Template:Smallcaps/sandbox

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This is the template sandbox page for Template:Smallcaps (diff).

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{{Smallcaps}} will display the lowercase part of your text as typographical small caps.

This template should be used sparingly, as markup should be kept simple. Ideally, this template should only be used by templates. In particular, it should not be used for any of the following:

Name/surname disambiguation; using capitalization for this purpose is uncommonly-used in English-speaking territories.
Markup up acronyms; standard capital letters should be used.
All-caps trademarks; these should be presented in regular title case.

Usage

Your source text is not altered in the output, only the way it is displayed on the screen: a copy-paste of the text will give the small caps sections in their original form; similarly, an older or non-CSS browser will only display the original text on screen. This can be seen as a problem, solved with {{sc}}.

Code: {{Smallcaps|Your Text in 4004 bc}}
Displayed: Your Text in 4004 bc
Pasted: Your Text in 4004 bc

Notes

Diacritics (å, ç, é, ğ, ı, ñ, ø, ş, ü, etc.) are handled. However, because the job is performed by each reader's browser, inconsistencies in CSS implementations can lead to some browsers not converting certain rare diacritics.
Use of this template does not generate any automatic categorization. As with most templates, if the argument contains an = sign, the sign should be replaced with {{=}}, or the whole argument be prefixed with 1=. And for wikilinks, you need to use piping. There is a parsing problem with MediaWiki which causes unexpected behavior when a template with one style is used within a template with another style.
There is a problem with dotted and dotless I. {{Lang|tr|{{Smallcaps|ı i}}}} gives you ı i, although the language is set to Turkish.

Code examples

	Code	Display (screen)
	{{Smallcaps\|The ''Name'' of the 2<sup>nd</sup> Game}}	The Name of the 2^nd Game
	Leonardo {{Smallcaps\|DiCaprio}} (born 1974)	Leonardo DiCaprio (born 1974)
	José {{Smallcaps\|Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga}}	José Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga
	{{Smallcaps\|Nesbø, Vågen, Louÿs, Zúñiga, Kabaağaçlı}}	Nesbø, Vågen, Louÿs, Zúñiga, Kabaağaçlı
When your text uses an = sign:
	{{Smallcaps\|You and Me = Us}}	{{{1}}}
	{{Smallcaps\|You and Me = Us}}	You and Me = Us
	{{Smallcaps\|You and Me {{=}} Us}}	You and Me = Us
	{{Smallcaps\|1=You and Me = Us}}	You and Me = Us
When your text uses a template:
	in {{Smallcaps\|Fiddler's {{Green{{!}}Green}}}} forever	Green}} forever
	in {{Smallcaps\|1=Fiddler's {{Green\|Green}}}} forever	in Fiddler's Green forever
	in {{Smallcaps\|Fiddler's {{Green\|Green}}}} forever	in Fiddler's Green forever
	{{Green\|1=in {{Smallcaps\|Fiddler's Green}} forever}}	in Fiddler's Green forever
When your text uses a \| pipe:
	{{Smallcaps\|Before\|afteR}}	Before
	{{Smallcaps\|1=Before{{!}}afteR}}	afteR
	{{Smallcaps\|Before\|afteR}}	Before\|afteR
When your text uses a link:
	[[w:{{Smallcaps\|Mao}} Zedong]]	[[w:Mao Zedong]]
	[[w:Mao Zedong\|{{Smallcaps\|Mao}} Zedong]]	Mao Zedong

Reasons to use small caps

Small caps are useful for encyclopedical and typographical uses including:

To lighten ALL-CAPS surnames mandated by citation styles such as Harvard

Piccadilly has been compared to "a Parisian boulevard" (Dickens 1879).
Dickens, C., Jr (1879). "Piccadilly" in Dickens's Dictionary of London. London: C. Dickens.[1]

Technical

Technically, the template merely wraps the standard:

<span style="font-variant:small-caps;"> ... </span>

(The "font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase" has not been used because it does not work at least in Internet Explorer 5 and 6, which are still fairly common browsers.)