Template:Bq/doc
| 40px | This is a documentation subpage for Template:Bq. It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page. |
Usage
This template is to help facilitate the indentation of blocks of content (quotations, computer source code, etc.) with the semantically correct <blockquote>...</blockquote> element, which can also be further styled and given metadata. This method is often preferred to using wikimarkup's ";" indentation (actually an abuse of <dt>...</dt> code), and other means that can cause problems or which are complicated and error-prone, and for accessibility, content/presentation separation, semantic Web, and metadata reasons; [X]HTML's <blockquote>...</blockquote> element has semantic meaning, while many tricks for indenting do not, or even have incorrect semantics.
Example:
| Markup | {{bq|1={{lorem}}}}
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| Renders as |
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Compare to:
| Markup | <blockquote>{{lorem}}</blockquote>
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| Renders as |
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Note that this example makes use of the "lorem" template – if you wish to use other text in your own quote (which you almost certainly will) you should not enclose that quote in pairs of template brackets. Doing so will produce a template error and your text will appear in red.
Parameters
|text=or|quote=or|1=(required) the content of the indented block; it is always safest to specify this parameter explicitly, as it will otherwise break if the content ever contains the "=" character, and can also fail under other technical circumstances.|class=an additional CSS class; it already usestemplatequoteby default.|id=an identifier, which can be used as a link target or for other purposes, e.g. custom user scripts; it must begin with a letter, not a number or symbol, and be unique on a page.|style=inline CSS directives for custom styling, like background color.|title=metadata that indicates a title or label for the element; different browsers handle this differently, most often as a pop-up "tooltip" on mouseover.
Cited quotations
For use with cited quotations, {{bq}} supports the sourcing parameters (and their aliases) of the older and simpler {{quote}} templates and the frequently abused {{cquote}}, so {{bq}} can be used as a drop-in replacement for them that provides the above additional features. Conversion from several other templates, including {{quote box}} and {{quotation}}, even {{talkquote}}, is trivially easy. Converting from {{rquote}} requires deletion of its first parameter, which is always left or right and then the rest of its data will just work without modification. Such conversions of course lose features (decoration, etc.) of many of those templates, but sometimes that is precisely what is desired.
|2=or|sign=or|cite=or|author=or|by=author/speaker of the quotation; this is free-form text and can including a link to the author's article.|3=or|source=or|ts=source from which the quotation is drawn; this is free-form text and can including links, styling, etc.; if converting from{{quote box}}, the author would also be included in|source=, but should really be moved manually to the above parameter.|4=or|diff=optionally, you can divide the citation up further, e.g.|2=Lastname, Firstname|3="Article Title"|4=Book Title, but this is not really necessary, and is mainly to make conversion from{{quotation}}a little easier. Parameter 4 is automatically italicized, since it is only used for larger works like books, albums, magazines, or TV shows. It also maps to|diff=for conversion of{{talkquote}}.
Examples:
| Markup | {{bq |text={{Lorem}} |sign=Anne O. Nymus |source=<cite>The Unlightable Being of Bareness</cite>, 1992, p. 37}}
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| Markup | {{bq |1={{Lorem}} |2=Anne O. Nymus |3=1992, "Introduction", pp. vii–ix |4=The Unlightable Being of Bareness}}
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| Renders as |
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Working around display problems
- Lists and other complexities
Complex markup may require a simple trick to work around a longstanding MediaWiki bug; this is the inclusion of the code <nowiki /> immediately after the |1= (or |text= if the content following the = begins with a linebreak:
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
{{bq|1=
*Foo
*Bar
*Baz
}}
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| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
{{bq|1=<nowiki />
*Foo
*Bar
*Baz
}}
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This tweak unfortunately cannot be put into the template code itself, as the <nowiki /> markup doesn't pass through the transclusion process.
Multiple paragraphs
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> |
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To work around this, use the <poem> tag inside <blockquote>, which will convert line breaks to br tags:
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
<blockquote><poem> Line 1 Line 2 Line 3 Line 4 </poem></blockquote> |
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URLs and other breakage
Make sure that all the parameters are named (e.g. |1=, etc. or with word names like |source=). Many URLs, and plenty of other things, contain the "=" character, which due to MediaWiki limitations, will cause the template to malfunction if used in an unnamed parameter.
See also
Block quotations
- Template:Bq—quote without border, page-wide; like (and compatible with parameters of) the older {{Quote}} but with more features; conversion from all others listed here is trivially easy (retaining key data, losing decoration, etc.)
- Template:Centered pull quote—pull quote between large quotation marks, page-wide; should rarely be used in articles and is not for block quotations, only pull quotes
- Template:Quote—quote without border, page-wide, smaller-sized attribution
- Template:Quotation—quote with border, page-wide
- Template:Quote box—quote with border, in a reduced floating box
- Template:Rquote—pull quote between large quotation marks, in a reduced floating area; also rarely appropriate in articles
- Template:Talkquote—for quoting other editors (or guidelines, etc.) on talk pages (in a block)
- Template:Tq—for quoting on talk pages, inline
- Category:Quotation templates
Semantic markup
- {{strong}} – For semantically indicating strong emphasis instead of simple typographical boldfacing.
- {{strongbad}} – Same as
{{strong}}but red like this: "Never use{{strongbad}}in articles." - {{stronggood}} – Same as
{{strongbad}}but green like this: "Only use{{stronggood}}on non-article pages." - {{em}} – Similar template for semantically indicating mild emphasis instead of simple typographical italicization.
- {{var}} – Same as {{varserif}} use for all variables (e.g. strIllustratePrefix), except for "I" (upper-case i) and "l" (lower-case L), for which use {{varserif}}.
- {{varserif}} – Same as {{var}} but uses serif font (e.g. strIllustratePrefix), especially for distinguishing between "I" (upper-case i) and "l" (lower-case L) as variables.
- {{wikivar}} – For displaying wikicode variables and magicwords as they would appear in source code, e.g.
{{PAGENAME}},{{DEFAULTSORT:Lastname, Firstname}}. - {{para}} – For displaying wiki template parameters (
|title=) or parameters and values (|year=2008). - {{tlx}} and related – For displaying entire templates (with or without parameters and values) as code.
- {{tag}} – For using HTML elements ("tags") in prose (e.g. "When coding HTML
<img>...</img>tags, always include …"). - {{code}} – For computer source code (e.g. "always include the
alt={{var}}inside, use<code>...</code>instead of{{code}}.) - {{syntaxhighlight}} or {{sxhl}} – Wrapper for
<syntaxhighlight>...</syntaxhighlight>, but will wrap overflowing text. - {{deprecated code}} or {{dc2}} – For deprecated source code in template documentation, articles on HTML specs, etc. (e.g. "do not use
<blink>...</blink> - {{pre}} – For larger blocks of source code and other pre-formatted text.
- {{bq}} – For indented blocks of content, such as block quotations, examples, poems, etc.
- {{kbd}} – For indicating user input.
- {{key press}} – For indicating the input of specific keystrokes, e.g. ^ CtrlX.
- {{PlayStation key press}} – For indicating PlayStation-style gamepad key presses, e.g. ×.
- {{samp}} – For example output.