Short navigational notes in Wikipedia articles
 | This page in a nutshell: Hatnotes provide links at the top of an article or a section to help readers locate a different article if the one they are viewing is not the one they're looking for. |
Hatnotes are short notes placed at the top of a page or a section, in the way that a hat is placed on top of one's head. For an example, see the notes in italics immediately preceding the boxes above. The purpose of a hatnote is to help readers locate a different article if the one they are seeing is not the one they are looking for. Readers may have arrived at the article containing the hatnote because:
- They were redirected.
- They may be seeking an article that uses a more specific, disambiguated title.
- They may be seeking an article with a similar name to, or that otherwise might be confused with, the article with the hatnote.
Hatnotes provide links to the possibly sought article or to a disambiguation page.
The six basic rules of hatnotes are:
- Link directly to other articles; do not pipe non-disambiguation links. With regard to linking to redirects, follow any applicable rules in the disambiguation guideline. For example, links to disambiguation pages should always end in "(disambiguation)".
- Keep explanations to a minimum; explain vital information only, letting the lead section and body of the article clarify things for the reader.
- Mention other topics and articles only if there is a reasonable possibility of a reader arriving at the article either by mistake or with another topic in mind.
- However, if a notable topic X is commonly referred to as "Foo", but the article "Foo" is not about X, there must be a hatnote linking to the article on X or linking to a disambiguation page that contains a link to the article on X.
- Ideally, limit hatnotes to just one at the top of the page or section. Multiple hatnotes may be appropriate when they serve different purposes, such as disambiguating topics with similar names and explaining redirects. (In such cases, consider using
{{hatnote group}}.) - Refrain from having redlinks in your hatnotes. As opposed to having redlinks in the writing of the article, redlinks in hatnotes do not help and add to a large backlog.
For more information about methods of disambiguating articles, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation.
Hatnotes are placed at the top of an article or section. When used at the top of an article, hatnotes are placed immediately following a short description template but strictly before any other content including protection icons or maintenance tags. For the specific order of placing hatnotes with respect to other article elements, see MOS:ORDER and MOS:SECTIONLOC. Text-based web browsers and screen readers present the page sequentially. Placing hatnotes immediately after the title ensures that readers are promptly directed to related or alternative articles if they have arrived at the page unintentionally. This placement enhances navigation and improves the overall user experience.
In most cases, hatnotes should be created using a standard hatnote template, as illustrated in § Hatnote templates below. This permits the form and structure of hatnotes to be changed uniformly across the encyclopedia as needed, and the templates to be excluded in print.
Current style on the English Wikipedia is to italicize and to indent each note, without a bullet before the item. A horizontal dividing line should not be placed either under a note or after the final item in a list. Links to articles should follow the naming conventions for capitalization – typically sentence case, not all lower case.
When determining the content of the hatnote, keep in mind that it forms part of the user interface rather than the article content. Two applicable user interface design principles are clarity and conciseness. The hatnote should not overload the user with extraneous information, and the content should be imparted quickly and accurately. These design goals are conveyed succinctly in the principle less is more.
As hatnotes separate the reader from the content they are looking for, hatnotes should generally be as concise as possible. Long explanations are generally discouraged; the article's lead text, not the hatnote, should explain what the article is about. In almost all cases, the hatnote is intended only to direct readers to other articles in case they were actually looking for something they will not find in the article containing the hatnote.
