Hatnotes are short notes placed at the very top of an

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

or a

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign ...

. As an example, see the notes in italics immediately preceding the boxes above. The name comes from their placement, as a

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mech ...

is placed on top of one's head. The purpose of a hatnote is to help readers locate a different article if the one they are at is not the one they're looking for. Readers may have arrived at the article containing the hatnote because: * They were redirected. * They may be seeking an article that uses a more specific, disambiguated title. * They may be seeking an article with a similar name to, or that otherwise might be confused with, the article with the hatnote. Hatnotes provide links to the possibly sought article or to a

disambiguation page Disambiguation in Wikipedia is the process of resolving conflicts that arise when a potential article title is ambiguous, most often because it refers to more than one subject covered by Wikipedia, either as the main topic of an article, ...

. The five basic rules of hatnotes are: # Link directly to other articles; do not

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circul ...

non-disambiguation links. Linking to redirects is typically not preferred, although of course exceptions can occur. Links to disambiguation pages should always end in "(disambiguation)", even when that version of the title is a redirect. # Keep explanations to a minimum; explain vital information only, letting the

lead section A lead paragraph (sometimes shortened to lead; in the United States sometimes spelled lede) is the opening paragraph of an article, book chapter, or other written work that summarizes its main ideas. Styles vary widely among the different types an ...

and body of the article to clarify things for the reader. # Mention other topics and articles only if there is a reasonable possibility of a reader arriving at the article either by mistake or with another topic in mind. # However, if a

notable Notability is the property of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity to be such. Persons who are notable due to public responsibi ...

topic X is commonly referred to as "Foo", but the article "

Foo The terms foobar (), foo, bar, baz, and others are used as metasyntactic variables and placeholder names in computer programming or computer-related documentation. - Etymology of "Foo" They have been used to name entities such as variables, ...

" is not about X, there ''must'' be a hatnote linking to the article on X ''or'' linking to a

that contains a link to the article on X. # Ideally, limit hatnotes to just one at the top of the page or section. Multiple hatnotes may be appropriate when they serve different purposes, such as disambiguating topics with similar names and explaining redirects. (In such cases, consider using .) For more information about methods of disambiguating articles, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation.

Placement

Place hatnotes at the top of the article or section. When used at the top of an article, hatnotes go immediately below a short description template, but strictly above anything else including protection icons or maintenance tags.

Text-based web browser A text-based web browser is a web browser that renders only the text of web pages, and ignores most graphic content. Under small bandwidth connections, usually, they render pages faster than graphical web browsers due to lowered bandwidth demand ...

s and

screen reader A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind, and are useful to people who are visually impaired, illiterate, or hav ...

s present the page sequentially. If a reader has reached the wrong page, they should find that out first. In the Wikipedia iOS app, there is a known bug whereby hatnotes fail to appear anywhere on the page.

Format

In most cases, hatnotes should be created using a standard hatnote template, as illustrated in below. This permits the form and structure of hatnotes to be changed uniformly across the encyclopedia as needed, and the templates to be excluded in print. Current style on the English Wikipedia is to italicize and to indent each note, without a bullet before the item. A horizontal dividing line should not be placed either under a note or after the final item in a list. Links to articles should follow the naming conventions for capitalization – typically

sentence case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

, not all lower case. When determining the content of the hatnote, keep in mind that it forms part of the user interface rather than the article content. Two applicable

user interface design User interface (UI) design or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and ...

principles are clarity and conciseness. The hatnote should not overload the user with extraneous information, and the content should be imparted quickly and accurately. These design goals are conveyed succinctly in the principle ''less is more''.

Length and number

As hatnotes separate the reader from the content they are looking for, hatnotes should generally be as concise as possible. Long explanations are generally discouraged; the article's lead text, not the hatnote, should explain what the article is about. In almost all cases, the hatnote is intended only to direct readers to other articles in case they were actually looking for something they will not find in the article containing the hatnote. If a disambiguation page exists for a given term, then linking to it should be enough. For example, if the article is X then its hatnote will link to

X (disambiguation) X is the 24th letter of the Latin alphabet. X may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * ''X'' (Dark Horse Comics), a character and series * X (''Mega Man''), the main protagonist of the ''Mega Man X'' video g ...

