Template:Archive box/doc

This template can be used to display archives of a page in a floating box.

Usage
Include the archive box on the talk page by adding:

Full syntax
| style      =  | title      =  | image      = | bot        = | age        = <#> (defaults to days) | /Archive <, /Archive <, /Archive <, etc. }}

Substitute  with the actual name(s) of the archive page(s) and make sure to add the forward slash. How you present a list of archive pages is up to you. You can separate them with commas or format them as lists. You can also use [[ WP:PIPE|piped links  ]], see the  and  sections below.

Placement
The box uses a style that makes it float to the right. In other words, it will be aligned to the right edge of the page and all content following it will flow around the box. (On some article and WikiProject talk pages, there is more than one right floating box. In that case, the edit links of the text sections next to those boxes often "bunch up". Use the stack template to provide a solution for that problem.)

Box width
The box width can be set by using the  parameter:

The standard width when this parameter is not used is 238px.

Search
A search bar which will search the archives of the current page can be added to the bottom of the box by using the  |search=yes  parameter. Other parameters can adjust the search bar.
 *  |root=  can be used to change the prefix of pages which are searched. The default is the current page name. Example:  |root=User talk:Example/Archives  will search in pages starting with User talk:Example/Archives.
 *  |search-width=  can be used to change the width of the text field, in characters. The default is 22, which fits the search bar with the default box width. Note: unlike  |box-width= , this is a bare number with no units.
 *  |search-break=yes  will insert a break between the search bar and search button. The default is no.
 *  |button-label=  can be used to change the text on the search button. The default is Search.

Image
The image can be changed from the default using the undefined parameter. For example:

Other icons
If you wish to use something other than the default icon, there's a gallery of available icons at commons:Category:Archive icons.

Style
<pre.raw> Examples:
 * Talk page colors on non-talk pages:
 * Other page colors on talk pages:
 * Font size unchanged:
 * Specific example, changing the background color to white :  </tt>

Automatic links
If all the archives of a talk page are named exactly /Archive 1</tt>, /Archive 2</tt> etc. (it will not work with e.g. /Archive1</tt>, /Archive 01</tt>, or subpages of a subpage, e.g. /Archives/Archive 1</tt>), you can use the auto</tt> parameter to display links to them all automatically. The list will update itself when new archives are added. If there are also named archives, you can manually add links to those as well.

The links to the archive pages will appear as simple numbers, separated with commas (1, 2, 3, ...). Note: Archives numbered past 100 will be ignored.
 * Using :

The optional root=, links=, and nobr= parameters are passed to archive list when auto=yes. The following will look for a user's talk-page archives named /Archives/Archive 1, /Archives/Archive 2, etc., and list up to 5 archives per line:

If there are no more than 36 archive pages, and you prefer a three-column output, use. The links to the archive pages will appear as Archive 1, Archive 2, etc. The links will be put into lines with a line break after each third link, to create columns. (Re-arranging the columns, e.g. from top to bottom, is not possible with this parameter. However, manually added links can be arranged in columns with multicol. See the multicol example below.)
 * Using :

The optional  parameter is passed to archive list when. The following will look for a user's talk-page archives named /Archives/Archive 1, /Archives/Archive 2, etc.

Examples
For actual examples of the use of this template, use the what links here link in the toolbox on the sidebar, near the top on the left side of this page (unless you are using an unconventional skin ... in which case you probably know what you are doing).

Talk header
Many talk pages already include the Talk header template. By default, this template includes links to archive subpages assuming the archive subpages are numbered in the standard manner (Archive 1, Archive 2, etc.). If the Talk header template is on a page, and archive subpages are named in the standard manner, then a separate archive box is likely unnecessary. On the other hand, a separate archive box can pipe links (i.e. to display the date range of the archive). If you decide to go ahead and use the archive box anyway, you can add  to the Talk header to remove the redundant links to archives.