View source for Template:Smallcaps all/doc

{{documentation subpage}}
{{high-use}}
{{notice|title=This is probably not the template you are looking for.|This template is for special coding purposes. You are most likely looking for:
* {{tl|Smallcaps}} a.k.a. {{tl|sc1}} – present mixed case in smallcaps: {{smallcaps|The Sun Also Rises}}
* {{tl|Smallcaps2}} a.k.a. {{tl|sc2}} – given acronyms is smaller all-caps: {{smallcaps2|UNESCO}}
}}
This text changes most letters, both upper and lower case, to small capitals, though half of the Greek alphabet is instead converted to lower case (namely the letters Α Β Γ Δ Θ Λ Μ Ρ Σ Φ Χ Ω and their accented forms apart from Ώ). With those exceptions, the text is hard-coded as upper case.

This template substitutes letters with their capital variants, then displays them as {{smallcaps|small caps}}, about the same height as lower-case letters. The upper-case conversion happens regardless of user preferences, and the content will copy-paste as upper case. For this reason, it is usually not suitable for article text, and is intended for specialized purposes. It is primarily for use in other templates, to correct mixed- or lower-case input.

Other templates have been developed to handle content that should remain lower or mixed-case, as detailed in [[#Deprecated uses|§&nbsp;Deprecated uses]], below.

This template should not be used for emphasis in articles. See [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters]] (shortcut: [[MOS:CAPS]]), especially the section [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters#All caps and small caps|§&nbsp;All caps and small caps]] (direct shortcut to the section: [[MOS:SMALLCAPS]]).

== Usage ==
{{COinS safe|n}}

; Code     : <code><nowiki>{{smallcaps all|Hello World}}</nowiki></code>
; Displayed: {{smallcaps all|Hello World}}
; Pasted   : Correctly as "Hello World" in a few browsers, but incorrectly as "hello world" in many.

{{Notice|title=<span class="error">Warning: Default use of this template will corrupt upper- or mixed-case data,</span>|1=by permanently converting it to lowercase for users of many browsers, including Chrome, Chromium, Safari (12.1), Opera, and any text-only browser (Lynx, Lynx, W3M, etc), from which copy-pasted output will be all-lowercase.|image=Stop hand nuvola.svg|left=y}}

'''To maintain initial full capitals, a second parameter is used'''. Example:
; Code: {{tlx|smallcaps all|H|ello}} {{tlx|smallcaps all|W|orld}}
; Displayed: {{smallcaps all|H|ello}} {{smallcaps all|W|orld}}
; Pasted   : Correctly as "Hello World".

This style is [[MOS:ALLCAPS|not usually used in Wikipedia]]. For cases where it is needed, use {{tlx|Smallcaps}} (and {{tlx|Smallcaps2}} for smaller output), which produce this result without need of additional parameters, and for entire spans of text.

If the template is placed outside a link, it will capitalize the link itself, so in some cases it needs to be placed inside the link.

'''This template will corrupt HTML character entities''', such as <code>&amp;nbsp;</code>. If a special character must be used in its content, it must be encoded as a decimal character reference (e.g. <code>&amp;#160;</code>).

If either parameter's content contains an equals sign (<code>=</code>) the parameters need to be numbered, {{para|1}} and (if two are used) {{para|2}}, or the template will break. This is a general limitation of [[MediaWiki]] syntax.

===Legitimate uses===
This template should only be used for text that is normally all-lowercase regardless of typographic style, but which is desired to be shown in smallcaps for display purposes. An example is indication of stressed syllables in the {{tl|Respell}} template.

It is also capable of mixed-case display with additional parameters, but is rarely needed for this purpose since {{tl|Smallcaps}} and {{tl|Smallcaps2}} do this more robustly.

===Deprecated uses===
The default parameter of this template ''should never'' be used for strings that should be capitalized regardless of typographic style, such as acronyms. As noted above, while it has the capability of being used with additional parameters to represent mixed-case text, this is better done with {{tl|Smallcaps2}} (e.g., {{smallcaps2|TCMoS}}), or {{tl|Smallcaps}} (e.g., {{smallcaps|Hello World}}), both of which work on entire spans of mixed-case text, and  without the complication of requiring additional parameters.

