Template:External

The External Template is intended to italicise links to external web sites (that is, those not residing on this Wiki).

Purpose

Links using this template will be italicised so as to distinguish them from internal Wiki links, but without the "pointing arrow" appended to the link that is default Wiki practice for external links. Many users find these arrows annoying. Additionally, with the later MediaWiki software we now have, Internet Explorer will no longer leave a gap in the text where the pointing arrow would otherwise have been.

NOTE: This template should be used for external links only and according to the examples below. (Other templates are available for other uses, see Category:Templates.)

General Usage:

Syntax:

Alternative 1: {{external|URL_to_external_site}}
Alternative 2: {{external|[URL_to_external_site Name Of Site]}}

For example, typing this:

1: {{external|http://link.to.site}}
2: {{external|[http://link.to.site Dummy Site]}}

will cause the following to be displayed:

1: http://link.to.site

2: Dummy Site

Usage where the URL includes an equals sign:

Note that due to Wiki parsing issues that if the URL includes an equals sign ( = ) you must append "1=" (without quotes) to the pipe "|" symbol. For example, typing:

{{external|[http://www.google.com/search?q=USB look for USB]}}

will produce the erroneous

{{{1}}} 

whereas typing:

{{external|1=[http://www.google.com/search?q=USB look for USB]}}

will produce the intended external URL:

look for USB 

This applies equally if the URL is quoted in full e.g. to produce this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=USB 

you must type:

{{external|1=http://www.google.com/search?q=USB}}