Template talk:*

This is an experiment in creating rollovers with text boxes as a possible alternative to footnotes.

To use this template, you just have to type:



and this is what it will look like: *

This is really simple to use, and would encourage more footnoting (or should I say citations).
 * --Samuel Wantman 08:07, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

If this template was only an experiment, and hasn't been added to for more than a year, can we reappropriate the space for a useful historical linguistics shorthand? (I want the template to say something like * .) QuartierLatin1968 22:35, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh, go for it. I originally created this as a shortcut for a special mortarboard shaped bullet; feel free to realocate it again for your own tinkering. -Litefantastic 03:17, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Awesome! Thanks; and thank you for being so prompt. [[image:smiley.png|15px|]] QuartierLatin1968 [[Image:Red flag waving transparent.png|20px|El bien mas preciado es la libertad]] 16:43, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

From talk:Wōdanaz
As there's been some talk about bringing this matter to MoS, maybe I should mention one change I'd like to see, which is to link asterisks for the edification of those who aren't familiar with their use in historical linguistics. In the same way that (to pick a random example) Galileo positioning system says its cost "is estimated at €1.1 billion", this article could begin "*Wōđanaz or *Wōđinaz is the reconstructed name...". We might even start an article for the purpose: asterisk in historical linguistics. This way we can just link there every now and then, and we don't need to clutter up every article with a historical reconstruction with explanations. (Another possibility would be to use a template with a span markup: "* Wōđanaz is"...) QuartierLatin1968 15:23, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
 * good idea (I prefer the *). dab (&#5839;) 17:10, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Newsflash! I've talked to the good folks at, and we can use their template to produce something like this: *. This gives us the roll-over option, links to asterisk, and forces unicode-friendly fonts. You just type * and voilà. QuartierLatin1968 [[Image:Red flag waving transparent.png|20px|El bien mas preciado es la libertad]] 17:02, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
 * that's not that great, since ideally you'd want a mouseover for the form itself, too, such as PIE ( * )... dab (&#5839;) 17:24, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh; I didn't know about the template. Shouldn't that template really include the asterisk anyway? It's not as though any PIE forms are directly attested. And leaving PIE aside, I don't think there should be separate templates for every possible proto-language, because that just reduplicates effort. We could add a new parameter to  toggling the span title if necessary. Would it seem more annoying to have to enter two templates à la * or one * ? QuartierLatin1968 [[Image:Red flag waving transparent.png|20px|El bien mas preciado es la libertad]] 20:43, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
 * no, the asterisk should be added manually. of course PIE is all reconstructed, but imagine a declination table for example: you'd not put an asterisk in each table cell, after all. I was intending to do a PGmc for some time: these are for language markup, much like lang, semxlit, ArabDIN and others. The problem of the asterisk is separate. You don't want it to give a "THIS IS RECONSTRUCTED" explanation every time, just the first time it appears in an article, so there should be a separate * for that. dab (&#5839;) 09:41, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Yup, you've convinced me. And after all we can always just use wherever there isn't already a proto-language template. I'll make the necessary change to  and we can start using it. I think I may take the liberty of copying this exchange over to template talk:* for future reference. QuartierLatin1968 [[Image:Red flag waving transparent.png|20px|El bien mas preciado es la libertad]] 15:03, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 15 August 2018
Replace with   I feel as if more people what to easily place * in pagers then another type of dot. — BrandonXLF   (t@lk) (ping back) 14:49, 15 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Following the 2007 TFD this resulted in the current redirect usage has grown and is currently in use by ~70000 pages. You will need to establish consensus to change this first. —  xaosflux  Talk 17:24, 15 August 2018 (UTC)