Template:Compact sub-TOC/sandbox

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This template may be used to create a secondary compact Table of Contents to link directly into a densely populated portion of a large category with a highly skewed distribution where many entries all begin with the same two- or three-letter prefix, via a–z links into that section; that is, to prefix+a, through prefix+z.

Usage

{{Compact user warning TOC|prefix=prefix}}
{{Compact user warning TOC|prefix=prefix|name=your heading here}}

Features

• This template is intended for use after a {{Compact TOC}} just above it on a page with many entries. As this template targets only a fraction of entries in a category, it generally should never be used alone.
• It can be used more than once on the same page, with different prefixes to target different subsets of entries. For example, one could use |prefix=db- to target all entries starting with db-, and |prefix=uw- to target all entries starting with uw-. See § example 5.
• As in {{Compact TOC}}, the sub-compact format goes sideways: a b c d e f g h i j k l .... Lower-case index letters helps distinguish it from {{Compact TOC}}.
• The heading "sub-contents..." can go on top (default) or on the side (|side=yes ).
• Some letters can be omitted, instead of 26 separate letters.
• It can be used remotely, e.g. on a Talk page, by use of param |page=.

When to use

This template is designed especially for use with large categories with a highly skewed distribution which would otherwise require much next-paging to reach a desired point in a category page containing a large number of pagenames all starting with the same prefix, and where the skew is too great to make {{Large category TOC}} useful, the latter being both insufficient for the prefix area, and overkill everywhere else. If you have a few thousand entries spread roughly evenly throughout except for a thousand of them all bunched together under the same two- or three-letter prefix, that is a very large skew and may benefit by using this template to generate a sub-TOC underneath the main {{Compact TOC}}.

The canonical usage example is in categories that contain many user warning template entries (which all start with Uw-) as well as many other scattered entries. Instead of having to next-page many times through the category entries after hitting 'U' in the main TOC to find them, a compact sub-TOC provides direct access to all of the warning templates from the first category page via the 26 'a' to 'z' links in the sub-TOC, which go straight to entries starting with 'uw-a' through 'uw-z'.

When not to use

For categories less than 1,200 entries, no matter how skewed, that's only six pages' worth, so {{Compact TOC}} is often enough. For very large categories with more or less even distributions, {{Large category TOC}} makes more sense, even if the distribution is somewhat "lumpy".

Parameters

Unique

There are three named parameters unique to this template; one required, and two optional:

• |prefix= – the prefix to use before A to Z to jump into the category listing (required; no default; see § examples below; e.g.: uw- )
• |long=y – extends the letter links by including the prefix, e.g., uw-a · uw-b · uw-c ·... instead of just a · b · c ·... etc. (see § Example 3)
• |page= – name of the category page (optional; default: the PAGENAME; suggested: omit it)

Pass-through

These are all optional, and work as described at Template:Compact TOC:

Style params

Further information: Template:Compact TOC § Parameters

There are five optional style params passed through to {{Compact TOC}}:

• |name= – replaces the default heading "sub-contents for prefix ..."; value none suppresses the heading. (see examples § 4 and § 5)
• |top=yes – enable the "Top" link; this is only useful if the sub-TOC is not near the top of the page
• |center=yes – center the sub-TOC horizontally
• |right=yes – align the sub-TOC to the right side of the page
• |side=yes – place the name (label) to the side of the links and on the same line with them; see § Example 2

Letter params

There are 26 pass-through letter params (all optional):

• |a= – where to jump to in the category list (optional; default: value of prefix + 'a' )
• |b= – where to jump to in the category list (optional; default: value of prefix + 'b' )

... and so on...

• |z= – where to jump to in the category list (optional; default: value of prefix + 'z' )

The letter params |a= through |z= jump to prefix + letter in the category list. So, if |prefix=uw- then sub-TOC letter m jumps to the first page in the category with entries starting with uw-m.

Normally, you can leave out all the letter params. If you supply them, they override the default, as they do in {{Compact TOC}}. For example, you could include a few adjacent letters and set them to empty, in order to skip letters like one might do with |x= |y= |z= when there aren't a lot of entries beginning with those letters, and you want to group them in the sub-TOC with an 'XYZ' link instead.

Examples

Note: as this is not a category page, all examples link to Category:Templates with matching hidden id (not shown collapsed), except where indicated.

1. {{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-}}

{{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|page=Templates with matching hidden id}} →

2. {{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|side=yes}}

{{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|side=yes|page=Templates with matching hidden id}} →

3. {{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|long=y}}

{{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|long=y|page=Templates with matching hidden id}} →

4. {{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|top=yes|name=direct links to warning templates}}

{{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|top=yes|page=Templates with matching hidden id|name=direct links to warning templates}} →

5. {{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=db-|side=yes|name=Twinkle sub-contents for prefix 'db-'}}
    {{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|side=yes|name=Twinkle sub-contents for prefix 'uw-'}}

This example combines two sub-TOCs and shows the page param. It could be used, for example, to illustrate something on a Talk page about a category under discussion.

{{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=db-|side=yes|page=Templates used by Twinkle|name=Twinkle sub-contents for prefix 'db-'}} {{Compact sub-TOC|prefix=uw-|side=yes|page=Templates used by Twinkle|name=Twinkle sub-contents for prefix 'uw-'}} →

See also

• Help:TOC
• {{Compact TOC}}
• {{Horizontal TOC}}
• {{Category TOC}}
• {{Large category TOC}}
• {{TOC limit}}
• {{TOC hidden}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Compact sub-TOC/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.