Template:DISPLAYTITLE/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:DISPLAYTITLE.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This page in a nutshell: DISPLAYTITLE enables an article to display a main title which does not match the title in the address bar. See Wikipedia:Page name#Changing the displayed title

This template may have no transclusions, because it is substituted by a tool or script, it is used as part of a short-term or less active Wikipedia process, or for some other reason.

Template:DISPLAYTITLE is a behaviour switch for MediaWiki code. Use {{DISPLAYTITLE:}} to format the title of an article without changing the address of the page. All or part of a page title can be shown in italics, with _subscript and ^superscript, or any formatting required by article guidelines.

Examples

Actual title	Displayed title	Variable
Lorem ipsum dolor	Lorem ipsum dolor	`{{DISPLAYTITLE:Lorem ''ipsum'' doLor}}`	Invalid; does not match title.
Lorem ipsum dolor	Lorem ipsum dolor	`{{DISPLAYTITLE:Lorem ''ipsum'' dolor}}`
Lorem ipsum dolor	Lorem ipsum ^dolor	`{{DISPLAYTITLE:Lorem ipsum <sup>dolor</sup>}}`
Lorem ipsum dolor	Lorem ipsum dolor	`{{DISPLAYTITLE:Lorem <span style="position:absolute; top:-9999px;">ipsum</span> dolor}}`
Lorem ipsum dolor	Lorem ipsum dolor	`{{DISPLAYTITLE:Lorem <span style="color:#9400D3;">ipsum</span> dolor}}`
Lorem ipsum dolor	Lorem ipsum dolor	`{{DISPLAYTITLE:Lorem <span style="color:#9400D3;">ipsum</span> <span style="color:#F4A460;">dolor</span>}}`
Portal:Lorem ipsum dolor	: _ Portal _ _ : _ Lorem ipsum dolor	`{{DISPLAYTITLE:: _ Portal _ _ : _ Lorem ipsum dolor}}`

Introduction

The title of a page name can always be copied and pasted to affect links, inclusions, and categories. DISPLAYTITLE enforces this, so then only changes that will convert to canonical form (standard format) will actually change the displayed title. It is possible to preview the changed title while on the edit page. One invalid change, such as the capitalization of a pagename letter after the first letter will invalidate any other allowed changes, and the whole title will display unchanged.

The title of a named page is the fullpagename, denoted "namespace:pagename". The namespace of an article is nameless, so it does not display, and the fullpagename is pagename.

It is important to note the warning sign at the top of this page preferring that the template form of DISPLAYTITLE not be used, but that rather the magic variable form of {{DISPLAYTITLE:}} be used directly as documented next. The template would simply call the magic word "DISPLAYTITLE:" anyway, so using template DISPLAYTITLE creates an (acceptable but) unnecessary step in page processing.

Magic variables use colon ":" but templates use bar/pipe "|" as the separator to indicate the page name to process here. Use the magic variable. If "|" is used instead of ":", it places the page in Category:Pages which use a template in place of a magic word, which may cause distractions.

Description

The title (the fullpagename) is changed using {{DISPLAYTITLE:namespace:pagename}} anywhere in the wikitext. As usual in markup, multiple spaces are made singular. The allowed visual changes are simply:

lower-case the initial letter of the pagename (example page eBay)
change the case of any letter of the namespace
add an initial colon to the title (the fullpagename)
change any space to an underscore "_" character or any underscore character to a space (example page mod_perl)
add any number or mixture of spaces and underscores
- around the separator character ":" (between the namespace and pagename), or
- between words in the pagename
- before or after the title (where spaces alone are ignored) (example page _NSAKEY)
add bold or italic character formatting to any letters in the fullpagename (example page Allosaurus)

These possibilities exist because of the definition of a page name, which allows for the canonicalization of any title by copying and pasting the title into links, inclusions, and category names.

If there is more than one instance of DISPLAYTITLE in the wikitext, the last one overrides the previous ones. This means that if the DISPLAYTITLE automatically generated by something like some bookbox template needs to be overridden, then an explicit DISPLAYTITLE must be placed after that template to make your version display. If all efforts to change the title (with canonicalization compliance) fail, try looking at the bottom of the page for some stray magic variable DISPLAYTITLE.

Instructions

Template DISPLAYTITLE has the same instructions as magic variable DISPLAYTITLE. Please use ":" instead of "|".

Type {{DISPLAYTITLE: anywhere in the wikitext.
Type the wikitext for the fullpagename after that last ":" character. (See the description above.)
After that changed title type the closing "}}". (See the examples above.)
Preview the page and check the results.

If there is more than one instance of DISPLAYTITLE and they do not all specify the same title, only the last instance is enacted with an error message generated. For example:

Warning: Display title "<i>Desired title</i>" overrides earlier display title "<i>Desired</i> title".

The preferred solution to this problem is to remove or disable one of the instances of DISPLAYTITLE. If this is not possible due to template limitations, etc., then the error message may be suppressed by using the "noerror" parameter, i.e. {{DISPLAYTITLE:Desired Title|noerror}}. If you use this technique, you should be aware that the last instance of DISPLAYTITLE overrides the previous ones. This means that if the DISPLAYTITLE automatically generated by an infobox template needs to be overridden, then an explicit DISPLAYTITLE must be placed after the infobox to make it work.

Tracking categories

Category:Pages which use a template in place of a magic word (1)

Template	Involves	Correct name	Actual article name
{{Italic title}}	Title in italics	To Kill a Mockingbird	To Kill a Mockingbird
{{Lowercase title}}	Lowercase first character	eBay	EBay
{{Correct title\|reason=bracket}}	< > [ ] { }	Benzo[a]pyrene	Benzo(a)pyrene
{{Correct title\|reason=#}}	#	Pilot #5	Pilot No. 5
{{Correct title\|reason=:}}	/ :	DK: King of Swing	DK King of Swing
{{DISPLAYTITLE}}	Various	_NSAKEY	NSAKEY