Template:Keystroke

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  Note: In spite of what the error message above may suggest, the template works. Scroll down to see it in action in the template's documentation.

The {{keystroke}} template is designed to illustrate keys and keystrokes on a computer keyboard, and is a slight modification of the template Key press in Wikipedia (en). It is especially useful when creating help pages or documentation.

{{keystroke}} works similar to {{kbd}}, but have some additional options:

• Multiple key name input, giving one template call for up to ten keys in a single combination.
• Unicode symbols for keys that always or at least sometimes lack textual identification, for different OSs.
• Wikilinking to the articles on the keys in Wikipedia (en).
• Japanese and Korean language input keys.

Parameters

There is 1 required parameter, and 9 optional ones, all unnamed. The syntax for {{keystroke}} is:

{{keystroke|key1 |key2 |key3 |key4 |key5 |…|key10 }}

Required parameter

1 (unnamed)

Key name

Entering at least one parameter is required for the template to work.

If this parameter is left out, the template will break and display an error message.

Example

Usage

{{keystroke|1}}

Optional parameters

2–10 (unnamed)

Additional key names

To create a keystroke combination, use the first parameter with the parameters 2 through 10. The displayed keys will be separated by plus signs.

The template can take up to 10 key name parameters to display keystroke combinations. If you enter 11 or more key names, it will display an error message.

Example

Usage

{{keystroke|1|2|3|4|5|…|10}}

Letters and other case-dependant characters

For clarity, you should always use the same case on your virtual key, as the equivalent character on your keyboard. That usually means using uppercase letters, even when describing input of lowercase letters.

Example

To describe how to type the lowercase letter a:

Hence, to describe how to enter an uppercase letter, you should combine the letter with the appropriate modifier key (usually ⇧ Shift).

Example

Describing how to type the uppercase letter A:

Wiki markup characters

Some wiki markup characters, like the pipe symbol (|), the semicolon (;) and the equals sign (=), need to be entered using templates, HTML entities, or the character aliases that have been created for this template (see the table under Available values below). It's recommended to use the aliases in order to make the wikicode easier to read.

However, if the characters are marked as wikilinks, they can be entered as such.

Example

Unicode symbols and wikilinking

Some keys have an option of being displayed with just text, with a symbol & text, with wikilinked text, or with a symbol & wikilinked text.

Unicode symbols

For keys that can be optionally fitted with a symbol, the symbol is inserted by appending "-uc" to the end of the value string.

Keys that more often than not have a symbol instead of text, e.g. the Windows key (Win), will always show with both the symbol and text. And keys such as arrow keys, punctuation characters, etc. only show the symbol. There are no characters for the Windows key (due to copyrights) and the Menu key. Instead, this template shows approximate characters for them.

Examples

Unicode symbols in the template

Wikilinks

Some keys can be wikilinked to make them link to the character's/key's English Wikipedia article. That is acheived by enclosing the value string in double brackets, i.e. by wikilinking them.

Example

Both symbol and wikilink

You can of course combine the two features described above.

Examples

Available values

Alphanumeric keys

Cursor keys

Modifier keys and letters

Modifier keys

Modifier letters (dead keys)

Modifier letters, or dead keys, are the keys on your keyboard, that are used to combine, for example, diacritic marks (umlaut, accents, circumflex, etc.) with matching letters. When such a key is pressed, nothing seems to happen, hence the term "dead key". Diacritics are used in many languages, and most localized keyboard layouts have a set of the commonmost ones for the locale and the nearby regions, together with special, precomposed letters.

Producing a diacritic letter is done by first pressing the letter modifier with the diacritic you want, and then the letter onto which the diacritic should be inserted.

Examples

If you want to type only the diacritic, you press its key and then press the spacebar.

Example

Characters, letters or diacritic marks that aren't featured on your keyboard have to be entered using HTML entities or, if you have a numeric keypad, Alt codes.

Examples

NB! Alt codes can usually only be entered via the numeric keypad, i.e. not by using the row of digits above the letter keys.

System command keys

Language input keys

Japanese

Korean

Markup character substitutes for this template

Examples

Correct use

Single keys

Keystroke combinations

Line wrapping

When you feed several key names to this template, it adds a "+" with no spaces around. This means it won't line wrap. If you need the combinations to line wrap, e.g. in tables, build them one by one with spaces around the "+", or manipulate the chain template key, so they can line wrap. To insert blank characters, you have to use HTML entities; e.g. the standard space character is  .

Alt codes

To illustrate Windows Alt codes, you might want to use separate templates with no intervening punctuation or space. Do that by combining the Alt with the first character (often 0) in the first template, and then creating separate templates for the last digits.

Japanese combined language input keys

Some of the Japanese language input keys combine several functions. In this template, they are fitted next to each other, making these keys wider than usual.

Using wikilinks

Incorrect use

Wikilinking non-linked keys

Input errors

Template-breaking errors

Fallbacks

Technical details

This template calls {{keystroke/core}}, which holds the code that otherwise would be repeated several times in {{keystroke}}, thus simplifying the code.

See also

• {{kbd}} – Produces a different visual effect, without unicode symbols