; it should not have entries for other topics known as ''X'', like ''X'' (Grafton novel) or

X (charge) In particle physics, the X charge (or simply ''X'') is a conserved quantum number associated with the SO(10) grand unification theory. It is thought to be conserved in strong, weak, electromagnetic, gravitational, and Higgs interactions. ...

, because they are already listed in the disambiguation page. However, such an article may be linked if it could be expected by a significant number of readers to be at the title in question: for instance,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

is about the country, but many readers expect to find the article about the bird at that title; therefore, the hatnote there correctly reads which renders There should be as few hatnotes as possible. One single hatnote, which can accommodate several links, is greatly preferable to two or more. Multiple hatnotes may however be appropriate when each serves a different purpose, such as disambiguating the title or distinguishing similar terms.The acceptability of multiple hatnotes was clarified in a 2016 discussion.

Summarize or not?

Some hatnote disambiguation templates include a brief summary of the present article's topic; others do not have a summary. For instance, in the article

Honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

, one might use the template to produce: Alternatively, one might use to produce: Either of these two styles is acceptable. The choice of style in a given article is based on editors' preferences and on what is likely to be clearer and easier for the reader. (In this particular instance, most English speakers will know what honey is, and the second, more concise hatnote is preferable.) Where an article already has a hatnote in one of these styles, editors should not change it to the other style without good reason.

Examples of proper use

Two articles with similar titles

Dunwich () is a town in the county of
Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...
in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, the remnant of what was once a prosperous seaport and centre of the wool trade during the early
middle ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, with a natural harbour formed by the mouths of the River Blyth. ...

When two articles share the same title, except that one is disambiguated and the other not, the undisambiguated article should include a hatnote with a link to the other article. It is not necessary to create a separate disambiguation page. may be used for this. In this case, the parameterization was .

Terms that can cause confusion with another topic

Perl is a family of high-level, general-purpose, interpreted,
dynamic programming language In computer science, a dynamic programming language is a class of high-level programming languages, which at runtime execute many common programming behaviours that static programming languages perform during compilation. These behaviors co ...
s. ...

or a related template can be used when there can be confusion with a similar term. They are typically used when readers have misspelled their desired title, and the error would be apparent by simply displaying the alternative term without further explanation. These hatnotes should only be used when the ambiguity exists for a significant portion of the readership. However, they are not suitable when the difference is not readily apparent without additional details. In those cases, use , or instead, as the differences in the suggested article are explained upfront without requiring the reader to click through and differentiate the terms on their own.

Linking to a disambiguation page

A monolith is a
monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
or natural feature, such as a
mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
, consisting of a single massive
stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
or rock.
Erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is di ...
usually exposes these formations. ...

When a term has a primary meaning and two or more additional meanings, the hatnote on the primary topic page should link to a disambiguation page. may be used for this. In many cases, the hatnote also includes a brief description of the subject of the present article, for readers' convenience:

In
Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...
, the Labyrinth was an elaborate maze-like structure constructed for King
Minos In Greek mythology, Minos (; grc-gre, Μίνως, ) was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eat ...
of
Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...
and designed by the legendary artificer
Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, ...
to hold the
Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "pa ...
. ...

The template may be used for this. In this case the parameterization was .

Ambiguous term that redirects to an unambiguously named article

, or a related template, can be used when an ambiguous title is redirected to an unambiguous title or a primary topic article:

Johann Sebastian Bach ----
(Redirected from )
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late
Baroque period The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...
. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ...

Hatnotes above maintenance tags

Always place a hatnote above maintenance tags, but below short description templates. See above for specific details regarding the placement of hatnotes.

''The Giver'' is a 1993 American young-adult
dystopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal t ...
by
Lois Lowry Lois Ann Lowry (; née Hammersberg; March 20, 1937) is an American writer. She is the author of several books for children and young adults, including '' The Giver Quartet,'' ''Number the Stars'', and '' Rabble Starkey.'' She is known for writing ...
. It is set in a society which at first appears as
utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...
, but is later revealed to be a
dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...
one as the story progresses. The novel follows a boy named Jonas. ...

Hatnotes with italics in the links

''Caprona agama'', the spotted angle, is a
butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...
belonging to the family
Hesperiidae Skippers are a family of the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) named the Hesperiidae. Being diurnal, they are generally called butterflies. They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea; however, the most recent taxonomy ...
. ...

