This is a documentation subpage for Template:Archive. It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used on approximately 297,000 pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template uses Lua: Module:Archive (sandbox)

((Archive)) adds a banner to the top of archive pages. The template suppresses section editing and the new section button on the page to discourage editors from posting comments to archived pages where they won't be seen.^[a]

No parameters are needed for this template to work; just place ((Archive)) near the top of each archive page.^[b] It will automatically add a row of links to navigate through numbered archive pages that are named in the standard "Archive n" format. Some optional parameters are detailed below.

All archives from Archive 1 to Archive n, must exist consecutively. If there is a gap in numbering, where some archive pages don't exist, the template may not display the links to the higher numbered archives. The header shows the previous 3 and next 3 pages in the archives (only if they exist). The first and last navigable links intelligently search out pages 5 back or ahead and, if they do not exist, show the next nearest.

Archives must also be named in standard "Archive n" form. If they are not, you can move them to the appropriate names first; see Wikipedia:Moving a page for more information. Alternatively, you can use the |prefix= parameter to let the module know what prefix it should use.

• |1=1 - Option to use the navigation bar with no message text.^[c] Example: ((Automatic archive navigator|1)).
• |prefix=archive prefix - Manually specifies the prefix of the archive page for archives in a non-standard naming format. For example, for Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive902, you would use |prefix=IncidentArchive. HTML entities are decoded for this parameter; for example, to insert a space at the end of the prefix, you can use  .
• |links=n - Specifies the maximum number of links to be used. The default is 7.
• |noredlinks=yes / no - Normally, the template does not display red links. To display the first red link after the highest archive, you can use |noredlinks=no.
• |image=none / [[File:Some image.svg|40px]]
• |imageright=[[File:Some image.svg|40px]] - Use your own image, or none, as the logo in the navigation bar. Alternatively, you can place an image on the right hand side or have images on both sides.
• |text=alternative message text - Replaces the header message with your own message.
• |period=date range - Specifies a date range for the period covered, e.g. |period=March 2006 to April 2007. This parameter is free-form, so you can use whatever format you like.
• |style=CSS box style settings
• |textstyle=CSS text style settings - Formats the box and text in any way you prefer. You may find the guidance at MOS:COLORCODING helpful.

Examples of archived talk pages using this template:

• Talk:2009 swine flu pandemic/Archive 5
• WT:WikiProject College football/Archive 5

• Category:Archive pages whose parent page is a redirect (3,321) tracks pages where archive subpages weren't properly moved together with the parent page.

• ((Archives)) for including links to the talk page's archive(s) on the talk page itself.
• ((Webarchive)) for linking to web archiving services such as the Wayback Machine, WebCite and all other web archiving services.
• ((Oldid))