General documentation on continent-topic templates
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The continent/region-topic templates allow quick creation of a
navigational template
for groups of articles about a common topic in different countries of a continent/region. It uses
Template:Navbox
to create the navigation box.
The lists of countries included in the "Continent topic" templates are broadly those found in the "Countries of" templates. Discussions on which countries to include are best conducted on the talk pages of these latter templates.
For example, Oceania generally includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific and islands in the Pacific Ocean that have closer ties to Asia or the Americas are usually grouped accordingly.
Usage
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1st parameter (
prefix
)
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The most basic usage of template is with a single unnamed parameter in the format
{{
Continent/region
topic |
Topic
[of/in]}}
, replacing
Continent/region
with the name of a continent or region and
Topic
with the name of a topic followed by "of" or "in". For example,
{{Africa topic |Geography of}}
generates a navigation box titled "Geography of Africa" with a list of country names linked to articles such as
Geography of Angola
, etc.
- Code
{{
Africa topic
|
Geography of
}}
- Result
|
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Sovereign states
| |
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States with limited
recognition
| |
---|
Dependencies and
other territories
| |
---|
The named parameter
prefix
can be used in place of the unnamed 1st parameter.
- Code
{{
Asia topic
|
prefix
=
Geography of
}}
- Result
2nd parameter (
suffix
)
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The template accepts a second unnamed parameter for text to be placed after the country name. There is no space between the country name and the suffix, to allow for links to articles such as
List of Spain-related topics
.
- Code
{{
Europe topic
|
List of
|
-related topics
}}
- Result
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other entities
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---|
An underscore can be used to place a space between the country name and the text:
- Code
{{
North America topic
|
List of basic
|
_topics
}}
- Result
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Sovereign states
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Dependencies and
other territories
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Note that in the above example the links work but the underscore is displayed in the title. This can be fixed by specifying a title (see next section) or by using the named parameter
suffix
which always places a space between the country name and text.
- Code
{{
South America topic
|
prefix
=
List of basic
|
suffix
=
topics
}}
- Result
Changing the title
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The
title
parameter is used to specify text which appears in the title bar at the top of the navigation box. This is optional because the use of
prefix
,
suffix
or both will automatically generate a title, as shown in the previous examples. This title is not automatically
wiki-linked
, so add brackets as needed.
The following shows a navigation box with links to articles such as
Flag of Australia
, but replaces the default title "Flag of Oceania" with the specified title "
Flags of Oceania
".
- Code
{{
Oceania topic
|
Flag of
|
title
=
[[
Flags of Oceania
]]}}
- Result
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Sovereign states
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Associated states
of New Zealand
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Dependencies
and other territories
| |
---|
Displaying template in
show
mode
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These navigation boxes are set to
autocollapse
when there is more than one on a page. To force it into collapsed or expanded mode use the
state
parameter. If set to
collapsed
, the navbox will always start out in a collapsed state. If set to blank or anything other than
autocollapse
or
collapsed
, the navbox will always start out in an expanded state.
- Code
{{
Africa topic
|
prefix
=
Geography of
|
state
=
expand
}}
- Result
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other territories
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---|
Disabling dependencies and other territories
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Not all
dependencies
or similar territories have their own articles on particular topics. To disable the inclusion of such territories in a template (that would otherwise appear as
red links
), include the parameter "countries_only=yes".
- Code
{{
Europe topic
|
prefix
=
Islam in
|
state
=
expanded
|
countries_only
=
yes
}}
- Result
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Creating a new template
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Although these templates can be used in an article, they can also be used to create a new template. The
name
parameter is mandatory when creating a new template, because it allows the "V T E" links to work properly. The following example shows code that could be used to create
Template:Flags of Europe
.
{{
Europe topic
|
name
=
Flags of Europe
|
state
=
{{{
state
|{{{
1
|}}}}}}
|
title
=
[[
Flags of Europe
]]
|
prefix
=
Flag of
}}<
noinclude
>
[[
Category
:
Europe templates
]]
</
noinclude
>
The template can then be added to articles using
{{Flags of Europe}}
or
{{Flags of Europe |state=expand}}
.
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other entities
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Other entities
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When to use the templates
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- Before implementing these templates in a topic, check for red links. If there are several red links, consider whether a separate article in the topic for each country is warranted.
- Some topics may use a different navigational scheme. In general, don't use this template if there are already navigational templates in several of the articles of a topic.
Examples of appropriate articles for these templates are {{Africa topic |Culture of}} or {{North America topic |List of airports in}}, both of which have a number of blue links, and where the majority of red links could have a reasonable article written about them.
Examples of inappropriate articles for these templates are {{North America topic |Maya in}}, where articles could only be written for a small number of nations and {{Oceania topic |Music of}}, where articles already have templates which use a different navigational scheme.
Redirects
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When there are a small number of links for which an article is not appropriate, consider making a redirect to the broader article in which the topic is included. For example,
Hinduism in Cambodia
redirects to
Hinduism in Southeast Asia
and
Geography of Christmas Island
redirects to
Christmas Island#Geography
.
Notes
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Navigational templates are usually placed at the end of an article.