Help:Magic Words

Magic Words are phrases recognised by MediaWiki which perform special functions, such as showing a Table of Contents, or the name of the current page.

Forces

These Magic Words force something to show, or be hidden

Magic Word	Description
__TOC__	Shows the Table of Contents here, if its required
__NOTOC__	Stops the Table of Contents from showing
__TOC__	Forces the Table of Contents to show here, even if not required
{{toc}}	Floats the Table of Contents to the right
{{tocleft}}	Floats the Table of Contents to the left
__NOEDITSECTION__	Stops the [edit] links from showing on this page
__NEWSECTIONLINK__	Makes a + button appear next to the edit tab, eg for adding a new section to a talk page
__NOGALLERY__	In a category page, make images show up in a list rather than in a thumbnail gallery
__HIDDENCAT__	In a category page, stops that category from showing up in the horizontal box on the bottom of pages within that category

Variables

These Magic Words echo out the contents of a variable, such as the date, or article name.

Date/Time

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{CURRENTDAY}}	23	The day of the month (eg 1)
{{CURRENTDAY2}}	23	The day of the month, with a leading zero (eg 01)
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Tuesday	The full name of the current day
{{CURRENTDOW}}	2	The numeric representation of the day of the week
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	04	The number of the current month, with a leading zero (eg 01)
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	April	The full name of the current month
{{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}	Apr	The abbreviated name of the current month
{{CURRENTTIME}}	23:19	The current time in 24h format
{{CURRENTHOUR}}	23	The current hour in 24h format, with a leading zero
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	17	The current week of the year, with no leading zero
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2024	The current year
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}	20240423231925	The current ISO 8601 time stamp.
{{LOCALTIME}}	23:19	For most of the above date/time varibles, replacing CURRENT with LOCAL will show the current date/time of the Wiki's default settings, rather than that in the User's preferences.

Wiki Statistics

These variables echo out statistics from this wiki. Numeric values are shown with thousand separators (eg 1,000,000). Adding :R onto the end of some of these (eg {{NUMBEROFEDITS:R}}) will show the number in its raw format, without thousand separators (eg 1000000) which can be used in calculations.

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{CURRENTVERSION}}	1.40.0	Current version of MediaWiki used on this wiki
{{NUMBEROFEDITS}}	390,491	The total number of edits on this wiki
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}}	56,419	The total number of pages on this wiki, including everything
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	10,039	The total number of articles on this wiki, including only legitimate articles
{{NUMBEROFFILES}}	14,841	The total number of files (images) uploaded to this wiki
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}}	41,892	The total number of Users in the entireity of Wikia
{{NUMBEROFADMINS}}	12	The total number of users on this wiki in the Administrator group
{{PAGESINNS:1}}	Template:PAGESINNS:4	Shows the number of pages in a given namespace. The alternative format {{PAGESINNAMESPACE:ns}} may also work.

For the number of pages within a category, see other information (below)

Page Names

Adding an E onto the end of most of these page names will show the same function, but using underscores instead of spaces so it can be used in a web link (URL).

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{FULLPAGENAME}}	Help:Magic Words	The full name of the current page. AKA combines {{NAMESPACE}} and {{PAGENAME}}
{{PAGENAME}}	Magic Words	The name of the page, not including the namespace
{{PAGENAMEE}}	Magic_Words	The above, but using underscores to be URL-friendly
{{BASEPAGENAME}}	Magic Words	For subpages, shows the page above it. AKA removes everything after the last slash (/).
{{NAMESPACE}}	Help	The name of the current namespace
{{TALKSPACE}}	Help talk	The name of the next odd-numbered namespace. Usually the appropriate talk namespace.
{{SUBJECTSPACE}} {{ARTICLESPACE}}	Help	The name of the previous even-numbered namespace. For talk pages, this will show the namespace of the main article.
{{TALKPAGENAME}}	Help talk:Magic Words	The full link to the relevant talk page. AKA combines {{TALKSPACE}} and {{PAGENAME}}
{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}} {{ARTICLEPAGENAME}}	Help:Magic Words	The full link to the relevant main article. AKA combines {{SUBJECTSPACE}} and {{PAGENAME}}

Other Page Information

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{REVISIONID}}	106381	The Unique ID of the current page
{{REVISIONDAY}}	16	The day on which the page was last modified. {{REVISIONDAY2}} shows a leading zero.
{{REVISIONMONTH}}	05	The month on which the page was last modified
{{REVISIONYEAR}}	2008	The year on which the page was last modified
{{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}	20080516231143	The timestamp of when the page was last modified
{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Cleanup}}	152	The number of pages within a given category. {{PAGESINCAT:category}} also works
{{PAGESIZE:page}}	1,950	The byte size of a given page

Namespaces and URLs

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{SITENAME}}	Grand Theft Wiki	The full site name
{{SERVER}}	//www.grandtheftwiki.com	The URL of the wiki
{{SERVERNAME}}	www.grandtheftwiki.com	The domain name of the wiki
{{SCRIPTPATH}}		The path (after the server name) to the wiki pages
{{ns:1}}	Talk	The name of a namespace number
{{#special:}}	Special:Badtitle	Links to a special page
{{localurl:Main Page}}	/Main_Page	The local URL of a page name
{{localurl:Main Page|action=purge}}	/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=purge	The local URL of a page name, with parameters
{{localurl:Wikipedia:Category}}	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category	The local URL to an external page will show up as a full URL
{{SERVER}}{{localurl:Main Page}}	//www.grandtheftwiki.com/Main_Page	The full URL to a page is created by using the server URL then adding the full page name in localurl, which turns spaces to underscores
{{SERVER}}{{localurl:{{TALKPAGENAME}}}}	//www.grandtheftwiki.com/Help_talk:Magic_Words	The full URL to a talk page can be ouput in the same way as a page name
{{SERVER}}{{localurl:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|action=edit}}	//www.grandtheftwiki.com/index.php?title=Help_talk:Magic_Words&action=edit	The full URL to Edit a talk page can be given using localurl and the edit parameter

