em

Template documentation

This template is used in MediaWiki:Newpages-summary, and on approximately 1,430,000 pages, or roughly 2% of all pages.
Changes to it can cause immediate changes to the Wikipedia user interface.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Please discuss changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Purpose

The Em template makes it faster and easier to apply the ... emphasis HTML element to text, and more importantly to indicate to human editors and Wiki bots they should not use ''...'' or ... typographic italicization to replace the intentional and semantically meaningful . Emphasis (...) is usually rendered visually in an italic (oblique a.k.a. slanted) typeface by default on graphical browsers, but can be parsed and acted upon in customizable ways with style sheets, apps, and text-to-speech screen readers. It is semantic markup, i.e. markup that conveys meaning or context, not just visual appearance.

Simple italicizing (''...'' or ...) is purely typographic and is semantically meaningless; however, there are some occasions when simple italics are preferable to the emphasis template, most often for titles of publications (books, films, albums, etc.), foreign words and phrases, words as words (when quotation marks are not used for that purpose), names of ships, scientific names of genera and below and other cases where stylistic conventions demand italics, but they convey no sense of emphasis.

The average reader, and average editor, do not and need not care about this distinction most of the time, but it can be important and editors who understand it can use this template as a baseline insurance against accidental or uninformed replacement by bots and human editors, as well as to add web accessibility.

Usage

{{em|text to be emphasized}}

or, if the text to be emphasized contains an equals sign:

{{em|1=text to be emphasized}}

These both render as:

text to be emphasized

This template puts intentional and explicit ... (emphasis) [X]HTML markup around the text provided as the first parameter. It is safest to always use the |1=.

Optional parameters

Advanced HTML values can be passed through the template to the HTML code:

|role= takes a WAI-ARIA role; adds role="rolename" to the HTML code

|class= takes a class name (or multiple class names, separated by spaces); adds class="duhoc-en classname[s]" to the HTML code

|style= takes inline CSS input; adds style="CSS directive[s]" to the HTML code

|id= takes a valid, unique HTML id (must begin with an alphabetic letter); adds id="name" to the HTML code

|title= takes text, which cannot be marked up in any way, and displays it as a pop-up "tooltip" (in most browsers) when the cursor hovers over the span

Use cases

This template is made to mildly emphasize an important word or phrase in a passage, in a way that is (unlike simply italicizing it) semantically meaningful markup. With this technique, the emphasized text stands out from the rest of the nearby text in most if not all visual browsers and some text-to-speech screen readers (which usually ignore purely typographic italicization), without strongly affecting scannability. It can also be parsed by user agents and other software as definitively indicating emphasis, not just some typographic italicized effect for appearance's sake. Therefore, it only should be used sparingly in articles to highlight something being stressed (e.g., to represent mild vocal emphasis). Example:

"Contrary to reports, she was {{em|not}} dead after all."
"Contrary to reports, she was not dead after all."

It is also occasionally used for disambiguation, e.g. between two adjacent but different uses of the same word or homonym ("What it is is a kind of custard."), but this usage is not often encyclopedic and can (when not found in a direct quotation) usually be rewritten to avoid the awkward construction.

When this template should not be used

Because {{em}} is strictly for semantic (meaningful) emphasis, it should not be used for layout, typography conventions (titles, foreign words, scientific names of genera and species, etc.), and other cases that are not true emphasis. In these different cases, italics Wikicode ''...'', which is rendered as ... for the browser or other user agent, should be used instead, or special markup for a particular case, such as {{var|...}} or ... for variables in computer science and mathematics. {{Em}} should also not be used when the text to which it is applied is italicized for some other reason (e.g., it is part of a book title); in such cases use {{Strong}} instead. Usually avoid using {{em}} in non-quoted sentences that end in an exclamation point. And it is usually excessive to use {{em}} on terms that are Wikilinked, since the link markup acts as a form of emphasis itself.

"The New York Times is an American daily newspaper." This example should use ''The New York Times''.

