https://wiki.tachyony.co.uk/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Help%3AColon_trick 2026-05-15T12:59:17Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.35.5 https://wiki.tachyony.co.uk/w/index.php?title=Help:Colon_trick&diff=2431&oldid=prev 2021-12-06T16:03:16Z

<p>Imported page</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{For|the style guideline about using colon in articles|MOS:COLON}}<br /> {{Wikipedia how-to|WP:COLON|WP:COLONTRICK}}<br /> {{Linking and page manipulation|linking and diffs}}<br /> The &#039;&#039;&#039;colon trick&#039;&#039;&#039; is a method of providing a link to a [[Wikipedia:Category|category]], [[Help:Images|image]] or [[Help:Interwiki linking|interwiki link]] without adding the page to the category, displaying the image or adding the interwiki link to the [[Help:Interlanguage links|interlanguage links]]. It also allows for linking to pages with titles beginning with a recognized external link prefix, such as [[:http://]] or [[://Hus]].<br /> <br /> By adding a [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]] just inside the opening double square brackets of the link, the default behaviour of the [[MediaWiki software]] will be bypassed. It will appear as a conventional [[Help:Link|wikilink]].<br /> <br /> ==Examples==<br /> * &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[Category:Help]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; would list this page in Category:Help, but &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[:Category:Help]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; will produce a link to [[:Category:Help]].<br /> * &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[File:Wikipedia-logo.png]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; would display an image, but &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[:File:Wikipedia-logo.png]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; will produce a link to [[:File:Wikipedia-logo.png]].<br /> * &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[pt:Internet]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; will create an interlanguage link, but &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[:pt:Internet]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; will produce an interwiki link to [[:pt:Internet]] (in the Portuguese Wikipedia).<br /> * &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[//Hus]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; will produce an (invalid) external link wrapped in brackets (&quot;[[//Hus]]&quot;), but &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[://Hus]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; will produce a link to [[://Hus]].<br /> * &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[Computer]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; links to the [[Computer]] article; adding a colon like &lt;code&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;[[:Computer]]&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/code&gt; can be done, but the colon is unneeded and makes no difference.<br /> <br /> ==With templates==<br /> A colon can also be used to transclude a page in mainspace, rather than template space. For example, {{tlx|The Beatles}} will transclude [[Template:The Beatles]], but &lt;samp&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;{{&lt;/nowiki&gt;[[The Beatles|:The&amp;nbsp;Beatles]]}}&lt;/samp&gt; will transclude the mainspace article [[The Beatles]]. This is useful when the mainspace article has been specially formatted to be transcluded in other articles, by using &amp;lt;noinclude&amp;gt; or &amp;lt;includeonly&amp;gt; tags to indicate the portion that should be included when the article is transcluded.<br /> <br /> {{Wikipedia technical help|collapsed}}<br /> [[Category:Wikipedia link help|Colon trick]]</div>

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