Template:External media/doc

When to use
If an image, 3D model, audio or video clip:


 * 1) is currently available online,
 * 2) cannot be uploaded to Wikipedia, even under fair-use rules,  and
 * 3) readers will expect this type of media in the article,

then it may be appropriate to use external media to provide a direct link to the media file along with a description of the media.

The external media template should be removed as soon as a replacement of adequate quality and accuracy is available in WP:COMMONS. At that time, the link included in this template may be considered for inclusion as a regular WP:External link in the ==External links== section.

Copyright
According to WP:ELNEVER and WP:COPYLINK, editors must never link to content that violates copyright or is otherwise illegal. If you are uncertain of the copyright status (for example, with links to YouTube), ask for help at Media copyright questions. If you're certain that the copyright status is acceptable, but others might wonder later, make it clear in the template or in the reference that you link to material from a rightful distributor (examples can be found at grindcore).

Where to use
This template is normally placed in the main body of the article, in the same place that you would normally have placed the image, 3D model, audio, or video clip if it had been available on Wikimedia Commons.

When placing links in the ==External links== section, please use the normal formatting for external links, as explained at WP:External links and WP:External links, rather than this template.

Usage
Paste this into your article, removing the parameters that are left blank:

The external media template can be used multiple times in an article, and each instance can be used to link to more than one file.

Parameters
Note: when adding a link to an external media source like this, it is essential that the source page be linked too with the date of retrieval, both to satisfy Wikipedia's sourcing criteria for the statement about the presented media and to ensure that the link can quickly be corrected should the source URL be changed. Reference tags can be used for this purpose.
 * float: Valid options are "left", "right" and "center". The template defaults to displaying on the right-hand-side.
 * width: This should be a complete width measurement including units. Examples:,  ,  . The template defaults to 258px wide.
 * topic: Optional text field that will appear above the media links.
 * title: Optional text to replace the automatically calculated title.
 * headerimage: Optional image to display at the top of the template. Use full image syntax, for example example.png.
 * caption: Optional caption text to put underneath the header image.
 * media links: Each file to be linked should specify its type and have a different number, starting from 1. For example, a template containing four images and one video would label them as,  ,  ,   and  . The attribute has a free format, so any amount of detail may be added. The first part of the entry should be formatted as a normal external link, i.e.   for Image description. After that, any additional detail can be given on the same line. See the examples for details.

Examples
Just an image, taken from the War against Nabis Featured Article. This example gives full contextual information along with references.

Image, using descriptive text with accompanying reference:

Two images with rich accompanying text, floated left:

Audio with topic text and accompanying link to the home page:

Single video, floated left:

Two CNN videos from YouTube, floated right:

Mixed content: