Module:Main/doc

This is the documentation page for Module:Main

This is a documentation subpage for Main. It contains usage information, categories, and other content that is not part of the original template.

This module backs {{Main}}, the hatnote pointing readers to the main article or articles on a topic. It takes any number of page-name arguments and renders them as a list with proper comma and "and" separators (no Oxford comma) and a label that pluralises with the count.

Usage

The module is invoked from {{Main}}:

{{#invoke:Main|main}}

End users do not call the module directly. They use the template:

{{Main|Page name}}
{{Main|First page|Second page}}
{{Main|First page|Second page|Third page}}

Parameters

Positional arguments (1, 2, 3, ...): Page-name targets for the hatnote links. At least one is required; there is no fixed upper limit. Empty trailing arguments stop the scan.

l1, l2, l3, ...: Optional display labels for the corresponding positional argument. l2=foo sets the display text for the second positional argument. If omitted, the page name is shown as the link text.

Output

Renders a single div with classes main-article-hatnote navigation-not-searchable and ARIA role note. Styled by Template:Main/styles.css.

Label:

one target: Main article:
two or more targets: Main articles:

Separators between targets:

two targets: A and B
three or more: A, B and C (no Oxford comma)

Examples

Input	Renders as
`{{Main\|Cannabis in West Bengal}}`	Main article: Cannabis in West Bengal
`{{Main\|Cannabis in West Bengal\|Religion in West Bengal}}`	Main articles: Cannabis in West Bengal and Religion in West Bengal
`{{Main\|Cannabis in West Bengal\|Religion in West Bengal\|Cuisine of West Bengal}}`	Main articles: Cannabis in West Bengal, Religion in West Bengal and Cuisine of West Bengal
`{{Main\|Cannabis in West Bengal\|l1=cannabis here}}`	Main article: cannabis here

When to use

At the top of a section whose subject has a dedicated main article. The hatnote tells the reader the section is a summary and points to fuller treatment elsewhere.

Aggressive deferral via {{Main}} is the standard pattern for hub articles (Cannabis cultivation, Cannabis Botany, country pages). Each body section gives two to four sentences plus a {{Main}} link to the subarticle.

When not to use

Not for a list of merely related pages: that's [[Template:See also|{{See also}}]] (where the link is tangential rather than the section's main subject).

Not for further reading on a subtopic that the section itself covers in full: that's the pattern for [[Template:Further|{{Further}}]].

Not in a lead, except in rare cases where the article itself is a summary stub pointing to a fuller article elsewhere. Lead hatnotes are usually [[Template:About|{{About}}]]-style disambiguation rather than main-article pointers.

Styling

Visual treatment lives in Template:Main/styles.css:

italic body text
normal-style links inside (italic stripped)
0.95em font size
1.6em left margin (hatnote indent)
colour inherits from the article body, so the hatnote sits with surrounding prose

To change colour, font size, or indent globally, edit Template:Main/styles.css. The module's output is class-scoped so changes do not affect other hatnote templates.