Template:Annotated link

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

Usage

Used in lists to provide an annotated link using the short description from the linked page for annotation. Useful for disambiguation and providing an idea of what the link is about, without having to hover on the link. The link may be piped to adjust appearance. An abbreviation/acronym/initialism may be included as an optional parameter, and an alias as another optional parameter. The annotation follows a spaced ndash by default, but this can be replaced by other separators as an optional parameter.

If a {{Short description}} template exists in the targeted article, but is empty, or contains a space, non-breaking space, the word blank, none, null, or other indication that a short description is not appropriate or needed, the output should be an un-annotated link. If it is not, list such cases on the talk page for attention, or fix it if you can. Note that this template does not take short descriptions from Wikidata even if the article lacks a {{Short description}} template.

The template should not be used for annotating links on disambiguation pages. The relevant discussion is at Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation § Use of annotated links and concludes:

• They contain formatting that is not in line with the long-established formatting for disambiguation entries at MOS:DAB.
• The text of the descriptions is frequently not optimal for disambiguation pages, as it may be neither distinguishing nor succinct.
• They would remove control of the text from the disambiguation page itself, and allow disambiguation pages to be modified without appearing in the edit history of the page itself, or in notifications relating to the page. (This reason is not fixable, and is sufficient reason not to use the template or any modification thereof.)

Syntax

{{Annotated link|Article title|piped link|abbreviation= |aka= |dash= }}

Examples

Null case: Short description template present in article but indicates short description not needed by using one of the null descriptions

{{Annotated link|Template:Annotated link/demo}}

Template:Annotated link/demo

Basic

{{Annotated link|Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques}}

Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques – International organisation for underwater activities

Piped for alternative link display

{{Annotated link|Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques|<big>World Underwater Federation</big>}}

World Underwater Federation – International organisation for underwater activities

Piped to use template:lang per MOS:FOREIGNITALIC

{{Annotated link|Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques |{{lang|fr |Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques |nocat=yes}}}}

Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques

 – International organisation for underwater activities

Abbreviation added

{{Annotated link|Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques|World Underwater Federation|abbreviation=CMAS}}

World Underwater Federation (CMAS) – International organisation for underwater activities

Alias added

{{Annotated link|Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques|World Underwater Federation|abbreviation=CMAS |aka=''Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques''}}

World Underwater Federation (CMAS), also known as Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques – International organisation for underwater activities

Dash replaced

{{Annotated link|Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques|World Underwater Federation|abbreviation=CMAS |aka=''Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques''|dash=, }}

World Underwater Federation (CMAS), also known as Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques, International organisation for underwater activities

Notes

• If you are porting this template to other Wikipedia sites, you may want to modify this template to read Wikidata for short descriptions depending on your local policies on placing such descriptions. To do so, you will need to run some Lua code along the lines of return mw.wikibase.description(mw.wikibase.getEntityIdForTitle(frame.args[1])) in a module. Module:ResolveEntityId may be used for the entity ID if you wish to handle redirects too.
  • For an example of such a template, see the Chinese Wikipedia version.

Parameters

This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools.

Annotated link

a link annotated using the short description

Template parameters[Edit template data]

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Article title	1	Title of the article where the short description template and value exist.	Page name	required
Display title	2	The text to be displayed in the link Default Article title	Content	optional
abbreviation	abbreviation	abbreviation to be displayed in parentheses after the display title	String	optional
alternative name	aka	alternative names to display after the link as: also known as alternative name	String	optional
dash	dash	Replace the dash with something else Example , 	String	optional

See also

• {{AnnotatedListOfLinks}} - wraps {{Annotated link}} around multiple links at once
• {{SDlink}} - a version that checks for and fixes a bug in the handling of a numbered parameter
• {{laal}} – displays an article's pagelinks alongside its short description
• Wikipedia:Short description − General information about short descriptions
• WP:HOWTOSD − Detailed guidance on writing short descriptions.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Annotated link/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.