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Places an archive box flush right (default) or a wide archive banner containing links to archive pages and a search box to search them. A summary of the archive bot config appears below the search box.

If you want to use this template for centralized talk pages or adding links to archives of alternative accounts, i.e. you want the template to display several sets of archives, please see § What links to display, and their format for the parameters you need to configure.

Usage

{{Archives}}
{{Archives|banner=yes}}
{{Archives|nobot=yes}}

When to use

You may use this template for these reasons:

• To generate a boxed Archive list and search box when there is no {{Talk header}} box at the top of the page, or when the Talk page header does not emit an archive box as part of the Talk header. If there is already a talk page header and archive display was explicitly turned off, consider enabling it instead of adding the separate archives box.

• To generate a boxed archive list on talk pages with a large amount of archive pages (e.g. common on noticeboards with hundreds of archive pages) that may not use standard talk headers.

• In an article having archives with both standard and non-standard names for the archives. This sometimes occurs for older articles that were created before the archiving system became standardized, and have both ad hoc archive names as well as standard ones, or having both standard archives as well as topically-named archives out of the main numerical sequence. While having some archives displayed in one place and others elsewhere is normally not ideal, in these cases, you can include both the {{Talk header}} box with no parameters at the top of the page (to pick up all the standard archive names), as well as {{Archives}} with the <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|list= parameter (to pick up all the non-standard names).

• To link standard archive names with other display text, or to add annotations next to the linked archive name, even if they are linked using the standard names.

When not to use

Both this template and the very commonly used {{Talk header}} template contain the functionality (enabled by default) to display the archive list and search box. Please avoid this duplication: either don't use the {{Archives}} template at all, or turn off archive display in the {{Talk header}} template. In general, most editors prefer archives being presented in the Talk header format instead of on the side using the separate archives box. One reason for using this template even on talk pages with a {{Talk header}} template could be when the templates at the top of the talk page become so long as to be unwieldy – in that case you might consider moving the archive-related information "off to the side", which is what this template offers.

The two commonly used archive bots are ClueBot III and lowercase sigmabot III (see H:CHOOSEBOT). ClueBot III offers a built-in third option to display the archive list and search box, see its <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|archivebox=yes parameter.

Tracking down duplicate archive displays

It is possible to search for Talk pages that have both templates, in order to search for anomalies that may need attention.

Where to place

Place the template last among the header material at the top of a talk page, and before the first section heading.

Moving archives

The template does not automatically ignore redirects. In the unlikely event that you need to change a page's archiving system to another one recognised by this template (e.g., to go from numbers to years or vice versa), the template may list both the current archive page names and their old redirects. To preserve their histories and avoid breaking incoming links, it may not be advisable to speedy delete the redirects left behind.

However, there is a workaround for this. If the first redirect listed by the archive templates isn't found by the template (for example, Archive 1 or Archive 2005) and you are willing to delete it, you can tag only that one for speedy deletion. Alternatively, you can simply move the old redirects away from the standard archiving naming system to retain their histories, and then delete it without leaving a redirect. For example, by moving the existing Talk:Article/Archive 1 to Talk:Article/Redirects/Archive 1 and deleting it, the template understands that #1 is the last one, and stops listing them after that one, even if other redirects (such as Talk:Article/Archive 2) still exist. You do not need to move all of them.

Parameters

There is one positional parameter, and 21 named parameters; all are optional. With no parameters, the template displays a rectangular box entitled "Archives" flush-right on the page, with links to every archive page that exists (as long as they have the standard naming scheme), an input box to enter search terms, a search button to search the archives, and a bot notice at the bottom summarizing the configuration parameters for the archive bot.

Descriptions of the parameters below are grouped into five functional areas (see § Descriptions ).

Full list

Vertically

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" style="overflow:auto;">

</syntaxhighlight>

Horizontally

{{Archives |1= |banner= |collapsed= |collapsible= |style= |search= |target= |image= |image-size= |title= |list= |auto= |index= |archivelist= |root= |prefix= |start= |search-break= |search-width= |search-button-label= | editbox= }}

Alphabetically

{{Archives |1= |archivelist= |auto= |banner= |collapsed= |collapsible= |editbox= |image= |image-size= |index= |list= |prefix= |root= |search= |search-break= |search-button-label= |search-width= |start= |style= |target= |title= }}

Descriptions

Parameters described below are grouped into functional areas:

• § What links to display, and their format – how to specify archives if they have non-standard names; and how to display them
• § Icon image – to change the icon
• § Search box and button – about the appearance of the box and button, and what pages archive to search
• § Archive bot config – how to suppress the bot config notice at the bottom
• § Box style and title – how to alter the default appearance of the box.