If a disambiguation page exists for a given term, then linking to it should be enough. For example, if the article is X then its hatnote will link to X (disambiguation); it should not have entries for other topics known as X, like X (Grafton novel) or X (charge), because they are already listed in the disambiguation page. However, such an article may be linked from the disambiguation hatnote if it could be expected by a significant number of readers to be at the title in question: for instance, Turkey is about the country, but many readers expect to find the article about the bird at that title; therefore, the hatnote there correctly reads
{{About|the country|the bird|Turkey (bird)|other uses|Turkey (disambiguation)}}
which renders
There should be as few hatnotes as possible. One single hatnote, which can accommodate several links, is greatly preferable to two or more. Multiple hatnotes may however be appropriate when each serves a different purpose, such as disambiguating the title or distinguishing similar terms.[1]
Some hatnote disambiguation templates include a brief summary of the present article's topic; others do not have a summary. For instance, in the article Honey, one might use the template {{about|the insect-produced fluid}} to produce:
Alternatively, one might use {{other uses}} to produce:
Either of these two styles is acceptable. The choice of style in a given article is based on editors' preferences and on what is likely to be clearer and easier for the reader. (In this particular instance, most English speakers will know what honey is, and the second, more concise hatnote is preferable.) Where an article already has a hatnote in one of these styles, editors should not change it to the other style without good reason.
Two articles with similar titles
[edit]
DunwichThis page is about the village in England. For H.P. Lovecraft's fictional town, see
Dunwich (Lovecraft).
() is a town in the county of
Suffolkin
England, the remnant of what was once a prosperous seaport and centre of the wool trade during the early
middle ages, with a natural harbour formed by the mouths of the
River Blyth. ...
When two articles share the same title, except that one title is disambiguated and the other is not, and it is not appropriate to change the undisambiguated[a] article's title, the undisambiguated article should include a hatnote with a link to the other article. It is not necessary to create a separate disambiguation page. The {{about}} template may be used for this, in this case, the syntax was the following:
{{about|the village in England|H. P. Lovecraft's fictional town|Dunwich (Lovecraft)}}
Terms that can cause confusion with another topic
[edit]
Use a hatnote like {{distinguish}} when a term might be confused with a similar or commonly misspelled title. The hatnote is helpful when a significant number of readers might arrive at the page due to a simple typing error or misinterpretation, and when just displaying the alternative term is enough to clarify the difference without further explanation. These hatnotes should only be used when the ambiguity exists for a significant portion of the readership.
However, do not use {{distinguish}} when the difference between the topics is not readily apparent without additional details. In such cases, use {{about}}, {{for}} or {{other uses}} instead. These provide brief explanations within the hatnote, helping readers understand the distinction without requiring the reader to click through and differentiate the terms on their own.
Linking to a disambiguation page
[edit]
When a term has a primary meaning and two or more additional meanings, the hatnote on the primary topic page should link to a disambiguation page. The template {{other uses}} can be used for this purpose.
Often, the hatnote also includes a brief description of the current article's subject, to help readers confirm they have landed on the intended topic. For example:
In this case, the {{about}} template was used, with the following syntax:
{{about|the mazelike labyrinth from Greek mythology}}
This structure helps guide readers to related topics, while confirming the focus of the current page.
Ambiguous term that redirects to an unambiguously named article
[edit]
The {{redirect}} template, or a related hatnote, should be used when an ambiguous title is redirected to an unambiguous article or to the primary topic for that term. This hatnote helps readers who arrive via the ambiguous redirect understand what just happened and navigate accordingly:
Johann Sebastian Bach
(Redirected from Bach)
Johann Sebastian Bach
(31 March [
O.S.21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late
Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ...
Hatnotes above maintenance tags
[edit]Always place a hatnote above maintenance tags, but below short description templates. For detailed guidance on placement of hatnotes, see § Placement.
The Giveris a 1993 American
young-adult dystopian novelby
Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which at first appears as
utopian, but is later revealed to be a
dystopianone as the story progresses. The novel follows a boy named Jonas. ...
Hatnotes with italics in the links
[edit]
Abaratha agama, the
spotted angle, is a species of
butterflybelonging to the family
Hesperiidae. ...
Sometimes, hatnotes need to refer to titles or terms that are normally italicized on Wikipedia—for example, non-English terms, titles of works, or Latin species names. However, hatnote templates output all text in italics by default, so these elements must be explicitly unitalicized to preserve the correct formatting and emphasis.
Incorrect formatting in hatnotes can mislead readers or break consistency with the Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Italics.
