This template is used on
a very large number of pages
To avoid large-scale disruption and unnecessary
server load
, any changes to this template should first be tested in the template's
/sandbox
or
/testcases
subpages, or in your own
user space
. The tested changes can then be added in one single edit to the template. Please consider discussing any changes on the
talk page
before implementing them.
Nodyn:Blockquote/doc/boilerplate
{{Blockquote}}
adds a
block quotation
to an article page.
This is easier to type and is more wiki-like than the equivalent
HTML
blockquote
...
blockquote
tags, and has additional pre-formatted attribution parameters for author and source (though these are not usually used in articles;
Nodyn:Crossreference
).
Note:
Block quotes do
not
normally contain quotation marks
Nodyn:Crossreference
This template is for actual quotations only.
Do not use it for block indentation of other material; see
{{
Block indent
}}
for that purpose.
Basic use
Markup
Renders as
{{Blockquote
|text=Quoted material.
}}
Quoted material.
With attribution displayed
Markup
Renders as
{{Blockquote
|text=Quoted material.
|author=First M. Last
}}
Quoted material.
With more attribution
Markup
Renders as
{{Blockquote
|text=Quoted material.
|author=First M. Last
|title="Article Title"
|source=''Book Title'' (date)
}}
Quoted material.
Examples with "multiline"
Especially useful for translated quotes;
see
notes about this parameter
with "multiline"
Markup
Renders as
{{blockquote|text=
{{lang|fr|Ceci n'est pas une pipe.}}
This is Not a Pipe.
|multiline=yes
|author=[[René Magritte]]
|title=''[[The Treachery of Images]]''
}}
Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
This is Not a Pipe.
Markup
Renders as
{{blockquote|text=
{{lang|fr|Ceci n'est pas une pipe.}}
This is Not a Pipe.
|author=[[René Magritte]]
|title=''[[The Treachery of Images]]''
}}
Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
This is Not a Pipe.
An ample example
Markup
Renders as
{{
Blockquote
text
Cry "Havoc" and let slip the dogs of war.
character
Mark Antony
author
[[
William Shakespeare
]]|
title
''
[[
Julius Caesar (play)
Julius Caesar
]]
''
source
act III, scene I
}}
Cry "Havoc" and let slip the dogs of war.
{{
Blockquote
text
author
title
source
character
multiline
class
style
}}
See also section
#TemplateData
text
a.k.a.
—The material being quoted, without quotation marks around it. It is always safest to name this parameter (rather than use an unnamed positional parameter), because, otherwise, any inclusion of a
non-escaped "=" character
(e.g., in a URL in a source citation) will break the template.
These parameters are for
displaying
attribution information below the quote; this should not be confused with citing a source
Nodyn:Crossreference
. These parameters are entirely optional, and are usually used with famous quotations, not routine block quotations, which are usually sourced at the end of the introductory line immediately before the quotation, with a normal
ref
...
ref
tag.
author
a.k.a.
– optional author/speaker attribution information that will appear below the quotation, and preceded with an attribution dash.
title
a.k.a.
– optional title of the work the quote appears in, to display below the quotation. This parameter immediately follows the output of
author
(and an auto-generated comma), if one is provided. It does not auto-italicize. Major works (books, plays, albums, feature films, etc.) should be italicized; minor works (articles, chapters, poems, songs, TV episodes, etc.) go in quotation marks
Nodyn:Crossreference
. Additional citation information can be provided in a fourth parameter,
source
, below, which will appear after the title.
source
a.k.a.
– optionally used for additional source information to display, after
title
, like so:
|title="The Aerodynamics of Shaved Weasels" |source=
''Perspectives on Mammal Barbering''
, 2016
; a comma will be auto-generated between the two parameters. If
source
is used without
title
, it simply acts as
title
(This parameter was added primarily to ease conversion from misuse of the
pull quote
template
{{
Quote frame
}}
for block quotation, but it may aid in cleaner meta-data implementation later.)
character
a.k.a.
char
or
– to attribute fictional speech to a fictional character,
with
other citation information. Can also be used to attribute real speech to a specific speaker among many, e.g. in a roundtable/panel transcript, a band interview, etc. This parameter outputs "[[[:Nodyn:Var]]], in" after the attribution dash and before the output of the parameters above, thus one or more of those parameters must also be supplied. If you need to cite a fictional speaker in an article about a single work of fiction, where repeating the author and title information would be redundant, you can just use the
author
parameter instead of
character
Technically, all citation information can be given in a single parameter, as in:
|source=Anonymous interview subject, in Jane G. Arthur, "The Aerodynamics of Shaved Weasels",
''Perspectives on Mammal Barbering''
(2016), Bram Xander Yojimbo (ed.)
