Usage

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Use template ((xt)) (the name of which stands for "example text") in order to format examples of style, especially when using quotation marks or italics could be confusing. This changes the given text to the serif typeface and green color. This template is used frequently in the Manual of Style when inline typeface changes are needed. For cases where the serif typeface is not desirable (e.g. in blocks of computer code), use ((bxt)), which substitutes boldfacing, or ((mxt)), which substitutes a mono-spaced font. For style examples that break to their own line (e.g. paragraphs), use ((xt2)).

For examples of bad/wrong style, in red, use ((!xt)), ((!bxt)), ((!mxt)), or ((!xt2)), respectively.

The ((xtd)) template exists for deprecated examples. Its alias ((xtg)) (for "grey") can be used to indicate uncertain, unavailable, disabled, lorem, etc., examples without implying deprecation. The bold, sans-serif equivalent is ((bxtd)) (and ((bxtg)) alias). The mono-spaced equivalent is ((mxtd)).

The ((xtn)) template is for neutral examples, and has no color change, but is otherwise identical to ((xt)). It can be used with ((xt)) and ((!xt)) to indicate usage that is neither advised nor advised against or deprecated. The bold, sans-serif equivalent is ((bxtn)).

These templates cannot be used in mainspace (articles). Attempting to do so will throw an error.

These templates are not for use as quotation markup in talk pages; use ((tq)) instead.

Parameters

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Accessibility

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The accompanying change in typeface to a serif or mono-spaced type style, (example text) is to make it fully accessible for those with color blindness.

Keep accessibility more broadly in mind, and never construct examples such that a blind person, who may not be able to see the coloration, boldfacing, or monospace font change, cannot understand the examples. Especially indicate, with terms like "not", "don't", "wrong:", etc., that a negative example is a negative one, or with "deprecated", "avoid", etc., that deprecated material is deprecated.

Examples

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What you write
...for example, ((xt|1=''T'' = 293.15 K)), but not ((!xt|1=''m''=5.4kg)).
What you get
...for example, T = 293.15 K, but not m=5.4kg.
What you type What you get
this is an ((xt|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((!xt|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((xtn|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((xtd|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((mxt|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((!mxt|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((mxtn|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((mxtd|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((bxt|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((!bxt|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((bxtn|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison
this is an ((bxtd|inline typeface change)) for comparison this is an inline typeface change for comparison

User CSS for a monospaced coding font

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Have monospaced templates in this group – and your editing window – use your preferred monospaced font:

You can consistently use a monospaced font with well-designed characters for coding (e.g., to distinguish clearly between l, 1, and I).

Add something like one of the code snippets below into your Special:MyPage/common.css page, replacing "Roboto Mono" with whatever your preferred coding font is (Roboto Mono was picked as a freely-available coding font for this example).

This code will do the following:

  • Apply a consistent monospace font of your choice (and the fallback system-default monospace, should that font go missing or not have characters you need) to all the normally monospaced HTML elements like <code>, <pre>, etc.
  • Do the same for the classes used by ((mxt)) and other monospaced templates in the ((xt)) family
  • Do the same for additional site-wide classes (as identified so far, e.g. .monospaced) that output as monospace.
  • Make the three most frequently encountered editing fields also use this font stack: the main editing window, the edit summary line, and the search entry box.

If you know of an additional class to add here, please update this page or mention it on the talk page.

Horizontal style

/* Use my font, when available, for code */
code, pre, samp, kbd, tt, .example-mono, .userlinks-username, .monospaced, .keyboard-key, .button, .plaincode { font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important; }
/*  Make some of the editable stuff monospaced */
#wpTextbox1, #wpSummary, #searchInput, #searchText { font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important; }

Vertical style

/* Use my font, when available, for code */
code,
pre,
samp,
kbd,
tt,
.example-mono,
.userlinks-username,
.monospaced,
.keyboard-key,
.button
.plaincode {
  font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important;
}
/*  Make some of the editable stuff monospaced */
#wpTextbox1,
#wpSummary,
#searchInput,
#searchText {
  font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important;
}

If you'd like to help clean up instances of the <tt>...</tt> element – which has not been valid HTML since the 1990s, and should usually be replaced with <code>...</code> (this may vary by context) – you can add something like the following to your common.css to make <tt> stick out like a sore thumb:

/* Flag bad code for cleanup */
tt { color: DarkRed; background: Pink; }

See also

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