Talk:William Howard Taft

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William Howard Taft is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on November 9, 2016.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 23, 2016	Peer review	Reviewed
May 18, 2016	Featured article candidate	Promoted

Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on July 11, 2013, July 11, 2016, July 11, 2019, and July 11, 2021.

Current status: Featured article

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Short description

@Plumber: The test of length for the short description is: start typing "William Howard Taft" in the Wikipedia search box. A list of article names appears, each followed by the article's short description. After you have typed enough characters (in my case I have to type "William Ho"), the name and short description of this article appear. If the short description is too long, it will get truncated, and won't be serving its intended purpose.

I don't know, the results may depend on what computer you are using, etc. Anyway, on my computer, right now, the short description is truncated after the dash after 1909. So it's still too long. It may be desirable to mention both Taft's presidency and his chief justiceship in the short description, but I wouldn't guarantee that it is possible. Bruce leverett (talk) 14:23, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For me it says "President and Chief Justice of the United States (1909-...", which is enough to give an idea of the subject. You could abbreviate it "US President and Chief Justice (1909-1913, 1921-1930)" and it would just cut off the last parenthesis, if anything. Or just say what everyone actually thinks of him and summarize it as "Heaviest US President". ~Anachronist (talk) 16:27, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Update: I just shortened it to "US President and Chief Justice (1909-1913; 1921-1930)" and it fits perfectly for me. ~Anachronist (talk) 16:30, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Would "US President (1909-1913) and Chief Justice (1921-1930)" be better? Wehwalt (talk) 18:28, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You can try that; if it fits (in spite of the additional pair of parens) it might be a little clearer. I don't know an easy way to preview whether it fits without checking it in. Bruce leverett (talk) 19:19, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]