Template:Expand section

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This template may be used at the beginning of article sections that need expansion.

Usage

Place this template at the beginning of article sections that need expansion, after that section's title. You can use this template in the Main/Article or Wikipedia namespaces.

• {{Expand section}}
• {{Expand section|date=May 2026}}
• {{Expand section|small=no}}
• {{Expand section|with=more details about early life|talk=Early life|small=no}}
• {{Expand section|small=no|find=search keywords}}

Long form:

{{Expand section
 | 1           = (or with= or for=)
 | section     = (section number)
 | small       = no (default is "yes")
 | talksection = (link with NO brackets, "[[]]"; displays only if small=no)
 | date        = Month YYYY
 | period      = <!--no--> (included after the input for "1=" from above by default - use this only in instances where terminal punctuation should be placed before a reference)
}}

Parameters

Overview

This template may be used without parameters, and a BOT will add the date when necessary.

• |1=what and why – (or with= or for=) add a few words about what needs expansion and why
• |small=no  – (default when omitted: a small message box flush left)
• |talksection=Section name  – (link with NO brackets, "[[]]"; displays only if small=no)
• |date=May 2026
• |find=your search keywords  – search terms for {{find sources}} param 1 (double-quoted search). This optional parameter adds a set of links produced by the {{find sources}} template to the output. If omitted, no "find sources" links are displayed. Details below.
• |find2=additional search terms  – search keywords for {{find sources}} param 2 (unquoted search).
• |section=  – (section number)
• |period=  – <!--no--> (included after the input for "1=" from above by default - use this

Details

small

When the |small= parameter is omitted, a small, left-justified message box is displayed. This can be overridden: use |small= with any value (such as no) to result in a wider message box.

Use of the wider box with |small=no also enables display of the |talksection= parameter. (|talk= or |discuss= may also be used). In most cases, display of "find sources" results will be easier to read in a wide box, but are permitted in the default, smaller box.

date

The |date= parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles to be expanded, allowing the oldest ones to be identified and dealt with first. You do not need to specify the date manually; a bot will add it later automatically.

find parameters

There are two 'find' parameters available to control the presentation and operation of the {{find sources}} links optionally displayed by the template. The find parameters can be used to provide the search keywords of your choice to the {{find sources}} links. Use:

• |find= to specify keywords for an exact search (double-quoted query); this corresponds to {{find sources}} positional param one.
• |find2= to specify keywords for an unquoted search; this corresponds to {{find sources}} param two.

If you want to display {{find sources}} links in the box, but are not sure of what search keywords to use, try setting |find=Article title and |find2=Section title. If the article title is a long, descriptive title unlikely to generate good results as a long, double-quoted search query, try swapping the values of the two params.

Examples

or inline short form

{{Expand section|1=what and why|small=no|talk=Talk_section find=Article title or search terms|find2=Section title or more terms|section=n|date=May 2026}}

date=

The current month and year can be used in the |date= parameter. This will add the page to a sub-category sorted by date used (see the Categorisation section of this page for more information:

{{Expand section|date=May 2026}}

or

{{Expand section|{{subst:DATE}}}}

results in:

section=

The |section= parameter is used to link to the edit screen of the article's section in which this template is placed. If this template is placed in the second section after the TOC, then use |section=2:

{{Expand section|section=2|{{subst:DATE}}}}

results in:

and links to the edit screen for the second section of the page after the TOC.

1=, with=, or for=

An unnamed parameter, |1= (or one of the named parameters, |with= or |for=), may be used to explain what expansion is needed in the section:

{{Expand section|1=examples and additional citations|section=1|date=May 2026}}

results in:

When multiple expansion issues need to be raised, explain them in a new section on the article's discussion page, and use the next two parameters for reader convenience.

small=

Specify |small=no to generate a wide box, and enable param |talksection=.

talksection=

Prerequisite: requires |small=no, otherwise presence and values of |talksection= are ignored.

{{Expand section|1=examples and additional citations|section=1|date=May 2026|small=no|talksection=Template talk:Expand section#When should this template be used?}}

results in:

Categorisation

When {{Expand section}} is used without a |date= parameter in an article in the main article namespace, the article is sorted to Category:Articles to be expanded. A bot or an editor will then add the date parameter, and the article will be sorted to a category with a name that reflects the date given. For example, if the |date=May 2026 is used, the article will be added to Category:Articles to be expanded from May 2026.

No matter what parameters are used with this template, it also adds the article to Category:All articles to be expanded.

Choosing the right template

For an empty section

If the section is completely empty, the {{Empty section}} template should be used instead of this template.

The exception would be an empty section used for references as explained in the following subsection.

For a References or Notes section

When the section that needs expansion is used to list cited sources, then either {{No footnotes}} or {{More footnotes needed}} should be used instead of {{Empty section}} or {{Expand section}}.

Note: Unlike the other templates mentioned, those "footnotes" templates should go at the beginning/TOP of the page, just under any hatnotes, rather than at the beginning of a section.

In the main article namespace, citing sources is an important part of the article, performed by using the tags, <ref></ref>, which in turn are collected and formatted into text in the section containing the {{Reflist}} template or the <references /> tag. This section (or sub-section, as might be the case if the sources are listed separately) is often titled "References", and can have other names.

If the article has a section that contains either {{Reflist}} or <references />, the section can still appear blank on the saved, rendered page if the article has no text within <ref></ref> tags. Such a section is still considered blank, even though the template or tag wikitext can be seen in Edit mode. In that case the {{No footnotes}} template should be used at the TOP of the page just beneath any hatnotes.

TemplateData

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

TemplateData for Expand section

Can be placed at the beginning of article sections that need expansion, after the section title.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Reason	1 with for	Reason the template was added, an explanation of what expansion the section needs. A bulleted list with lines beginning '*' can be given.	Content	optional
Terminal punctuation	period punctuation	If set to 'no', this parameter omits the terminal punctuation after the input for the 'with'/'for' parameter (i.e., the reason the template was added); this is normally only used if references are included after terminal punctuation. Suggested values yes no Default yes Example no	Line	optional
Talk section	talksection discuss talk	A section heading in the talk page where the issue is discussed. Note: The talksection parameter only displays if the parameter small is set to 'no'.	Line	optional
Month and year	date	The month and year the template was added. Example July 2017 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	Line	suggested
Small	small	By default the template will be displayed in a small size. This can be changed by setting small to 'no'. Not recommended in articles. Suggested values no	Line	optional
Find	find	Search keywords for double-quoted search to pass to 'find sources'. Example Article title	Line	optional
Find2	find2	Search keywords for unquoted search to pass to 'find sources'. Example Section title	Line	optional
section	section	Section number of the section with the template	Number	optional

See also

• {{Clarify}} and {{Explain}} (both inline)
• {{Incomplete list}}
• {{Empty section}}
• {{Missing information}}

Notes

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Expand section/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.