Several of the following attempts to lighten all-caps words, abbreviations, or [[acronym]]s, as a matter of typographic style, will corrupt the data. Many of them violate the [[WP:MOS|Manual of Style]] if used in articles and those that do not are better done with other templates:

* To quasi-mix the case of acronyms, as in {{smallcaps all|U|nesco}} (instead of UNESCO) – {{hatnote inline|This is not done in Wikipedia articles; see [[MOS:CAPS]], [[MOS:ACRONYMS]].}}
* To make acronyms and initialisms, and other all-caps strings like Unicode character names, smaller, as in {{smallcaps all|UNESCO}} and {{smallcaps all|IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA}} – {{hatnote inline|This is better done with {{tl|Smallcaps2}}, because the data will not be corrupted and the display will be more legible.}}
* A trademark like [[Time (magazine)|{{smallcaps all|T|ime}}]] (instead of TIME) – {{hatnote inline|Do not use this in articles, per [[MOS:TM]].}}
* To present smallcaps titles of works, in citation styles that use this format – {{hatnote inline|Use {{tl|Smallcaps}} for this purpose since it can be done in one parameter and with more legible results; don't do it at all in articles outside of such citation styles, nor for headings, table headers, etc. (see [[MOS:CAPS]], [[WP:CITE]]).}}
* Era abbreviations in dates such as 625&nbsp;{{smallcaps all|BCE}} – {{hatnote inline|Use {{tl|Smallcaps2}} for this purpose, as it will be more legible.}}
* The special case of transliterating [[tetragrammaton|''{{smallcaps all|Y|HWH}}'']] as "the {{smallcaps all|L|ORD}}", as in the King James Bible – {{hatnote inline|There is a dedicated template for this, {{tl|LORD}}, with more legible output.}}

== Technical notes ==
{{anchor|Note}}
* This template is based on {{tl|smallcaps}}, including additional wrapper for <code><nowiki><span style="text-transform: lowercase;">...</span></nowiki></code> – This method is implemented inconsistently in browsers, such that it copy-pastes as the original text in Firefox, but as the altered text in Chrome, Safari, Opera, and text-only browsers.
* '''This template should not be directly [[WP:SUBST|substituted]]''' because the result will {{em|not}} be just the intended text, but the original text wrapped in HTML and wikitemplate code. It is better to use other templates like {{tl|smallcaps}}, {{tl|smallcaps2}}, or a combination of them, to achieve the desired result, and to correct the actual case of the content while doing so.
* [[Diacritic]]s (å, ç, é, ğ, ı, ñ, ø, ş, ü, etc.) are handled. However, because the job is performed by each reader's browser and fonts, inconsistencies in [[CSS]] implementations can lead to some browsers not converting certain rare diacritics.
* Use of this template does not generate any automatic categorization. As with most templates, if the argument contains an <code>=</code> sign, the sign should be replaced with {{[[Template:=|=]]}}, or the whole argument be prefixed with {{mono|1{{=}}}}. And for wikilinks, you need to use piping. There is a parsing problem with MediaWiki which causes unexpected behavior when a template with one style is used within a template with another style.
* There is a problem with [[dotted and dotless I]]. <code><nowiki>{{Lang|tr|{{</nowiki>Smallcaps all|ı i}}}}</code> may gives you {{Lang|tr|{{Smallcaps all|ı ı}}}}, although the language is set to Turkish, unless the font includes localized glyphs for small caps variant.
* Do not use this inside {{cs1}} or {{cs2}} templates, or this template's markup will be included in the [[COinS]] metadata. This means that [[reference management software]] such as [[Zotero]] will have entries corrupted by the markup. For example, if {{tl|smallcaps}} is used to format the surname of ''Bloggs, Joe'' in {{tl|cite journal}}, then Zotero will store the name as <code><nowiki><span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Bloggs</span>, Joe</nowiki></code>. This is incorrect metadata. If the article that you are editing uses a citation style that includes small caps, either format the citation manually (see examples below) or use a citation template that specifically includes small caps in its formatting.
* This template will not affect the use of HTML character entities like <code>&amp;nbsp;</code>.

==Comparison of the case transformation templates==
{{anchor|Comparison of the small caps templates}}
{{Case templates table}}

==TemplateData==
{{TemplateData header}}
<templatedata>
{
	"params": {
		"1": {},
		"2": {}
	}
}
</templatedata>

==See also==
* {{tl|Smallcaps}}
* {{tl|Smallcaps2}}
{{Case templates see also}}

<includeonly>{{Sandbox other||
<!-- Categories below this line, please; interwikis at Wikidata -->
[[Category:Text-specific formatting and function templates]]

}}</includeonly>