Template:Distinguish/doc

This template renders a hatnote intended to inform the reader of the existence of one or more articles whose title(s) bears a strong resemblance to the current article. This template is used in the cases where the distinction between the titles is so obvious that the reader needs no further explanation. For cases where an explanation is required, use {{For}} and {{About}}.


Usage

{{Distinguish|Foo}}

{{Distinguish|Foo|Bar|Gaz}}

{{Distinguish|text = custom [[text]], and [[foo]], a common example term}}

When to use

This hatnote is generally used when readers have misspelled their desired title, and the error would be apparent by simply displaying the alternative term without further explanation. For example, consider a reader looking for the punctuation mark who instead ends up at coma:

Coma

Readers are presumed to recognize that they actually wanted comma by merely looking at the spelling, and this case generally requires no further explanation.

However, {{distinguish}} is not suitable when the difference is not readily apparent without additional details. Consider a reader looking for a game they believe is named Reversi:

Red x.svg Reversi

In the above hatnote, it is not generally apparent how the suggested Reversis is different from Reversi, which is also a game.

Green check.svg Reversi

Using {{about}} instead of {{distinguish}}, the difference is explained upfront without requiring the reader to click through and differentiate the terms on their own.

{{Distinguish}} should only be used when the ambiguity exists for a portion of the readership that is sufficient to warrant a hatnote. Care should be taken to avoid trivial uses.

This hatnote can also be used to distinguish from multiple articles:

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools; see the monthly error report for this template.

TemplateData for Distinguish

<templatedata> { "params": { "1": { "label": "Name of article", "description": "Name of article that you want to link to", "type": "wiki-page-name",

                       "suggested": true

}, "2": { "label": "Optional additional article to link", "description": "Optional additional article to link", "type": "wiki-page-name" }, "3": { "label": "Optional additional article to link", "description": "Optional additional article to link", "type": "wiki-page-name" }, "4": { "label": "Optional additional article to link", "description": "Optional additional article to link", "type": "wiki-page-name" },

       "text": {
           "label": "Custom text",
           "description": "Custom message in wikitext; e.g. \"foo and bar\" produces \"Not to be confused with foo and bar.\"",
           "type": "string"
       },
       "selfref": {
           "label": "Self reference",
           "description": "If set, marks note as being a self reference, to not be shown when content is reused",
           "type": "boolean"
       }

}, "description": "A hatnote used when there is an ambiguity in an article's title.", "paramOrder": [ "1", "2", "3", "4",

               "text",
               "selfref"

], "format": "inline" } </templatedata>

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