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
in → A
Keystroke combinations
To illustrate keystroke combinations, just use extra parameters:
in → Alt+P
in → Ctrl+Alt+Del
This template currently handles up to 10 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 "+" (or whatever the contents of the optional chain parameter) 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:
in + {{key press|Alt}} + {{key press|Del}} → Ctrl + Alt + Del
in → 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):
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 markup characters
Some wiki markup character, like the pipe symbol, the semicolon and the equals sign, need to be entered using the {{!}}, {{;}} and {{=}} templates or as an HTML entity |, ;, = respectively:
in → |
in → |
in → ;
in → ;
in → =
in → =
However, if the characters are marked as wikilinks, they can be entered as such:
Some key names have a fitting Unicode character. This template automatically adds such "icons" to the following key names among others.
in → ⇧ Shift
in → Tab ↹
in → ↵ Enter
in → ⌥ Option
in → ⌥ Opt
in → ⌘ Command
in → ⌘ Cmd
in → ⇪ Caps Lock
in → Scroll Lock
in → ↑
in → ↓
in → ←
in → →
Windows key and Menu keyOld-style Windows key
There are no characters for the Windows key and Menu key. So this template shows approximate characters for them, namely the 'SQUARED PLUS' and 'STRICTLY EQUIVALENT TO' from the Mathematical Operators block:
in → ⊞ Win
in → ≣ 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.
in → L↓
in → C←
in → R↑
Stick specific diagonals are also supported:
in → L↖
in → C↘
in → R↗
PlayStation
in → ×
in → ○
in → △
in → □
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.
Illustrates keys and keystrokes on a computer keyboard. Keys can include: Ctrl, Alt, Del, Opt, Menu, Left etc. console keys: ex, circle, triangle, square, and left right and center analog sticks: l-down, c-left, r-ne. The names are case insensitive.
To indicate text is a variable name. Use for any variable names except those including "I" (uppercase i) and/or "l" (lowercase L); for these, {{var serif}} should be used to ensure a noticeable distinction
To display parameters as used in code (i.e. with triple braces), especially to indicate relationships between them. May be combined with {{para}} above
To display parameter values lightly bordered; replaces <code>...</code>, especially when value contains embedded or leading/trailing blanks; visualized here with middot (·) but can use ␠, ▯, or any character.
To showcase with colors in horizontal format the syntax of any template, while providing an easy way to display placeholder texts using colons as separators
To indicate text is source code. To nest other templates within {{code}}, use <code>...</code>. {{codett}} differs only in styling: someMethod becomes someMethod
( or {{dc}}) To indicate deprecated source code in template documentation, articles on HTML specs, etc. The {{dc2}} variant uses strike-through (<blink>) while {{dcr}} uses red (<blink>).
To showcase with colors and multiple lines (vertical format) the syntax of any template, while providing an easy way to display placeholder texts using colons as separators
