ("[[//Hus]]"), but <code><nowiki>[[://Hus]]</nowiki></code> will produce a link to [[://Hus]].<br />
* <code><nowiki>[[Computer]]</nowiki></code> links to the [[Computer]] article; adding a colon like <code><nowiki>[[:Computer]]</nowiki></code> can be done, but the colon is unneeded and makes no difference.<br />
<br />
==With templates==<br />
A colon can also be used to transclude a page in mainspace, rather than template space. For example, {{tlx|The Beatles}} will transclude [[Template:The Beatles]], but <samp><nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[The Beatles|:The&nbsp;Beatles]]}}</samp> will transclude the mainspace article [[The Beatles]]. This is useful when the mainspace article has been specially formatted to be transcluded in other articles, by using &lt;noinclude&gt; or &lt;includeonly&gt; tags to indicate the portion that should be included when the article is transcluded.<br />
<br />
{{Wikipedia technical help|collapsed}}<br />
[[Category:Wikipedia link help|Colon trick]]</div>Wikipedia>Illuminati42