Template:Talk header/doc

This template is a signpost. It may be used on talk pages to attract commentary from inexperienced editors, or where there are high levels of debate from everyone. It provides:
 * A short introduction and appropriate links for newcomers
 * A reminder of policy to experienced Wikipedians
 * A list of links to the current talk page's archives
 * An optional archive search box

Usage
To add this template to a talk page, just edit the talk page, and put at the top of the page.

This template should only be placed where it's needed. Don't visit talk pages just to add this template, and don't place it on the talk pages of new articles. Talk pages that are frequently misused, that attract frequent or perpetual debate, articles often subject to controversy, and highly-visible or popular topics may be appropriate for this template.

By convention, this template goes at the very top of the talk page, above WikiProject templates and other talk-page banners. However, this is not an absolute rule, and editors should use common sense when deciding its placement. See also: WP:Talk page layout.

In accordance with Talk page guidelines, this template should not be added to otherwise empty talk pages. That changes the "discussion" tab at the top of the page from a "redlink" into a "bluelink", which may mislead people into thinking there is discussion.

For more information on this topic, see the talk page for this template, including the talk archives and the TfD logs.

Parameters

 * Full syntax


 * Up to five shortcuts can be added to the template, as unnamed parameters, or as named ones (any of 1, sc, sc1, shortcut or shortcut1, then 2, sc2 or shortcut2, etc., will work). For example,  . They will display similar to the  template, but within the Talk header message box.
 * For use on WikiProject talk pages, the parameter  can be included to add "and anything related to its purposes and tasks." to the top line of the banner.
 * When used on a talk page that has archives, links to those archives and a search box will be displayed automatically within this template. To switch the archive links off, use the parameter . For example:  . For automatic archive links to be displayed, archives must be named in the standard way. A link to the archive index is also displayed, if it is named "/Archive index". If no archives exist for the current talk page, or if archives exist but possess non-standard names, no archive links will be displayed.
 * To override the default behaviour for the search box appearance, use  or.
 * On user talk pages,  adds an additional banner which identifies the page as being originally from Wikipedia (and modifies the width to suit), matching the style of userpage.
 * Additional policy content can be added to talk headers on user talk pages by adding.
 * To add an additional instructions to "please place new discussions at the bottom of the talk page", use.
 * To display a custom page title, use

Hiding the template
If you would prefer not to see this template on any talk page, you can hide it from your view. You'll need to have a named account to do this.


 * 1) Edit your user style page. (Special:Mypage/skin.css redirects to your current skin's CSS file)
 * 2) Add a line:
 * 3) Save the change.
 * 4) Bypass your cache.

Appearance variations
Be aware that this template will appear differently in different namespaces. In particular, in the article namespace, there is an additional box of "Article policies". That box does not appear when this template is used in any other namespace (including the template namespace) but may be optionally added with the  parameter. Here is what the template looks like with the "Article policies" box: