Template:Short description

A checked version of this page, approved on 17 October 2020, was based on this revision.

This content is in the Template Namespace. Used for page-templates that can be re-used across the wiki.

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

This template is used on many pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Template:Short description is used to add a short description (which can be edited from within Wikipedia) to a Wikipedia page.

Usage

{{Short description|Write your short description here}}

Parameters

Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for Short description

Creates a short description for a Wikipedia article, which is used in the Visual Editor to provide context on wikilinks.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
This template has custom formatting.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Description	`1`	The short description of the article Example Online free encyclopedia anyone can edit	Content	required
2	`2`	Whether to override a short description if transcluded. Should be unused or 'noreplace'. Example noreplace	String	optional
pagetype	`pagetype`	The type of page. This puts it in the appropriate category - Things with short description Default The namespace of the page. Example Redirect	String	optional
bot	`bot`	Name of bot which added the short description. Should be generated automatically, as in [[Special:Diff/925779924]] Example PearBOT 5	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. However, Wikipedia:Short description, offers quick, easy-to-understand guidelines for writing effective short descriptions. If you plan to use this template, you should make sure you understand how to write a good 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 required in other namespaces, but in some cases may be 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. However, this will not override the descriptions from Wikidata.

Short descriptions do not necessarily serve the same function as the Wikidata description for an item and they do not have to be the same, but some overlap is expected in many cases. Some Wikidata descriptions may be unsuitable, and if imported, must be checked for relevance, accuracy and fitness for purpose. Responsibility for such imports lies with the importer.

The idea is that a class can be set to display differently on desktop Wikipedia from how it displays on mobile view. The intention is to bring the short description within the immediate editing ability of most editors.

Example

At Oxygen therapy, add the following at the top of the article:

{{Short description|Use of oxygen as medical treatment}}

or

{{Short description|1=Use of oxygen as medical treatment}}

Use the second form if the text of the short description contains an equals sign (=). Avoid this if possible, as it affects alternative uses of the short description as in {{annotated link}} (T216356, if implemented, will make usage of annotated link unnecessary.)

Testing

For testing purposes, the display of this template can be enabled by adding a line to your Special:MyPage/common.css:

.shortdescription { display:block !important; }

This can be easily removed or disabled when finished testing.

If you wish to always see short descriptions, you may want a more utilitarian layout, such as:

.shortdescription {
  display:block !important;
  white-space: pre-wrap;
}
.shortdescription::before { 
  content: "\A[Short description:\0020";
}
.shortdescription::after { 
  content: "]\A";
}

There is a test version of this template available as Template:Short description/test which displays its text by default.

{{Short description/test}} displays the short description if supplied
{{Short description/test}} displays nothing if none is supplied
{{Short description/test}} displays the description from Wikidata if wikidata is supplied.

Aliases

While there are redirects to this template, they should not be used.

Other templates and gadgets attempt to extract the description from pages by explicitly searching for the use of the {{Short description}} template.

For example, {{Annotated link}} searches for templates "Short description" or "short description".