To remove italics within a hatnote:
- Wrap the text in double apostrophes:
''...'' - Use
<i>...</i>HTML tags.
This format renders the species name in normal font style, preventing double-italics. For example, using {{redirect}}:[b]
{{Redirect|Spotted angle|the other butterfly with this name|Caprona alida{{!}}''
Caprona alida''
}}
Hatnotes with label parameters
[edit]Many hatnote templates found below section headers, such as {{Main}}, {{See also}}, {{Further}} and others, have label parameters to customize the italicization of the output text:[c]
{{See also|Caprona alida|label1=''Caprona alida''}}
In this instance, the rendered term will stand out unitalicized.
Below are some examples of improper usages of hatnotes.
Trivial information, dictionary definitions, and slang
[edit]
When notes feature a trivial detail or use of a term, or links to overly specific and tendentious material, they are unwarranted.
A previous version of the article Investment showed:
In this case, there is no direct disambiguation, and the note listed is bound to be uninteresting to most readers. The proper disambiguation simply links to a separate Invest (disambiguation) page.
Legitimate information about the topic
[edit]
A previous version of the Aisha article showed:
This is an improper use of disambiguating hatnotes. Instead, the information belongs in the body of the article, or in the article about the book, or in a separate article about names, or all three places. Hatnotes are meant to reduce confusion and direct readers to another article they might have been looking for, not for information about the subject of the article itself.
Linking to articles that are related to the topic
[edit]
Disambiguation hatnotes are intended to link to separate topics that could be referred to by the same title, of the article or any of its redirects. They are not intended to link to topics that are simply related to each other, or to a specific aspect of a general topic:
Instead of using a disambiguation hatnote in such cases, it is better to summarize the topic Extraterrestrial life in popular culture under a subsection of Extraterrestrial life in conjunction with the {{main}} template.
Similarly, do not use the {{see also}} or {{main}} templates on top of a page, as they are meant only for sections; templates {{other uses}} and {{broader}} might be more appropriate alternatives.
This guideline does not discourage the use of disambiguation hatnotes in a situation where separate topics are related, but could nonetheless be referred to by the same title and would thus qualify for disambiguation, such as a book and its film adaptation. (e.g. the article Where the Crawdads Sing is about the novel and has a hatnote leading to Where the Crawdads Sing (film).)
Disambiguating article names that are not ambiguous
[edit]
It is usually preferable not to have a hatnote when the name of the article is not ambiguous.
Here, the hatnote can be removed. A reader who is following links within Wikipedia is unlikely to end up at Water (wuxing) if they were looking for other meanings of water, since water does not redirect there.
A hatnote may still be appropriate when even a more specific name is still ambiguous. For example, Tree (set theory) might still be confused with Tree (descriptive set theory).
The presence or absence of hatnotes in articles with disambiguated titles has been a contentious issue. There are cases where some editors strongly believe that such hatnotes should be included, such as the various articles about treaties called Treaty of Paris.
A hatnote may be appropriate in an unambiguously named article when an ambiguous term redirects to it, as explained in § Ambiguous term that redirects to an unambiguously named article above.
Each additional link in the hatnote besides the ambiguous or confusable topic(s) makes it more difficult to find the desired target. For example, in a previous version of the article WTOB (AM) under a former callsign:
In this case, the link to New Orleans, Louisiana, in the hatnote, leads to an article that is not ambiguous with the title. Keeping only the second link to the possible other destination (WIST (AM)) makes it easier to find the proper link:
WTIXFor the New Orleans, Louisiana, United States radio station known as WTIX from 1953–2005, see
WIST (AM).
(980
AM) is a
radio stationbroadcasting a
sports radioformat. ...
A previous version of the Hurricane Katrina article contained:
Hurricane KatrinaIf you are trying to locate someone missing in Hurricane Katrina, or register yourself as found, you can use the site
www.disastersearch.org., which made
landfallnear
New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005, was one of the most destructive and expensive
tropical cyclonesto hit the United States. ...
