Shared Sections

♻️ Shared sections

Write a section once. Every page that needs it shows the full text.

Some menus and panels appear in many places (the Quick menu, the Marker menu). Instead of keeping 20 copies in step, the text lives in one file in docs2/snippets/, and each page points to it.

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👀 What readers see

The full section, in place, on every page. Readers never follow a link to another chapter, so the Reference Manual writing guide rule still holds: the information belongs in the entry. Only writers see that it comes from one file.

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✍️ What writers do

Task	In Pages CMS	In a text editor
➕ Show a shared section on a page	Pick it in the Shared sections on this page field	Add the path under shared: in the front matter, and the line *Shared section: [Title](../snippets/file.md)* where it should appear
✏️ Change the shared text	Open ♻️ Shared snippets, edit, Save	Edit the file in docs2/snippets/
🆕 Make a new shared section	♻️ Shared snippets → Add an entry	Add a file in docs2/snippets/ with the same front matter as a page

One edit updates every page that shows the section.

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🔎 Finding repeats

docs2/tools/find_repeats.py lists paragraphs that appear on several pages; docs2/reports/repeats.json holds the last run. These are candidates for new shared sections.

Snippet today	Used on
docs2/snippets/quick-menu.md	Timeline header, and more as chapters migrate
docs2/snippets/marker-menu.md	Timeline header, and more as chapters migrate