But this is a bit messy, and will impede later efforts to generate metadata from quotation attribution the way we are already doing with source citations. This is much more usable:
|character=Anonymous interview subject
|author=Jane G. Arthur
|title="The Aerodynamics of Shaved Weasels"
|source=
''Perspectives on Mammal Barbering''
(2016), Bram Xander Yojimbo (ed.)
Later development can assign a CSS
class
and so forth to these separate parameters, upon which scripts would be able to operate (e.g. to look up things in WikiQuote).
multiline
– keep forced linebreaks in output.
Notes:
Will only be applied if at least one of these other parameters or its aliases is not empty (including implicit, unnamed parameters):
author
title
source
, or
character
The value does not matter, as long it is not empty. Using a so called speaking parameter (such as
true
or
yes
) is highly recommended. Avoid values that can surprise users (e.g.
false
or
no
).
style
– allows specifying additional
CSS
styles (
not
classes) to apply to the
blockquote
...
blockquote
element.
Nodyn:Crossreference
class
– allows specifying additional HTML classes to apply to the same element.
reference citation
can be placed before the quote, after the quote, or in the
source
parameter:
Nodyn:Stronggood
In the regular-prose introduction to the quotation, when a quotation is given without the displayed
author
title
, or
source
parameters:
According to Pat Doe, in "Underwater Basketweaving Tips" (2015):
ref
...
ref
{{blockquote |text=Quoted material.}}
At the end of the quotation, when a quotation is given without the displayed
author
title
, or
source
parameters, and placement before the quote isn't appropriate (e.g. because the material immediately before the quote isn't cited to the same source or introduces multiple quotes from different sources:
Pat Doe and Chris Foo took opposing positions: {{blockquote |text=Doe's Quoted material.
ref
...
ref
}} {{blockquote |text=Foo's Quoted material.
ref
...
ref
}}
After the
source
value (if a value is given for the
source
parameter other than the
ref
...
ref
itself):
One expert noted in 2015: {{blockquote |text=Quoted material. |author=Pat Doe |source="Underwater Basketweaving Tips" (2015)
ref
...
ref
}}
Nodyn:Xmark
Nodyn:Strongbad
After the quoted person's name in
author
, or after the work's title in
title
, when a
source
parameter is not being added:
As noted in "Underwater Basketweaving Tips" (2015): {{blockquote |text=Quoted material. |author=Pat Doe
ref
...
ref
}}
Nodyn:A note
Please avoid this format, as it will pollute the author or title metadata with non-author or non-title information.
Please do not place the citation in a
author
or
source
parameter by itself, as it will produce a nonsensical attribution line that looks like this:
Nodyn:In5
Nodyn:Dummy reference
Please also do not put it just outside the
{{blockquote}}
template, as this will cause a:
Nodyn:In5
Nodyn:Dummy reference
on a line by itself.
If you do not provide text, the template generates a parser error message, which will appear in red text in the rendered page.
If any parameter's actual value contains an
equals sign
), you
must
use a named parameter (e.g.
|text="E=MC
" is a formula everyone knows but few understand
, not a blank-name positional parameter. The text before the equals sign gets misinterpreted as a named parameter otherwise. Be wary of URLs, which frequently contain this character. Named parameters are always safer, in this and other templates.
If any parameter's actual value contains characters used for wiki markup syntax (such as
pipe
brackets
, single quotation marks, etc.), you may need to escape it. See
{{
}}
and friends.