The use of external help links in Wikipedia cannot reasonably be maintained. In special cases, a link to an "External links" section may be appropriate, but POV favoritism can be obstructive. In this case, the hatnote was removed entirely.
Non-existent articles
[edit]
Hatnotes should not contain red links (like Foo), since hatnotes are intended to help users navigate to another article they may have intended to find. Pages using hatnotes with red links are added to Category:Articles with hatnote templates targeting a nonexistent page.
Superfluous details
[edit]
A previous version of the article Ramesses II showed:
Ramesses II"Ramses II" redirects here. For the heavily modified Soviet T-55 main battle tank of the Egyptian military, see
Ramses II tank.
was an
Egyptian pharaoh. ...
In this case, the description is overly detailed. The proper disambiguation offers just enough information to disambiguate the two topics:
{{Hatnote}} allows general text to be shown in hatnote format. It is appropriate when none of the other specific templates listed below includes the combination of parameters needed, or to combine several of them in a single hatnote.
{{Hatnote|CUSTOM TEXT}}→CUSTOM TEXT
{{Self reference}}(a generic template for self-references to Wikipedia material)
Other uses of the same title ("For ..., see ...")
[edit]It is usually preferable not to have a hatnote when the name of the article is not ambiguous, per § Disambiguating article names that are not ambiguous.
Note: When used in main namespace (a.k.a. mainspace), the word "page" in the following hatnotes is replaced by "article".
"This article is about ... For other uses, see ..."
[edit]{{About}} is the main template for noting other uses.
"This page is about ... It is not to be confused with ..."
[edit]{{About-distinguish}} is a template for noting other uses when there could be confusion with another topic.
{{For}} can be used instead of {{About}} so as not to display: This page is about USE1. but still specify a specific other use. This effect can also be achieved by using an empty first parameter in {{About}} as in:
For example: {{For|OTHER TOPIC|PAGE1}} is the same as {{About||OTHER TOPIC|PAGE1}} (note the empty first parameter).
However, it is somewhat clearer when using the {{For}} template, since the word "about" does not appear in the statement.
As with {{Other uses}}, there is a whole family of "for" templates. {{For-text}} allows custom text, such as quotation marks or a link from part of the "CUSTOM TEXT", but does not supply automatic wikilinking
It also supports up to three topics:
{{For-text|OTHER TOPIC|CUSTOM TEXT|OTHER TOPIC 2|CUSTOM TEXT 2}}→For OTHER TOPIC, see CUSTOM TEXT. For OTHER TOPIC 2, see CUSTOM TEXT 2.
{{For-text|OTHER TOPIC|CUSTOM TEXT|OTHER TOPIC 2|CUSTOM TEXT 2|OTHER TOPIC 3|CUSTOM TEXT 3}}→For OTHER TOPIC, see CUSTOM TEXT. For OTHER TOPIC 2, see CUSTOM TEXT 2. For OTHER TOPIC 3, see CUSTOM TEXT 3.
"For other uses, see ..."
[edit]When such a wordy hatnote as {{About}} is not needed, {{Other uses}} is often useful.
There are, historically, a whole family of "other uses" templates for specific cases. {{About}} is the standard hatnote for "other uses" and many of them can be specified using the {{About}} template. However, the individual templates may be easier to use in certain contexts.
Here are the variations and (when appropriate) the equivalents using the {{About}}, {{Other uses}} or {{For}} templates.
"For other uses of ..., see ..."
[edit]"... redirects here. For other uses, see ..."
[edit]{{Redirect|REDIRECT1}}→{{Redirect|REDIRECT1||PAGE1}}→{{Redirect|REDIRECT1|USE1|PAGE1}}→{{Redirect|REDIRECT1|USE1|PAGE1|USE2|PAGE2}}→{{Redirect|REDIRECT1|USE1|PAGE1|and|PAGE2}}→
- Variations
- For two sources:
- For three or more sources:
{{Redirect-multi|2|REDIRECT1|REDIRECT2}}→{{Redirect-multi|3|REDIRECT1|REDIRECT2|REDIRECT3}}→{{Redirect-multi|2|REDIRECT1|REDIRECT2|USE|PAGE}}→{{Redirect-multi|2|REDIRECT1|REDIRECT2|USE1|PAGE1|USE2|PAGE2|and|PAGE3}}→{{Redirect-several|REDIRECT1|REDIRECT2|REDIRECT3}}→
- To specify the text following "redirects here.":
"For technical reasons, ... redirects here. ...