Formatting

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{lc:AbC dEf}}	abc def	Turns a string to lower case
{{uc:AbC dEf}}	ABC DEF	Turns a string to upper case
{{lcfirst:TESTing}}	testing	Makes the first character of a string into lower case
{{ucfirst:testing}}	Testing	Makes the first character of a string into upper case
{{formatnum:-218744561.35123}}	−218,744,561.35123	Formats a number string, adds thousand separator as appropriate. Recognises positive/negative.
{{padleft:7|3}}	007	Pads a number/string (first variable) to the specified length of digits (second variable) to the left using a zero
{{padleft:7|3|X}}	XX7	Pads a number/string to the specified length of digits to the left using a specified character (third variable)
{{padright:C|3|S}}	CSS	Pads a number/string (as above) to the right
{{#language:de}}	Deutsch	Shows the native name of a language ID code

Image Modifiers

Magic Word	Usage	Example	Description
framed frame enframed	[[Image:Blank.jpg|framed|Caption]]	File:Blank.jpg Caption	Places an image in a frame with a description. Uses original size and stubbornly ignores width parameter if given. In general, far better to use thumb, as is only suitable for small images.
thumb thumbnail	[[Image:Blank.jpg|thumb|Caption]]	File:Blank.jpg Caption	Modifies image size, sets it dependent on user's favorite thumbnail size in one's preferences, or on the given width parameter (see below).
thumb=image.jpg	[[Image:Blank.jpg|thumb=clock.svg|Caption]]	File:Blank.jpg Caption	Shows a thumbnail image of choice
border	[[Image:Clock.svg|border]]		Shows a 1px border around the image
40px	[[Image:Blank.jpg|40px]]	File:Blank.jpg	Resizes an image to specified dimensions. If one dimension is specified, it sets the width and maintains the aspect ratio.
50x100px	[[Image:Blank.jpg|50x100px]]	File:Blank.jpg	If two dimensions are specified (width x height), it uses them as maximums . EG it scales image to no more than 50 pixels wide and no more than 100 high, but image scaled to retain its true aspect ratio within the boundary specified.
40px|Caption	[[Image:Blank.jpg|thumb|80px|Caption]]	File:Blank.jpg Caption	Shows a thumbnail of the image, resizes the thumbnail, adds a caption

Image Position

Magic Word	Usage	Example	Description
right	Text1 Text1 Text1 [[Image:Blank.jpg|right]] Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Text1 Text1 Text1 File:Blank.jpg Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Floats an image (or thumbnail) right. Text will wrap to the left of it.
left	Text1 Text1 Text1 [[Image:Blank.jpg|left]] Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Text1 Text1 Text1 File:Blank.jpg Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Floats an image (or thumbnail) left. Text will wrap to the right of it.
none	Text1 Text1 Text1 [[Image:Blank.jpg|none]] Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Text1 Text1 Text1 File:Blank.jpg Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Explicitly states that the image will not float
center centre	Text1 Text1 Text1 [[Image:Blank.jpg|center]] Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Text1 Text1 Text1 File:Blank.jpg Text2 Text2 Text2 Text3 Text3 Text3	Centers an image, still acts like none. Works with either British or American spelling.

Template Modifiers

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{:xyz}}	Xyz	A leading colon is the prefix for the name namespace (IE an empty namespace). This will transclude the specified page, not the page within the template: namespace. This example will include Xyz not Template:Xyz.
{{int:xyz}} {{int:currentevents}}	⧼xyz⧽ Latest News	Includes a page from the MediaWiki namespace. Same as {{mediaWiki:xyz}}, but also doesn't show up under Templates used on this page. Rendered as <xyz> if MediaWiki:xyz doesn't exist.
{{msg:CURRENTYEAR}}	Template:CURRENTYEAR	Transcludes the template xyz, even if a Magic Word with the same name exists. Usually Magic Words take priority.
{{msgnw:Col-end}} {{raw:Col-end}}	<p></p> |}<noinclude>{{protected template}} {{Col-begin/doc}}</noinclude>	Includes the wikitext (markup, raw code) of a page. Does not render the page.
{{subst:xyz}}	--	The content of the mentioned page is copied into this page. The include tag is replaced by the markup of the target page. The template will appear to show as normal, but changes to the template will not affect this page.

Other

Magic Word	Example	Description
{{DISPLAYTITLE:xyz}}	--	Changes a page's title, as displayed at in the header at the top of the page
{{CONTENTLANGUAGE}}	en-gb	The ID Code of the site's default interface language
#REDIRECT [[Page]]	--	Automatically redirects this page to another. Cannot be used to redirect across wikis. Cannot redirect more than once at a time. Redirects can be ignored with &redirect=no on the URL.
[[Category:category_name|sort_key]]	[[Category:Characters|Johnson, Carl]] [[Category:Grand Theft Auto IV|Missions]]	When a page is listed on a category page, it will be sorted and listed in alphabetical order. That can be overridden by adding a sort key, which sorts this example for Carl Johnson under J rather than under C, which is useful for Surnames. This can also be used to eliminate repetition in titles, such as changing Missions in GTA IV to be listed as "Missions".