Template:Merge

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{{Wikipedia:Article alerts/Bot use warning}}

Which merge template should I use?

Do not use this tag on a template or category—instead see below for instructions.

• To merge at least two articles together at an unspecified location, use {{Merge|Iowa Highway 1}}
• To merge the contents of the tagged article into another article, use {{Merge to|Iowa Highway 2}}
• If the contents of another article should be merged into the tagged article, use {{Merge from|Iowa Highway 3}} – the opposite of {{Merge to}};
• To suggest merging only some material from one article to another, use {{Merge portions from|Iowa Highway 3}} and {{Split portions|Iowa Highway 2}}

Terminology

Source page is the page that content is merged from.

Destination page or target page is the page that content is merged into.

Other page is any page involved in a merger.

When to use and when not to use

These templates are used primarily to identify potential merges that would benefit from discussion. If it is obvious that a merge would be appropriate, then you may boldly merge the pages yourself without tagging and without discussion. Some editors also use these tags to mark pages that obviously require merging in the hope that someone else will merge the pages.

After adding the merge tag, you are expected to create a section on the talk page of the appropriate article (see below for details) explaining your rationale for the merge proposal. If the rationale is so obvious that it requires no explanation, then you should consider boldly merging the pages yourself, or explain on the talk page why you didn't do so yourself.

How to use

Simple example

Tagging a single page, without specifying source or destination, is simple:

Markup	Renders as
{{Merge|Iowa Highway 1}}

When you want to discuss a simple merge of one page into another, tag both source and destination page:

Markup	Renders as
{{Merge to|Iowa Highway 2}}

When you want to discuss a simple merge of parts of one page into another, tag both source and destination page:

Markup	Renders as
{{Merge portions from|Iowa Highway 3}}

Markup	Renders as
{{Merge from|Iowa Highway 4}}

This allows editors at both pages to see the proposed source and destination.

Other options

By default, the Discuss link on the template links to the top of the destination page's talk page. To specify which section, or to name a different talk page entirely, use the |discuss= parameter:

{{Merge|Iowa Highway 1 |discuss=Talk:Iowa Highway 1#Merger discussion }}

To name multiple pages to be merged, simply separate them with a vertical pipe. You can add up to 20 articles to be merged:

{{Merge|Iowa Highway 11 |Iowa Highway 12 |Iowa Highway 13 |discuss=Talk:Iowa Highway 1#Merger discussion }}

To name multiple pages to merge into a single page, use the |target= parameter. For example, to merge the tagged page, as well as Iowa Highway 31, Iowa Highway 32, and Iowa Highway 33 into Iowa Highway 2, use:

{{Merge|Iowa Highway 31 |Iowa Highway 32 |Iowa Highway 33 |target=Iowa Highway 2 |discuss=Talk:Iowa Highway 1#Merger discussion }}

If you are placing the template in a section, you can use |section=yes to change the wording to reflect this:

{{Merge|Iowa Highway 1 |discuss=Talk:Iowa Highway 1#Merger discussion |date=November 2024 |section=yes}}

• Do not link to the pages with square brackets.
  For example, write {{Merge|Iowa Highway 1}}, not {{Merge|[[Iowa Highway 1]]}}.
• These templates will add tagged articles to Category:Articles to be merged, while non-articles (files, templates, etc.) will be added to Category:Miscellany to be merged.
• For {{Merge}}, if you are specifying a merge of two or more pages in different namespaces, the template supports this via specification of the full page name, including the namespace prefix. |nspace= can take on namespace values, which fixes all params to the namespace specified.
• Do not subst: these templates.

When to remove

There is no deadline for completing proposed merges. Pages that have been tagged for a long time (frequently more than one year) generally fall into these groups:

Discussion supported the proposed merge, but no one did it yet

Feel free to merge the pages yourself.

Discussion opposed merge, but nobody removed the tags

Feel free to remove the tags yourself.

No discussion found

Feel free to remove the tags if you believe the merge would be a poor choice, or to boldly merge the pages if you believe the merge would be appropriate. Or feel free to start a discussion if you are uncertain or feel it would be controversial.

TemplateData

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

TemplateData for Merge

See also

Not to be confused with Template:Merged-from.

{{Wikipedia:Template messages/Splitting/List|noheading=yes}}{{Wikipedia:Template messages/Merging/List|noheading=yes}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Merge/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.