Template:Help desk searches/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Help desk searches.
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

Usage

{{Help desk searches}} is a navigation template that links to several {{Google custom}} searches that enable Help desk volunteers to answer questions on the Help desk. The template may also be useful to anyone who edits Wikipedia and wants to look up help pages, guidelines, and instructions from various locations.

The template is suitable for adding to at least these locations:

Help desk instructions pages, such as Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer
user pages of Help desk volunteers.

The template takes no parameters. To add it to a page, use the code:

{{Help desk searches}}

Initial visibility: currently defaults to autocollapse

To set this template's initial visibility, the |state= parameter may be used:

|state=collapsed: {{Help desk searches|state=collapsed}} to show the template collapsed, i.e., hidden apart from its title bar
|state=expanded: {{Help desk searches|state=expanded}} to show the template expanded, i.e., fully visible
|state=autocollapse: {{Help desk searches|state=autocollapse}}
- shows the template collapsed to the title bar if there is a {{navbar}}, a {{sidebar}}, or some other table on the page with the collapsible attribute
- shows the template in its expanded state if there are no other collapsible items on the page

If the |state= parameter in the template on this page is not set, the template's initial visibility is taken from the |default= parameter in the Collapsible option template. For the template on this page, that currently evaluates to autocollapse.

Do not use in articles

Templates for searching Wikipedia

Search links

A search link stores a query in a link that takes you to live search results for that stored search. They're found on user pages and talk pages. Use one to bring the full feature set of MediaWiki Search, or features of external search engines, to bear on users unfamiliar with their search parameters.

One type of search link is a wikilink with all the capabilities of Search (search box), and with standard wikilink syntax: [[Special:Search/query| label]]. So this search link will (1) navigate: [[Special:search/Wales]] → Special:search/Wales or (2) search: [[Special:search/~Wales | search/~Wales]] → search/~Wales if you prefix a ~ tilde character.

All other search links are made from a template that will build a URL instead of wikilink. A URL can for example can call off-site search engines to search Wikipedia.

{{Search link}} offers all the capabilities of Searching (search box), plus extra (URL) parameters for combinations of namespaces, and where you can escape the 20-results-per page-limitation, shareable: {{search link | et al | ''label'' | ns4 | ns5 | limit = 123}} → label.
{{Regex}} – develop an advanced regex search. {{regex | \<--.*--> | label = Articles with comments missing the ! bang character | prefix=0}} → Articles with comments missing the ! bang character
{{Template usage}} – develop a template regex search, and pinpoint specific template-call details. {{Template usage | Convert | \{{!}}C\{{!}}F | 0 | Articles that convert Celsius to Fahrenheit}} → Articles that convert Celsius to Fahrenheit
{{ShortSearch}} – create three search links: {{ShortSearch | system operations research}} → WP GWP G (search Wikipedia, "Google" Wikipedia, and Google search)
{{wpsearch}} – create five search links: {{wpsearch|collaborative search}} → collaborative search – Wikipedia search | Google search | Bing search | DuckDuckGo search | Yahoo search
{{Wikidata search link}} – creates a Wikidata search link for descriptions, entities, items, properties, etc. → https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=Universe&title=Special:Search&fulltext=1

Search boxes

{{Search box}} – Simple search box with choice of button below or to the right
{{Search prefixes}} – Multiple pages' subpages are searched at once.
{{Archive banner}} – For searching archives. It is of banner-style, like many other archive templates.

Search boxes are made by <inputbox> tags. See mw:Extension:InputBox.

Page title searches

{{Canned search}} – Link to automated search results for a given term
{{In title}} – Search for pages whose name contains given words
{{Look from}} – Search for pages whose name begins with a given word

For searches with exact matches, exact in upper and lower cases, or in punctuation marks, see Help:Searching § grep.

Other Wikipedia editor help

{{Linksearch}} – Searches for external links matching a URL
{{dabsearch|term}} – External tool to find page titles containing a (term) in parentheses; useful for Wikipedia:disambiguation study
{{Help desk searches}} – Navbox with list of links to Google pages, specialized to search for example user pages, village pump, etc.; useful for Wikipedia:Help desk tasks
{{Spamsearch}} – Searches user pages for common spams, e.g. "we service", "leading manufacturer", etc.