Template:Distinguish/doc

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

This template is used on approximately 109,000 pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template uses Lua: Module:distinguish (sandbox)

The "distinguish" template produces a hatnote to point out to our readers the existence of one or more articles whose title(s) is, or are, similar to the page in question. It is used in cases where the distinction between the titles is generally obvious and does not need further explanation.

For those cases where an explanation is required, please use the templates {{For}} and {{About}}. For use on category pages, the corresponding template is {{Category distinguish}}.

Here is an example of its standard usage on the article about the mathematical Astroid:

{{distinguish|Asteroid}} →

This hatnote can be used to distinguish the topic from multiple other topics, as for Corundum or Bangala language:

{{distinguish|Carborundum|Conundrum}} →

{{distinguish|Bangla language|Mbangala language|Ngala language}} →

The |text= parameter can be used to create customized text, in case context is required. An example is on the article Phobos (mythology), which contains a customized hatnote to distinguish it and "Phoebus" (a redirect of Apollo). Both links lead to topics about Greek gods, so the parenthetical disambiguation in "Phobos (mythology)" is insufficient to disambiguate the two. Since it is typically not preferable to link a redirect in a hatnote, the article "Apollo" is linked to directly and a short explanation fills in the necessary context:

{{distinguish|text = Phoebus, an epithet of the Greek god [[Apollo]]}} →

Note that a final period is automatically added at the end of the sentence, and that only one blue link is used per disambiguated topic (i.e, do not type ...an [[epithet]] of the [[Greek]] god [[Apollo]].

When the target is a disambiguation page, display of the parentheses may be avoided by escaping the vertical bar using the magic word {{!}}:

Y{{distinguish|Crossfire (disambiguation){{!}}Crossfire}} →

The escape is necessary, otherwise the template will read the next text as another topic:

N{{distinguish|Crossfire (disambiguation)|Crossfire}} →

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

Not to be confused with Comma.

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:

N Reversi

Not to be confused with Reversis.

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

In this case you should use {{about}} instead of {{distinguish}}. The difference is to provide explanation upfront without requiring the reader to click through and differentiate the terms on their own.

Y Reversi

This article is about the board game. For the card game, see Reversis.

{{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.

• {{Confused}}
• {{Confuse}}
• {{Misspelling}}
• {{Nottobeconfusedwith}}
• {{Ntbcw}}

• {{About}}
• {{Category distinguish}}
• {{For}}
• {{Redirect}}
• {{R from misspelling}}