Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Article message boxes

This page in a nutshell: Article message boxes have a standard design and colours. They use CSS and a meta template to achieve this.

There is a standard and consistent design for article message boxes — templates which are inserted into articles/sections, and identify problems or issues with the article. The design was standardized and implemented in September 2007.

The scope of this effort is the design of article message boxes ("amboxes"). Article message boxes are template messages, in a rectangular frame (box), which are placed in articles, and are also about articles. They identify issues or important information about the article, but are not part of the article content itself.

The following are presently outside the scope of this effort:

• The wording (text) inside article message boxes (present focus is on appearance/formatting)
• Other kinds of article templates, such as navigation boxes and infoboxes
• Talk page templates, which were standardised in 2005 by Wikipedia:Talk page templates
• Project namespace templates, used in the Wikipedia: namespace

• Template: A page which is
  transcluded into other pages, typically to re-use the same content in multiple pages. See Help:Template
  .
• Message box: Any template that looks like a box and contains a specific message about a specific issue with a page, section, or other thing on Wikipedia.
  • This is in contrast to templates which are used for info boxes, to automate processes, or any of the other myriad things templates are used for.
• Article message box: Message boxes about articles
  • Info boxes, nav boxes, and such are part of an article, not about the article
• ambox: Short for "article message box"

The ambox 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. In the past, we had a myriad of templates that often shared some level of consistency, but still looked very mismatched.

This effort aims to address these issues. Design principles include:

• Colour-coding is good, but avoid excess
  • Coloured/shaded backgrounds can make text hard to read for some people, especially those with color-vision deficiencies
• Consistent widths make multiple adjacent amboxes easier to read
• This is a deliberate design effort, while the old templates evolved organically over time
• Easily implemented
• The use of CSS allows appearance customization/override on a per-user or per-skin basis

Amboxes are divided into various categories. Each category has a corresponding colour code. The colour-coding helps to inform of the severity of the issues at a glance.

The choice of colour is partly inspired by the ANSI standard safety "Signal Words" and their corresponding colors: Danger (Red), Warning (Orange), Caution (Yellow), and Notice (Blue).

Most amboxes have a background colour of #fbfbfb (slightly off white), which is intended to contrast slightly with the full white (#ffffff) used for articles, while still being easy to read. The exception is the Speedy category, which uses a pink background (#fee) to highlight the immediate nature of the problem.

Most

The design of these article message boxes is controlled by the

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 classes.

The classes can also be used directly within a

It is possible to customize the appearance of ambox templates on a per-user basis. To do this, you need a

Please note:

• The wording (text) of these message boxes is outside the scope of this effort. The wording in the examples below is for illustration purposes only.
• The following box has a white background to mimic article pages.

Speedy deletion

This project page may meet Wikipedia's Disambiguation pages and redirects are not eligible for this criterion. A very short article may still be a valid stub if there is sufficient context to identify the subject. See CSD A3 .%5B%5BWP%3ACSD%23A3%7CA3%5D%5D%3A+Article+has+no+meaningful%2C+substantive+contentA3 If this project page does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion, or you intend to fix it, please remove this notice, but do not remove this notice from pages that you have created yourself. If you created this page and you disagree with the given reason for deletion, you can click the button below and leave a message explaining why you believe it should not be deleted. You can also visit the talk page to check if you have received a response to your message. Note that this project page may be deleted at any time if it unquestionably meets the speedy deletion criteria, or if an explanation posted to the talk page is found to be insufficient. Nominator: Please consider placing the template: {{subst:Db-nocontent-notice|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Article message boxes|header=1}} ~~~~ on the talk page of the author. Note to administrators: this page has content on its talk page which should be checked before deletion. Administrators: check talk, history (last), and logs before deletion. Consider checking Google. This page was last edited by HeyElliott (contribs | logs) at 22:20, 21 December 2023 (UTC) (12 months ago)[reply ]

Deletion

This template is being used in the wrong namespace. To nominate this project page for deletion, go to Miscellany for deletion.

An editor has nominated this article for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion, which will decide whether or not to retain it. Feel free to improve the article, but do not remove this notice before the discussion is closed. For more information, see the guide to deletion. Find sources: "Article message boxes" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR%5B%5BWikipedia%3AArticles+for+deletion%2FManual+of+Style+%28article+message+boxes%29%5D%5DAFD Steps to list an article for deletion: {{subst:Article for deletion}} {{subst:afd2|pg=Manual of Style/Article message boxes|cat=|text=}} ~~~~ (categories) {{subst:afd3|pg=Manual of Style (article message boxes)}} (add to top of list) Please consider notifying the author(s) by placing {{subst:Afd notice|Manual of Style/Article message boxes|Manual of Style (article message boxes)}} ~~~~ on their talk page(s). Unregistered users placing this tag on an article cannot complete the deletion nomination and should leave detailed reasons for deletion on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Article message boxes and then post a message at Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion requesting that someone else complete the process. If the nomination is not completed and no message is left on the talkpage, this tag may be removed.

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• Wikipedia:Template messages
  – For a complete list of amboxes
• Wikipedia talk:Article message boxes
  – For discussion about these matters.
• Template:Ambox – The meta template that makes it easy to create article message box templates in this new style. It has usage documentation and examples.
• Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes – Describes how to use the ambox classes directly in wikitables and HTML tables
  .
• Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes/Skins
  – Several article message box skins for your Wikipedia account.
• Wikipedia:Talk page templates – For ClockworkSoul's Coffee Roll standard used in talk page templates.
• Wikipedia:Template standardisation – For standardisation efforts across the template namespace.
• Wikipedia:Ambox CSS classes/Admins – For CSS to be placed in MediaWiki:Monobook.css or MediaWiki:Monaco.css on a Wikia
  site.
• Wikipedia:Huge message boxes