What links to display, and their format

No parameters are necessary for detection of numbered archive pages in the standard format Archive_1, Archive_2, and so on. These are detected automatically. Talk page archives having non-standard naming schemes can also be listed, but you have to specify them.

(1st unnamed parameter) or 1=

Inline list of manually maintained archives. For example: "list=[[Archive of 2017]], [[Archive of 2018-19]], [[Archive of 2020]]". No subpages are assumed unless specified (e.g. "list=[[/Archives/2017]]" and so on). Using this parameter disables automatic detection, but this detection can be re-enabled with auto=long or auto=short, making the template display both manual and automatic archives. This is usually done when other related archives are linked, such as when using centralized talk pages or adding links to archives of alternative accounts.

list

The same as the unnamed parameter, except the disabling of automatic detection cannot be re-enabled. In other words, using <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|list= instead of <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|1= makes the template ignore the <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|auto= parameter's secondary function of forcing auto-detection.

auto= <short|long|no>

Specifies the format of the auto-generated archive list and forces automatic detection. If left unspecified, the default is "long", meaning links to archives are spelled out ("Archive 42"); any other word (except "no") will result in "short", resulting in shorter links (e.g. "42"; see Example #2), and "no" will disable auto-detection, meaning that even if there are archives following the {{PAGENAME}}/Archive # format they will not be displayed automatically. Auto-detection is also disabled if a manual list is supplied. However, if this list is supplied by the 1st unnamed parameter rather than the list parameter, auto-detection can be re-enabled by overriding the default by using auto=long or auto=short.

index

Links the "Archives" title to a specified subpage that should be the subject index page for all archived discussions, such as "Archive index". The slash "/" is not used for this parameter. Legobot may be used to create and maintain such an index. To link to a different subpage, only use the subpage name and don't add the slash "/". For example, to link to the Talk:Example/Page Index subpage, use <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|index=Page Index. <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|index=none disables this feature.

archivelist

In conjunction with this parameter you are able to create a whole page where you can customize your archive list. The parameter specifies a link to this page, which should be a subpage that contains the archive list. The name of this page is commonly simply "archivelist", i.e. the same name as its parameter. This is also the default assumption, see notes below. The slash "/" is used for this parameter. As an example of real usage: <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|archivelist=Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist. As you can see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist is set up to be used by the Archives box on its respective page.

Icon image

image

An alternate image to be used, defaults to "Replacement filing cabinet.svg". May also use image-size. none results in no image.

alt (deprecated)

Alt text for the image, for visually impaired readers. See WP:ALT. This defaults to empty. If a nonempty value is specified for link, alt should be nonempty too, and should indicate what will happen if the user clicks on the image.

link (deprecated)

Link for the image. This normally defaults to empty, which means no link. However, if alt is nonempty, it defaults to the image's file page.

The link and alt values are now determined automatically and no longer need to be specified.

Search box and button

search

Default: yes. If no, removes the search box.

root

Specifies a different base than {{FULLPAGENAME}}/. Useful for when this template is located on a different page than the page being archived. Use prefix, if the addition of a trailing slash is not desired. The archive wikilinks generated are of the form root + / + Archive #.

prefix

Similar to root, but does not automatically add a trailing slash.

search-break

Inserts a newline between the search bar and search button preventing them from being on the same line. Default: no if in banner format yes otherwise

search-width

Default: 22

search-button-label

Default: Search archives. "button-label" is an alias.

Archive bot config

Automated archiving settings are defined by {{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis}} if using User:ClueBot III or {{User:MiszaBot/config}} if using User:Lowercase sigmabot III. You may also use {{Auto-archive}}. {{Archives}} will automatically extract these settings and display them at the bottom of the archive box (or banner) unless suppressed with <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|nobot=. The parameters formerly used to state settings for the bot notice (before automatic extraction was introduced) are deprecated and grayed out below.

nobot

Set <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|nobot=yes to suppress the bot notice normally displayed below the search box.

target

The title of the page (just the name, no link syntax) that threads are currently being archived to, for manual archiving.

bot (deprecated)

If specified, a note about automatic archiving will be shown.

age (deprecated)

If specified, this will be displayed as the archiving delay.

units (deprecated)

If specified, this will display units for the archiving delay. The default is "day" or "days".

minthreadsleft (deprecated)

If specified, this will display a note explaining the page won't be emptied out. Not to be confused with User:MiszaBot/config's minthreadsleft parameter, which is not deprecated.

