វិគីភីឌា:Article message boxes

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This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions. Please ensure that any edits to this page reflect consensus.

Shortcuts: WP:AMB WP:AMBOX

A standard and consistent design for article message boxes has been selected. That is, message boxes or article templates that go on the top of articles and article sections.

Scope

The scope of this page and standardisation effort is the design of article message boxes. That is, message boxes that go on the top of articles and article sections. Other kinds of article templates such as navigation boxes and infoboxes are not included.

Talk page templates were already standardised last year, see Wikipedia:Talk page templates.

Project namespace templates such as the box on the top of this page are not within the scope of this standardisation effort.

New design is ready

The CSS code and meta template are finished and we have now (September 2007) started to convert the old article message boxes to the new design. The design of these article message boxes is controlled by the ambox CSS classes in MediaWiki:Common.css.

The meta template {{ambox}} makes it easy to create article message boxes in the new design. It has usage documentation and examples. Note that {{ambox}} is just a thin wrapper for the CSS classes.

The CSS classes can also be used directly in a wikitable or HTML table, especially when special functionality is needed. The how-to guide Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes describes that.

Browser cache

If these two boxes don't look alike, you need to refresh your web browser cache:

Hardcoded box.

This is a temporary caching problem that should be gone after a while.

Reasoning

The tags that we use to notify people of problems within an article are on thousands of our pages. Our readers see them and judgements are made not only about the article at hand but about the project itself. Currently we have a myriad of templates that often share some level of consistency but still look very mismatched.

The proposal below aims to address these issues. The thinking behind the design is:

It is colour-coded but without using an overpowering amount
Standard widths
Generally a better design than we have now
It is easily implemented

Colour code

Colour coding article message box templates will help to inform of the severity of the issues at a glance. Having a small amount of colour is best, as too much can be overwhelming.

វិគីភីឌា:Template standardisation/colorsample វិគីភីឌា:Template standardisation/colorsample វិគីភីឌា:Template standardisation/colorsample វិគីភីឌា:Template standardisation/colorsample វិគីភីឌា:Template standardisation/colorsample វិគីភីឌា:Template standardisation/colorsample

Alternate skins

It is possible to customize the appearance of ambox templates by adding to or altering the code in your monobook.css page. There are several pre-made "skins" available for this at Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes/Skins.

Design

Please note:

The wording of these message boxes is not under discussion at this time. Initial implementation will use the text from the existing "production" templates. The wording in the examples below is for illustration purposes only.
The following box has a white background to mimic article pages.

"Protection" templates

This page is currently protected from editing to deal with vandalism. Protection is not an endorsement of the current version (protection log). Please discuss changes on the talk page or request unprotection. You may use {{editprotected}} on the talk page to ask for an administrator to make an edit for you.

"Deletion issue" templates

This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy .
Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page. Feel free to edit the article, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the guide to deletion.

Steps to list an article for deletion: {{subst:afd}} • Preloaded debate OR {{subst:afd2|pg=Article message boxes|cat=|text=}} • {{subst:afd3|pg=Article message boxes}} log

This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion.
The given reason is: It is a very short article providing little or no context (CSD A1), contains no content whatsoever (CSD A3), consists only of links elsewhere (CSD A3) or a rephrasing of the title (CSD A3).
Please consider placing {{subst:empty-warn|វិគីភីឌា:Article message boxes}} ~~~~ on the User Talk page of the author.

"Content issue" templates

The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

This article or section reads like an advertisement.
To meet Wikipedia's quality standards and comply with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, it may require cleanup.

"Style issue" templates

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article may require cleanup.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page, and/or replace this tag with a more specific message. Editing help is available.

This article or section lacks formatting.
Please wikify it as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style.

"Article notice" templates

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

"Merger and transwiki proposal" templates

It has been suggested that this page or section be merged with Page title. (discuss)

Stacking demo