Template:Hatnote/doc

This template produces formatted text, following Wikipedia's guideline for a hatnote.
 * &rarr;

Broadly speaking, a hatnote should answer a readers' question (maybe preemptively): Am I on the right page?

Function
This template is primarily used to add a correctly formatted hatnote to a page. Often, but not always, this is a disambiguation link at the top of article pages. It places an HTML  /   block around the text entered as its only argument, which provides standardized formatting (contents are indented and italicized in most displays); it also isolates the contained code to make sure that it is interpreted correctly.

This template is also used as the "meta-template" for additional specialized disambiguation link templates; see Category:Hatnote templates for a list.

The template does not automatically create links of any kind. Links and other desired formatting must be explicitly added, using normal wikitext.

Usage
&#123;{hatnote|text}}
 * Basic usage:

&#123;{hatnote|text|extraclasses=extra classes}}
 * All parameters:

Parameters
This template accepts the following parameters:
 * - the hatnote text. (required)
 * - any extra CSS classes to be added.

Errors
If no hatnote text is supplied, the template will output the following message:

If you see this error message, it is for one of four reasons:
 * 1) No parameters were specified (the template code was  ). Please use   instead.
 * 2) Some parameters were specified, but the hatnote text wasn't included. For example, the template text   will produce this error. Please use (for example)   instead.
 * 3) The hatnote text was specified, but that text contains an equals sign ("="). The equals sign has a special meaning in template code, and because of this it cannot be used in template parameters that do not specify a parameter name. For example, the template code   will produce this error. To work around this, you can specify the parameter name explicitly by using   before the hatnote text, like this:.

If you see this error message and are unsure of what to do, please post a message on Template talk:Hatnote, and someone should be able to help you.

Technical details
The HTML code produced by this template looks like this: