Editing Help:Archiving a talk page (section)

==== Automatic archive boxes for year/month archives ====
Automatic archive boxes for Year/Month archives are a bit more complicated.

The most common method is by using the {{Tl|Archives by months}} template to generate links to your existing archives. It produces a live link for each existing archive month within a year. It is commonly used in something similar to:
{| border="0"
|-
| width="400" |<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">{{Archive box |search=yes |collapsible=yes |
bot=ClueBot III |age=90 |
title=[[Help:Archiving a talk page|Archives]]<!--
--> ([[{{#titleparts:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|1}}/Archive index|index]])|
{{Nowrap|'''2004''': {{Archives by months|2004}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2005''': {{Archives by months|2005}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2006''': {{Archives by months|2006}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2007''': {{Archives by months|2007}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2008''': {{Archives by months|2008}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2009''': {{Archives by months|2009}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2010''': {{Archives by months|2010}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2011''': {{Archives by months|2011}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2012''': {{Archives by months|2012}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2013''': {{Archives by months|2013}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2014''': {{Archives by months|2014}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2015''': {{Archives by months|2015}}}}
'''2016''': {{Archives by months|2016}}
}}</syntaxhighlight>
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Archive box |search=yes |title=[[Help:Archiving a talk page|Archives]]<!--
 --> ([[{{#titleparts:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|1}}/Archive index|index]]) |collapsible=yes |bot=ClueBot III |age=90
| style=background-color:#F8EABA; border-color:#C0C090; <!-- This style parameter is so the box shows up in the same colors as would normally appear on a talk page. It is only for this as an example. -->
|
{{Nowrap|'''2004''': {{Archives by months|2004}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2005''': {{Archives by months|2005}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2006''': {{Archives by months|2006}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2007''': {{Archives by months|2007}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2008''': {{Archives by months|2008}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2009''': {{Archives by months|2009}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2010''': {{Archives by months|2010}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2011''': {{Archives by months|2011}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2012''': {{Archives by months|2012}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2013''': {{Archives by months|2013}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2014''': {{Archives by months|2014}}}}
{{Nowrap|'''2015''': {{Archives by months|2015}}}}
'''2016''': {{Archives by months|2016}}
}}
|}

The above code produces the archive box to the above right. The example here has no month names which are links because there are no archive files for this page. You can, of course, delete the lines for the years you don't want.

The default for the {{Tl|Archives by months}} template is that archive page names are in the format {{Nowrap|<code>YourPage/Archives/2013/June</code>}}, {{Nowrap|<code>YourPage/Archives/2013/July</code>}}, etc. However, {{Tl|Archives by months}} allows you to specify various naming conventions for your archives. Archives can have an arbitrary prefix by using the <code>archprefix</code> parameter (e.g. <code>archprefix=Archive/</code> instead of Archive<ins>s</ins>/). Months can be in four formats: A) the default uses January, February, March, etc.; B) <code>abbrev3=yes</code> months are Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.; C) <code>numbers=yes</code> months are 1, 2, 3, ... 12; D) <code>numbers0=yes</code> months are 01, 02, 03, ... 12.

If you are using ClueBot III, it has a couple of additional options for creating an archive box. These involve the use of either the <code>archivebox</code> or the <code>index</code> parameters. See the [[User:ClueBot III#How to archive your page|ClueBot III page]] for more information.