Template:Key press

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Template documentation

This is the {{key press}} template primarily designed to illustrate keys and keystrokes on a computer keyboard. With additional parameters, a single template can even illustrate a combination of multiple simultaneous keystrokes. A sequence of keystrokes, on the other hand, need to be demonstrated with separate templates.

Example:

{{key press|A}} produces A

Keystroke combinations

To illustrate keystroke combinations, just use extra parameters:

{{key press|Alt|P}} produces Alt+P

{{key press|Ctrl|Alt|Del}} produces Ctrl+Alt+Del

This template currently handles up to 5 key name parameters, which should be more than enough to accommodate for any possible combination of simultaneous keystrokes. If it gets too many key name parameters it reports the page into Category:Wikipedia keypress template parameter needs fixing. This means we can easily find those pages and fix them, or we can discover if we need to make this template take more parameters.

When you feed several key names to this template, it adds a "+" with no spaces around. This means it won't line wrap. But when you show key combinations for instance in a table then that might cause too wide items. Then instead manually build the key combination with spaces around the "+" so it can line wrap. Like this:

{{key press|Ctrl}} + {{key press|Alt}} + {{key press|Del}} produces Ctrl + Alt + Del

On the other hand, to illustrate Windows Alt codes you might want to use separate templates with no intervening punctuation or space. In most Windows systems in North America and Western Europe, for example, the plus-minus sign (±) can be entered by holding down the Alt key while typing 0177 (with the numeric keypad). This could be illustrated like this:

{{key press|Alt|0}}{{key press|1}}{{key press|7}}{{key press|7}} produces Alt+0177

Wikilinks

If there is an article about the key you can wikilink the key's name like any other wiki text. Like this:

{{key press|[[Alt key|Alt]]}} produces Alt

If you are wikilinking the keys, please ensure that you are piping to the correct page (e.g. [[Control key|Ctrl]] instead of [[Ctrl]], which leads to a disambiguation page).

Wiki characters

Some wiki markup character, like the pipe symbol, the semicolon and the equals sign, need to be entered using the {{!}}, {{;}} and {{=}} templates:

{{key press|{{!}}}} produces |

{{key press|{{;}}}} produces ;

{{key press|{{=}}}} produces =

However, if the characters are marked as wikilinks, they can be entered as such:

{{key press|[[|]]}} produces |

{{key press|[[;]]}} produces ;

{{key press|[[=]]}} produces =

If you don't want to mark the characters as links, {{key press|<nowiki>|</nowiki>}} is also an option.

Key symbols

Some key names have a fitting Unicode character. This template automatically adds such "icons" to the following key names:

{{key press|Caps Lock}} produces ⇪ Caps Lock

{{key press|Shift}} produces ⇧ Shift

{{key press|Enter}} produces ↵ Enter

{{key press|Tab}} produces Tab ↹

{{key press|Backspace}} produces ← Backspace

{{key press|Cmd}} produces ⌘ Cmd

{{key press|Opt}} produces ⌥ Opt

{{key press|Up}} produces ↑

{{key press|Down}} produces ↓

{{key press|Left}} produces ←

{{key press|Right}} produces →

File:AltGr Win Menu Ctrl key.jpg

Windows key and Menu key

File:Ctl wndws alt.jpg

Old-style Windows key

There are no characters for the Windows key and Menu key. Besides, the Windows logo is trademarked. So this template shows approximate characters for them in the following way:

{{key press|Win}} produces ⊞ Win

{{key press|Menu}} produces ≣ Menu

Video games

Video game controllers often have specialized input labels that do not map easily. The following are mappings for various game consoles and input features.

Directional input

The following should only be used when the input sequence uses something other than the primary input or mixes input between directional devices.

{{key press|l-down}} produces L↓

{{key press|c-left}} produces C←

{{key press|r-up}} produces R↑

Stick specific diagonals are also supported:

{{key press|l-nw}} produces L↖

{{key press|c-se}} produces C↘

{{key press|r-ne}} produces R↗

PlayStation

{{key press|ex}} produces ×

{{key press|circle}} produces ○

{{key press|triangle}} produces △

{{key press|square}} produces □

Technical details

This template calls {{key press/core}}, which holds the code that otherwise would be repeated several times in {{key press}}, thus simplifying the code.

Not to be confused with

• {{Button}} – produces a similar visual effect, but without the semantic markup, e.g. Template:Button
• {{key box}}