Words or phrases that are italicized within a normal sentence should be unitalicized within a hatnote. Since all words in a hatnote are italicized, the specific text will not stand out if the italics are not disabled. Italics are cancelled by the parameterization: Many hatnote templates found below section headers, such as , , , and others have label parameters to customize the italicization of the output text:

Examples of improper use

Trivial information, dictionary definitions, and slang

When notes feature a trivial detail or use of a term, or links to overly specific and

tendentious {{Short pages monitor

Disambiguating article names that are not ambiguous

It is usually preferable not to have a hatnote when the name of the article is not ambiguous.

Water (Wu Xing) ---- Water (), is the low point of the matter, or the matter's dying or hiding stage. Water is the fifth stage of
Wu Xing Wuxing may refer to: Places in China Counties and districts *Huzhou, formerly Wuxing County, Zhejiang, China * Wuxing District (吴兴区), central district of Huzhou Subdistricts (五星街道) *Wuxing Subdistrict, Mudanjiang, in Dong'an Distric ...
. ...

Here, the hatnote can be removed. A reader who is following links within Wikipedia is unlikely to end up at

Water (Wu Xing) In Chinese philosophy, water () is the low point of the matter, or the matter's dying or hiding stage. Water is the fifth stage of Wu Xing, the five elements. Water is the most yin in character of the five elements. Its motion is downward and ...

if they were looking for other meanings of water, since

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

does not redirect there. A hatnote may still be appropriate when even a more specific name is still ambiguous. For example,

Tree (set theory) In set theory, a tree is a partially ordered set (''T'', <) such that for each ''t'' ∈ ''T'', the set is well-ordered by the relation <. Frequently t ...

might still be confused with

Tree (descriptive set theory) In descriptive set theory, a tree on a set X is a collection of finite sequences of elements of X such that every prefix of a sequence in the collection also belongs to the collection. Definitions Trees The collection of all finite sequences of e ...

. The presence or absence of hatnotes in articles with disambiguated titles has been a contentious issue, and this guideline doesn't prescribe one way or the other. There are cases where some editors strongly believe that such hatnotes should be included, such as the various articles about treaties called Treaty of Paris. A hatnote may be appropriate in an unambiguously named article when an ambiguous term redirects to it, as explained in above.

Extraneous links

Each additional link in the hatnote besides the ambiguous or confusable topic(s) makes it more difficult to find the desired target. For example, in a previous version of the article WTOB (AM) under a former callsign:

WTIX (980 AM) is a
radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
broadcasting a
Sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comedy ...
format.

In this case, the link to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

WIST (AM)) makes it easier to find the link.

External links

A previous version of the Hurricane Katrina article contained:

Hurricane Katrina, which made
landfall Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...
near
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

tropical cyclones A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...
to hit the United States. ...

The use of external help links in Wikipedia, though noble, cannot reasonably be maintained. In special cases, a link to an "External links" section may be appropriate, but POV favoritism can be obstructive. In this case, the hatnote was removed entirely.

Non-existent articles

Hatnotes should not contain red links to non-existent articles, since hatnotes are intended to help users navigate to another article they may have intended to find. The exception is if one intends to create the linked article immediately. In that case, consider creating the new article first, before saving the addition of the hatnote.

Hatnote templates

Generic hatnote

allows general text to be shown in hatnote format. It is appropriate when none of the other specific templates listed below includes the combination of parameters needed, or to combine several of them in a single hatnote. * → : → * (a generic template for self-references to Wikipedia material)

Other uses of the same title ("''For ..., see ...''")

Per WP:NAMB, it is usually preferable ''not'' to have a hatnote when the name of the article is not ambiguous.

"''This page is about ... For other uses, see...''"

is the main template for noting other uses. ''Note: When used in main namespace (aka mainspace), the word "page" in the following hatnotes is replaced by "article".'' * → * (When the disambiguation page has a different name – Note the empty second parameter) → * (When there is only one other use) → * (Two pages for USE2) → * (Using the magic word to give the link a different title) → * (When there are several standard other uses and also a disambiguation page with default name – Note that the last page name is not specified) → * (When there are several standard other uses and also a disambiguation page with non-default name) → * (When you don't need to state the focus of this article/page – Note the empty first parameter) → * → :Note: produces the same result. * → :Note: this hatnote says "section", instead of "article" or "page". * →

"''This page is about ... It is not to be confused with ...''"