Box style and title

banner

"yes" converts the box design of the template into a talk page banner style of template, with the archives listed in a horizontal row above the search bar, and the bot config notice listed below it.

large

alias of 'banner'.

collapsible

If yes, makes the list collapsible.

collapsed

If yes, makes the list collapsed.

style

An arbitrary string of CSS can be applied to the box (use with care).

title

An alternative title, defaults to "Archives". The title is automatically linked to the /archivelist subpage, if it exists. If another link is desired, a wikilink may be inserted here.

editbox

If yes or omitted, includes a button to edit the archive box's sub-page /archivelist.

Further details

The {{Archives}} template may be used to add a box containing page links to archived discussions. It will automatically detect archived pages by default, if they follow the format {{PAGENAME}}/Archive #, eliminating the need to manually update the box each time a new archive page is created. However, if a list of archives is given manually through the first unnamed parameter, then it does not check for archives automatically. Instead, auto=long or auto=short has to be added, if both manual and automatic lists are used.

This page is intended to explain the details of template usage. For a general guide to archiving, see: Help:Archiving a talk page, which includes more information on using this template and others. With no explicit parameters, the archive list presented in the box is determined automatically. If a subpage called "{{PAGENAME}}/archivelist" exists, it will be used as the central content of the box.

If no archive list subpage is detected, numbered archive subpages will be listed in long format. Such pages must be named as "/Archive #" in order to be automatically detected. No other naming styles will be auto-detected. The "long" auto format (the default) indicates "Archive 1", "Archive 2", and so on. The "short" auto format indicates only the archive number.

An additional list of archives can be passed in the first unnamed parameter, avoiding the need to set up an archivelist subpage.

Using "auto=no" will disable archive auto-detection. Manually specified archives will still be shown. [The archive box will also contain an "Edit" link, targeted at the archive list subpage, which can then be used to begin manually populating the list, if desired. This seems broken.] This may be desirable, if the archive list is given in the title parameter.

The "auto" and "archivelist" parameters are not intended to be used together. (Doing so does not use the specified archive list page.)

The auto-generated archive list requires subpages to use the common naming convention. That is, "{{PAGENAME}}/Archive 1", "{{PAGENAME}}/Archive 2", and so on. The letter "A" must be capitalized, there must be a single space between the word "Archive" and the number, and there must be no leading zeros. If archive subpages do not conform to this convention, they can be renamed to conform, or a manual list can be maintained.

Examples

Default

{{archives}}

Short, index, collapsible

{{archives |auto=short |index=/Archive index |collapsible=yes}}

Horizontal banner

See this advanced search to see talk pages with horizontal banners.

{{archives|banner=yes}}

Notes

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Archives in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Archives