As of Medi 2015
[update]
the text of a block quotation may rarely overflow (in Firefox or other Gecko browsers) a right-floated item (e.g. a
{{
Listen
}}
box, when that item is below another right-floated item of a fixed size that is narrower. In Safari and other Webkit browsers (and even more rarely in Chrome/Chromium) the same condition can cause the block quotation to be pushed downward. Both of these problems can be fixed by either:
removing the sizing on the upper item and letting it use its default size (e.g. removing
Nodyn:Varx
Nodyn:Varpx
sizing or
upright
from a right-floated image above a wider right-floated object that is being overflowed by quotation text; or
using
style
overflow
inherit
in the quotation template.
There may be other solutions, and future browser upgrades may eliminate the issue. It arises at all because of the
blockquote
overflow
hidden
;}
CSS declaration in
Mediawiki:Common.css
, which itself works around other, more common display problems. A solution that fixes
all
of the issues is unknown at this time.
In rare layout cases, e.g. when quotes are sandwiched between userboxes, a quotation may appear blanked out, in some browsers. The workaround for this problem is to add
style
overflow
inherit
to such an instance of the template.
This template sets a text style which might ignore one blank line, and so the template must be ended with a break (newline) or the next blank line might be ignored. Otherwise, beware inline, as:
Nodyn:In5text
here
{{blockquote|this is quoted}}
More text here
spans a blank line, unless a
{{blockquote|...}}
is ended with a line break, then the next blank line might be ignored and two paragraphs joined.
The
blockquote
element and any templates that use it do not honor newlines:
Markup
Renders as
blockquote
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
blockquote
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
An easy solution is to use the
{{
poem quote
}}
template instead of

...

. This is effectively the same as using the
Nodyn:Xtag
tag inside
blockquote
, which converts line breaks to
br
/>
tags:
Markup
Renders as
blockquote
><
poem
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
poem
>blockquote
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
To markup actual paragraphs within block quotations, entire blank lines can be used between them, which will convert to
...
tags:
Markup
Renders as
blockquote
Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 3
blockquote
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Note that it may be necessary to put a line break in the wikitext before

and after
in order for the paragraphs to render with the intended separation. (This also makes the wikitext easier to read.)
This paragraph style also works with
{{
blockquote
}}
, which is a replacement for
Nodyn:Xtag
that also has parameters to make formatting of the attribution more convenient and consistent.
Blockquote and templates that call it, and are indented with colon (:), bulleted with asterisk (*), or numbered with number (#), will generate errors and incorrectly display anything after a newline character.
Markup
Renders as
blockquote
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
blockquote
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Markup
Renders as
blockquote
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
blockquote
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Markup
Renders as
blockquote
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
blockquote
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
The
blockquote
...
blockquote
element has styles that change the font size: on desktop, text is smaller; on mobile, it is larger. This change is relative to the enclosing context, meaning that if you quote from a source that itself uses a block quotation, you'll find that the inner quotation is either really tiny and hard to read, or really large and barely fits on the screen. To fix this issue, add the parameter
style
font-size
inherit
on any inner
{{blockquote}}
templates.
Nodyn:Block bug documentation
Paramedrau templed
Edit template data
Paramedr
Disgrifiad
Math
Statws
text
text
quote
The text to quote
Enghraifft
Cry "Havoc" and let slip the dogs of war.
Cynnwys
angenrheidiol
author
author
cite
sign
The writer of the source
Enghraifft
William Shakespeare
Cynnwys
suggested
title
title
The work being quoted from
Enghraifft
Julius Caesar
Cynnwys
suggested
source
source
A source for the quote
Enghraifft
act III, scene I
Cynnwys
suggested
character
character
char
The speaker within the work who is being quoted
Enghraifft
Mark Antony
Cynnwys
dewisol
multiline
multiline
Keeps forced linebreaks in output
Enghraifft
true
Llinyn
dewisol
style
style
Additional CSS styles (not classes) to apply
Enghraifft
font-size:inherit;
Llinyn
dewisol
class
class
Additional HTML classes to apply
Enghraifft
pullquote
Llinyn
dewisol
Nodyn:Quotation templates
Nodyn:Semantic markup templates