[edit]... redirects here. Not to be confused with ...
[edit]Similar proper names ("For other people named ...")
[edit]{{Other people}}→{{Other people|NAME}}→{{Other people|NAME|PAGE}}→{{Other people||PAGE}}→{{Other people|NAME|PAGE|named=titled}}→{{About other people|PERSON1}}→{{About other people|PERSON1|NAME}}→{{About other people|PERSON1|NAME|named=titled}}→{{About other people|PERSON1|NAME|PAGE}}→{{About other people|PERSON1||PAGE}}→{{About other people|PERSON1|PAGE1|PAGE2|PAGE3}}→{{Similar names|NAME1|NAME2|NAME3|NAME4}}→- Note: defaults to "named" as in
{{Other people}}, exists for options like "nicknamed", "known as", etc.
- Note: defaults to "named" as in
Other places/ships/hurricanes
[edit]"Not to be confused with ..."
[edit]"... redirects here; not to be confused with ..."
[edit]
Family names can also be clarified using inline footnotes via {{Family name footnote}}.
For use in sections
[edit]"Main article: ..."
[edit]{{Main}} is used to make summary style explicit, when used in a summary section for which there is also a separate article on the subject:
"Further information: ..."
[edit]{{Further}} can supplement {{Main}} in summary sections, or can indicate more details in nonsummary sections:
{{Further|PAGE}}→Further information:
PAGE{{Further|PAGE1|PAGE2|PAGE3}}→{{Further|topic=TOPIC|PAGE1|PAGE2|PAGE3}}→{{Further2|[[PAGE1]], [[PAGE2]], and other text}}→{{Further ill}}may be used to link to articles containing further information on a topic, where English Wikipedia does not yet have an article, but another language Wikipedia does.
{{See also}} can be used at the head of a section.
{{See also|TOPIC PAGE|OTHER TOPIC PAGE}}→
- Note: use only when OTHER TOPIC PAGE is related to current article and contains a self-explanatory parenthetical.
Article or section transclusions
[edit]Category-specific templates:
This is a template for linking categories horizontally. Horizontal linkage is often the right solution when vertical linkage (i.e., as sub-category and parent category) is not appropriate. In most cases, this template should be used on both categories to create reciprocal linkage between the two categories.
"The correct title of this article is ... The substitution or omission of the (or, without a reason: "It appears incorrectly here") ... is due to technical restrictions."
Do not use subst: with these templates, as that will prevent:
- Propagating changes as the template is modified
- What links here (WLH) listing.
These templates are used in thousands of articles; therefore, changing the syntax could break thousands of articles. If you wish to create or edit a disambiguation or redirection template, first ask yourself the following questions:
- Is there already a template that will do this job? Since many disambiguation and redirection templates have already been created, first check: Category:Hatnote templates.
- Do I really need a new template for this? Will it likely be used on any other articles or should I just use
{{Hatnote}}instead? Before creating a new template, see the template namespace guideline. - If I change the parameters around on an existing template, do I know what the result will be? Will it break existing uses of the template, and if so, can I fix all of the errors?
Before making any changes, see Wikipedia:Template sandbox and test cases.
- ^ An undisambiguated article is an article title without a disambiguator is said to be the undisambiguated title or base name. For example Joker (film) is a disambiguated title, while the title Joker is undisambiguated.
- ^ The magic word
{{!}}delays the interpretation of a vertical bar (|) as wikitext to create a piped link in a template parameter without prematurely calling the next parameter. - ^ As it does not output the entire string given to
|label1=in italics.