<templatedata> { "params": { "1": { "aliases": [ "list" ], "label": "List of manual archives", "description": "Inline list of manually maintained archives", "example": "/Archive 1, /Archive 2", "type": "content" }, "demospace": { "label": "Demospace parameter for box", "description": "Demospace parameter for ", "suggestedvalues": [ "talk", "other" ], "default": "talk" }, "banner": { "aliases": [ "large" ], "type": "boolean", "example": "yes", "default": "no", "label": "Large box banner option", "description": "\"yes\" converts the box design of the template into a talk page banner style of template, with the archives listed in a horizontal row above the search bar. " }, "collapsed": { "label": "Collapsed?", "description": "Whether or not the list is pre-collapsed. If set to yes, will also force the list to be collapsible regardless of the value of the collapsible parameter.", "example": "yes", "type": "boolean", "default": "no" }, "collapsible": { "label": "Collapsible?", "description": "Whether or not the list should be collapsible", "example": "yes", "type": "boolean", "default": "no" }, "box-width": { "deprecated": "True" }, "style": { "description": "Arbitrary custom CSS styling", "type": "string" }, "search": { "label": "Search bar?", "description": "Set to \"no\" to disable the search bar", "example": "no", "default": "yes" }, "age": { "type": "number", "aliases": [ "archive_age" ], "label": "Archiving delay", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will be displayed as the archiving delay. ", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " }, "target": {}, "image": { "label": "Icon image", "description": "The image to be used for the icon. Set to \"none\" to remove the icon.", "default": "Replacement filing cabinet.svg", "type": "wiki-file-name" }, "alt": { "label": "Icon alt text", "description": "Icon alt text, for accessibility", "type": "string", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " }, "link": { "label": "Icon link", "description": "Page that the icon links to when clicked", "type": "wiki-page-name", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " }, "image-size": { "label": "Icon size", "description": "Size of the icon", "type": "string", "default": "40px" }, "title": { "label": "Title", "description": "An alternative title.", "type": "line", "default": "Archives" }, "auto": { "label": "Automatic detection", "description": "Whether to spell out archive names (long), only list numbers (short), or disable automatic detection entirely", "suggestedvalues": [ "short", "long", "no" ], "default": "long" }, "index": { "description": "Links the 'Archives' title to a specified subpage that should be the subject index page for all archived discussions. Set index=none to disable.", "label": "Archive index page" }, "start": { "label": "Start index", "description": "Starting index for list of archives", "default": "1" }, "archivelist": { "label": "Archive list page", "description": "In conjunction with this parameter you are able to create a whole page where you can customize your archive list. The parameter specifies a link to this page, which should be a subpage that contains the archive list. ", "example": "Wikipedia:Media copyright questions/Archivelist", "type": "wiki-page-name" }, "root": { "label": "Archive page root", "description": "What should be prepended to the archive name (trailing slash automatically added)", "type": "wiki-page-name", "default": "Template:Archives" }, "prefix": { "label": "Archive page prefix", "description": "What should be prepended to the archive name (trailing slash not automatically added)", "default": "Template:Archives/" }, "search-break": { "label": "Insert newline between search bar and button?", "description": "Inserts a newline between the search bar and search button preventing them from being on the same line. Defaults to no if in banner format, yes otherwise ", "type": "boolean" }, "search-width": { "label": "Search bar width", "type": "number", "default": "22", "description": "Width of the search bar" }, "search-button-label": { "type": "string", "aliases": [ "button-label" ], "label": "Search button label", "description": "Label for the search button", "default": "Search archives" }, "units": { "aliases": [ "archive_units" ], "type": "string", "suggestedvalues": [ "days", "weeks", "months" ], "default": "days", "label": "Archiving delay unit", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will display units for the archiving delay. The default is \"day\" or \"days\". ", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " }, "bot": { "aliases": [ "archive_bot" ], "type": "wiki-user-name", "label": "Name of bot that does auto archiving", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, a note about automatic archiving will be shown. ", "deprecated": "Remove parameter. " }, "minthreadsleft": { "type": "number", "label": "The minimum number of threads that the archiving bot will leave on the page", "description": "Now generated automatically from the archiving parameters set with User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis or User:MiszaBot/config. Previously, if specified, this will display a note explaining the page won't be emptied out", "deprecated": "Remove parameter." }, "editbox": { "default": "yes", "label": "Include a button to edit the archivelist?", "description": "If yes or omitted, includes a button to edit the archive box's sub-page /archivelist. ", "suggestedvalues": [ "yes", "no" ] }, "class": { "description": "Add additional CSS classes", "type": "string" }, "nobot": { "label": "Don't detect and display information on bot archiving?", "type": "boolean", "autovalue": "y" }, "searchprefix": { "label": "Search prefix", "description": "The prefix to search under with the search bar, without the trailing slash", "type": "wiki-page-name", "default": "{{{root}}}" } }, "paramOrder": [ "1", "demospace", "banner", "collapsible", "collapsed", "box-width", "class", "style", "target", "image", "alt", "link", "image-size", "title", "auto", "index", "start", "archivelist", "root", "prefix", "search", "search-break", "search-width", "search-button-label", "age", "units", "bot", "minthreadsleft", "editbox", "nobot", "searchprefix" ], "description": "Box to list archived discussions on talk pages" } </templatedata>

Alternatives

Previously there existed several templates to display information related to talk page archives, and the possible automatic bot archiving of talk pages. As of 2025 the built-in functionality of {{Talk header}} should be considered the main approach, with this template the commonly used main alternative.

Other options do still exist (but aren't recommended):

• the User:ClueBot III automatic archiving bot provides an option to automatically display a simple archive box using the <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|archivebox= parameter described here: User:ClueBot III/Documentation#Cosmetic parameters

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Archives/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.