TemplateData

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

Formats text with the HTML emphasis () element. Do not use for layout, typography conventions (titles, foreign words, scientific names of genera and species, etc.), and other cases that are not true semantic (meaningful) emphasis; use normal ''italics'' formatting instead.
Template parametersEdit template data
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter Description Type Status
Text 1
The text to format.
Content required
WAI-ARIA role role
The WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) role that the text plays. Adds the "role" attribute with the provided value to the HTML code.
Suggested values
math presentation none note
String optional
HTML class(es) class
Name(s) of the class(es), separated by spaces, to be added to the HTML "class" attribute.
String optional
CSS formatting markup style
CSS directives for formatting the text. Added to the HTML "style" attribute.
String optional
HTML unique identifier id
A unique HTML identifier, which must start with an alphabetic letter. Added to the "id" attribute.
String optional
Tooltip text title
Explanatory text of the pop-up tooltip to be displayed on hover. Added to the HTML "title" attribute.
String optional

See also

{{Strong}} – for bold rather than italic semantic emphasis

{{Strongbad}} – same but red

{{Stronggood}} – same but green

v
t
e
Semantic markup templates
Template Example output Use
{{strong}} Important! To indicate importance, seriousness, or urgency instead of just simple typographical boldfacing
{{strongbad}} "Never use ..." Same as {{strong}} but in red
{{stronggood}} "Only use ..." Same as {{strong}} but in green
{{em}} "An emphatic phrase" To indicate stress emphasis (not just purely typographical italicization like for book titles or foreign terms)
{{var}} strPrefix To indicate text is a variable name. Use for any variable names except those including "I" (uppercase i) and/or "l" (lowercase L); for these, {{var serif}} should be used to ensure a noticeable distinction
{{var serif}} strIllustratePrefix (see {{var}} above)
{{tld}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Y, X}} To display wikicode variables and magic words as they would appear in code
{{para}} |year=2008 To display template parameters with or without values
{{param}} {{{title|alt}}} To display parameters as used in code (i.e. with triple braces), especially to indicate relationships between them. May be combined with {{para}} above
{{tjp}} |selfref=yes To display template parameters with colors (as they would appear in the {{tj}} and {{tji}} templates)
{{param value}} ··2·blanks·fore·and·aft·· To display parameter values lightly bordered; replaces ..., especially when value contains embedded or leading/trailing blanks; visualized here with middot (·) but can use ␠, ▯, or any character.
{{tlx}} etc. {{Template|1|2|...|10}} To display a template call (with or without parameters and values) as code
{{tji}} {{hatnote|Hello|selfref=yes|category=no}} To showcase with colors in horizontal format the syntax of any template, while providing an easy way to display placeholder texts using colons as separators
{{tag}} "The ... tags ..." To render HTML elements ("tags") in prose
{{code}}/{{codett}} "Ensure the alt= parameter ..." To indicate text is source code. To nest other templates within {{code}}, use .... {{codett}} differs only in styling: someMethod becomes someMethod
{{PreCode}} "FORTH has keyword ?BRANCH." Like {{code}}, but prevents line breaks inside the code. Only for very short code parts.
{{subst:codenowiki}} {{small|small text example}} To wrap example code in ...
{{subst:kbdnowiki}} {{large|large text example}} To wrap example code in ...
{{syntaxhighlight}} _{[this is a block template]} ( or {{sxhl}} ) Wrapper for ..., but will wrap overflowing text
{{deprecated code}} "Do not use <blink>." ( or {{dc}} ) To indicate deprecated source code in template documentation, articles on HTML specs, etc. The {{dc2}} variant uses strike-through (<blink>) while {{dcr}} uses red (<blink>).
{{pre}} _{[this is a block template]} For larger blocks of source code and other pre-formatted text
{{tj}} _{[this is a block template]} To showcase with colors and multiple lines (vertical format) the syntax of any template, while providing an easy way to display placeholder texts using colons as separators
{{quote}} _{[this is a block template]} For block quotations (only – never for non-quotations)
{{block indent}} _{[this is a block template]} For indented blocks of material; visually identical to {{quote}} but without quote markup
{{kbd}} user input To indicate user input
{{key press}} Ctrl+x To indicate specific-keystroke input, including combinations
{{key top}} Left shift Similar; includes more symbols, but does not directly support combinations
{{button}} Don't save To indicate a button in a user interface
{{samp}} example output To indicate sample or example output

em

Purpose

Usage

Optional parameters

Use cases

When this template should not be used

TemplateData

See also

Tags:

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Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Text	`1`	The text to format.	Content	required
WAI-ARIA role	`role`	The WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) role that the text plays. Adds the "role" attribute with the provided value to the HTML code. Suggested values `math` `presentation` `none` `note`	String	optional
HTML class(es)	`class`	Name(s) of the class(es), separated by spaces, to be added to the HTML "class" attribute.	String	optional
CSS formatting markup	`style`	CSS directives for formatting the text. Added to the HTML "style" attribute.	String	optional
HTML unique identifier	`id`	A unique HTML identifier, which must start with an alphabetic letter. Added to the "id" attribute.	String	optional
Tooltip text	`title`	Explanatory text of the pop-up tooltip to be displayed on hover. Added to the HTML "title" attribute.	String	optional