Help:Magic words

A magic word is a keyword or phrase recognized by the MediaWiki software (upon which Fandom is built) which triggers the software to do something special on the page. There are two types of magic words: those that are enclosed by double curly braces and those that are enclosed by double underscores (see below).



Instructions
It's generally best to add and edit magic words using a source editor.

To add a magic word, simply add the magic word to the content of the page somewhere. It will look like code in the editor, but after you save or preview, it will display as intended. Magic words will show up highlighted (in red for source editor, gray for visual editor).

In the Visual editor
In the VisualEditor, magic words that affect the page content will show as templates. Typing two opening curly braces will bring up a modal to "Add a template", which can be slightly confusing. Once the magic word is entered, and the Add template tab is clicked, there is an error message saying that "The "Template: " template doesn't yet exist." but using the Insert tab in the upper right corner of the modal will result in the magic word being added and it will function properly. See the example illustration of adding the  magic word to this page. Only magic words that are enclosed by double curly braces can be added this way in the Visual editor. You must use a Source editor to add the other type.

Common magic words
Here are some of the most commonly used magic words:


 * outputs the name of the page the word is placed on. ()
 * outputs the name of the community. ()
 * outputs the current day of the week. (Wednesday)
 * outputs the number of articles on your community. ()
 * outputs the full name of the page, i.e. with the namespace prefix, of the page it is placed on. ()
 * displays the ID (number) of the page's namespace. ()
 * hides the table of contents on a page.
 * places the table of contents exactly where this is entered. It overrides the NOTOC switch.
 * hides the "edit" links beside all headings on the page. To hide the edit link beside a particular heading, specify the heading using an HTML tag such as  rather than with the usual wiki equals-signs syntax.
 * replaces the "Edit" button with "Add topic", for adding new sections on a non-talk page.
 * replaces the "Add topic" button with "Edit", on talk namespaces.
 * placed on a category page, it makes the category hidden.
 * removes the category from Special:UnusedCategories which is helpful for tracking categories which should not necessarily appear as "unused" even when they are empty.

Full list of magic words
For a full list of available magic words, see the magic words help page on MediaWiki.

Further help and feedback
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