Template:To/doc

All "ping" and "to" templates require a signature with timestamp, or the recipients will not be notified. ~~~~ (four tildes)

Usage

This template takes advantage of the user mention notification to ping the user(s) you are replying to in a discussion (so you don't have to use the {{talkback}} template). It works on any talk page or Wikipedia namespace page.

This template is particularly helpful in discussions that are not threaded, to indicate which user's comment is referenced. If you feel that this template unnecessarily personalizes the discussion, you may still use the {{talkback}} template on the user's talk page to indicate that you have replied to a comment.

Note that it isn't necessary to use this template to ping (indicate) the user if you are already linking to their username from your post.

Single recipient

To use it, just add something like the following to an existing discussion:

{{to|User1}} Message text. ~~~~

For example, ":{{to|Jimbo Wales}} Message text." displays as:

To editor Jimbo Wales: Message text.

The comment must be signed and belong to a section in order for the notification to work.

Multiple recipients

You can reply to up to 7 people at once:

{{to|User1|UserII|UserC}} Message text. ~~~~

Specify a nickname

You can display any text in place of a username by using |labelX= or |sX=, where X is the index of a positional parameter, counting from 1. For example:

• {{to|Example|label1=Exemplar|Example2|label2=John}} produces To editors Exemplar and John:
• {{to|Example|s1=Examp|Example2|s2=Jack}} produces To editors Examp and Jack:

Tip! – by default, the very first letter after the |labelx= parameter is in uppercase, as in |label1=exemplar, which produces To editor Exemplar:. A trick that uses one soft hyphen, between the equal sign and the first letter, as in |label1=­exemplar will make the first letter lowercase if needed, as in To editor ­exemplar:. The soft hyphen is invisible and yet it can be copied and pasted. So here it is for you to copy and paste: =­e (between the equal sign and letter "e"). It's easiest to copy the "=­e" in the previous sentence, paste it where you want the soft hyphen to go, and then carefully erase just the "e" and the equal sign separately, which will leave the soft hyphen behind.

Customize punctuation

By default, the template will insert a colon after the final name. To change this, specify the required character using the |p= parameter. For example:

• {{to|Example|p=---}} produces To editor Example---
• {{to|Example|p=}} produces To editor Example

Related templates

• {{reply to}} – Uses an "@" sign at the beginning instead of "To "
• {{user link}} – Links to a single user's page (without the "To" or the @ sign, and without a colon)
• {{no ping}} – Links a user's name without triggering the echo notification system