is a template for noting other uses when there could be confusion with another topic. * → * →

"''For ..., see ...''"

can be used instead of so as not to display: ''This page is about USE1.'' but still specify a specific other use. This effect can also be achieved by using an empty first parameter in as in: :''For example'': is the same as (note the empty first parameter).
However, it is somewhat clearer when using the template, since the word "about" does not appear in the statement. * → * → * → * → ;Variations :As with , there is a whole family of "for" templates. allows custom text, such as quotation marks or a link from part of the "CUSTOM TEXT", but does not supply automatic wikilinking * → (note how CUSTOM TEXT isn't bluelinked) :It also supports up to three topics: * → * →

"''For other uses, see ...''"

When such a wordy hatnote as is not needed, is often useful. * → * → * → ;Variations :There are, historically, a whole family of "other uses" templates for specific cases. is the standard hatnote for "other uses" and many of them can be specified using the template. However, the individual templates may be easier to use in certain contexts. :Here are the variations and (when appropriate) the equivalents using the , or templates. ;"''For other uses of ..., see ...''" * → * →

Redirect

"''... redirects here. For other uses, see ...''"

* → * → * → * → * → ;Variations: * For two sources: ** → ** → ** → ** → ** → * For three or more sources: ** → ** → ** → ** → ** → * To specify the text following "redirects here.": ** → ** →

"''For technical reasons, ... redirects here. ... ''

* → * → * → * →

''... redirects here. It is not to be confused with ...''

* → * → * →

Similar proper names ("''For other people named ...''")

Other people

* → * → * → * → * → * → * → * → * → * → * → * → :Note: defaults to "named" as in , exists for options like "nicknamed", "known as", etc.

Other places/ships/hurricanes

* , analogous to → * , analogous to → * → * →

Distinguish

"''Not to be confused with ...''"

* → * → * → * →

"''... redirects here. It is not to be confused with ...''"

* → * → * →

Family names

Family names can also be clarified using inline footnotes, such as with .

For use in sections

"''Main article: ...''"

is used to make

summary style World War II article in summary style World War II ... was a global war that was underway by 1939 and ended in 1945 .... The start of the war is generally held to be 1 September 1939 .... World War I radically altered th ...

explicit, when used in a summary section for which there is also a separate article on the subject: * → * → * →

"''Further information: ...''"

can supplement in summary sections, or can indicate more details in nonsummary sections: * → * → * → * → * may be used to link to articles containing further information on a topic, where English Wikipedia does not yet have an article, but another language Wikipedia does.

"''See also ...''"

can be used at the head of a section. * → :Note: use ''only'' when OTHER TOPIC PAGE is ''related'' to current article and contains a self-explanatory parenthetical. * →

Article or section transclusions

* (used when transcluding 1 or more entire articles into a target article) → * (used when selectively transcluding a section from one article into a section of the target article) → * (used when selectively transcluding a section into part of a section on the target page) →

For category pages

Category-specific templates: * → This is a template for linking categories ''horizontally''. Horizontal linkage is often the right solution when ''vertical linkage'' (i.e., as sub-category and parent category) is not appropriate. In most cases, this template should be used on ''both'' categories to create ''reciprocal linkage'' between the two categories. * → * → * → * → * → * → * →

Correct titles

"''The correct title of this article is ... The substitution or omission of the (or, without a reason: "It appears incorrectly here") ... is due to technical restrictions.''"

Lists

What to do before editing or creating a template

These templates are used in thousands of articles; therefore, changing the syntax could break thousands of articles. If you wish to create or edit a disambiguation or redirection template, first ask yourself the following questions: # Is there already a template that will do this job? Since many disambiguation and redirection templates have already been created, first check: :Hatnote templates. # Do I really need a new template for this? Will it likely be used on any other articles or should I just use instead? Before creating a new template, see the

template namespace Template may refer to: Tools * Die (manufacturing), used to cut or shape material * Mold, in a molding process * Stencil, a pattern or overlay used in graphic arts (drawing, painting, etc.) and sewing to replicate letters, shapes or designs Co ...

guideline. # If I change the parameters around on an existing template, do I know what the result will be? Will it break existing uses of the template, and if so, can I fix all of the errors? Before making any changes, see Wikipedia:Template sandbox and test cases.

References

{{Wikipedia policies and guidelines Wikipedia disambiguation