description: Page-level variables are defined in a content file's front matter, derived from the content's file location, or extracted from the content body itself.
The following is a list of page-level variables. Many of these will be defined in the front matter, derived from file location, or extracted from the content itself.
{{% note "`.Scratch`" %}}
See [`.Scratch`](/functions/scratch/) for page-scoped, writable variables.
: contains all alternative formats for a given page; this variable is especially useful `link rel` list in your site's `<head>`. (See [Output Formats](/templates/output-formats/).)
: the date associated with the page; `.Date` pulls from the `date` field in a content's front matter. See also `.ExpiryDate`, `.PublishDate`, and `.Lastmod`.
: the date on which the content is scheduled to expire; `.ExpiryDate` pulls from the `expirydate` field in a content's front matter. See also `.PublishDate`, `.Date`, and `.Lastmod`.
: the page's *kind*. Possible return values are `page`, `home`, `section`, `taxonomy`, or `taxonomyTerm`. Note that there are also `RSS`, `sitemap`, `robotsTXT`, and `404` kinds, but these are only available during the rendering of each of these respective page's kind and therefore *not* available in any of the `Pages` collections.
: contains all formats, including the current format, for a given page. Can be combined the with [`.Get` function](/functions/get/) to grab a specific format. (See [Output Formats](/templates/output-formats/).)
: the Page content stripped of HTML as a `[]string` using Go's [`strings.Fields`](https://golang.org/pkg/strings/#Fields) to split `.Plain` into a slice.
: Pointer to the previous content within the same section (based on `publishdate` in front matter). For example, `{{if .PrevInSection}}{{.PrevInSection.Permalink}}{{end}}`.
: the date on which the content was or will be published; `.Publishdate` pulls from the `publishdate` field in a content's front matter. See also `.ExpiryDate`, `.Date`, and `.Lastmod`.
: returns the permalink for a given reference (e.g., `.Ref "sample.md"`). `.Ref` does *not* handle in-page fragments correctly. See [Cross References](/content-management/cross-references/).
: a generated summary of the content for easily showing a snippet in a summary view. The breakpoint can be set manually by inserting <code><!--more--></code> at the appropriate place in the content page. See [Content Summaries](/content-management/summaries/) for more details.
: a boolean, `true` if the `.Summary` is truncated. Useful for showing a "Read more..." link only when necessary. See [Summaries](/content-management/summaries/) for more information.
: the URL for the page relative to the web root. Note that a `url` set directly in front matter overrides the default relative URL for the rendered page.
Any other value defined in the front matter in a content file, including taxonomies, will be made available as part of the `.Params` variable.
```
---
title: My First Post
date: date: 2017-02-20T15:26:23-06:00
categories: [one]
tags: [two,three,four]
```
With the above front matter, the `tags` and `categories` taxonomies are accessible via the following:
*`.Params.tags`
*`.Params.categories`
{{% note "Casing of Params" %}}
Page-level `.Params` are *only* accessible in lowercase.
{{% /note %}}
The `.Params` variable is particularly useful for the introduction of user-defined front matter fields in content files. For example, a Hugo website on book reviews could have the following front matter in `/content/review/book01.md`:
```
---
...
affiliatelink: "http://www.my-book-link.here"
recommendedby: "My Mother"
...
---
```
These fields would then be accessible to the `/themes/yourtheme/layouts/review/single.html` template through `.Params.affiliatelink` and `.Params.recommendedby`, respectively.
Two common situations where this type of front matter field could be introduced is as a value of a certain attribute like `href=""` or by itself to be displayed as text to the website's visitors.
<h3><ahref={{printf"%s"$.Params.affiliatelink}}>Buy this book</a></h3>
<p>It was recommended by {{ .Params.recommendedby }}.</p>
{{</code>}}
This template would render as follows, assuming you've set [`uglyURLs`](/content-management/urls/) to `false` in your [site `config`](/getting-started/configuration/):
<h3><ahref="http://www.my-book-link.here">Buy this book</a></h3>
<p>It was recommended by my Mother.</p>
{{</output>}}
{{% note %}}
See [Archetypes](/content-management/archetypes/) for consistency of `Params` across pieces of content.
{{% /note %}}
### The `.Param` Method
In Hugo, you can declare params in individual pages and globally for your entire website. A common use case is to have a general value for the site param and a more specific value for some of the pages (i.e., a header image):
```
{{ $.Param "header_image" }}
```
The `.Param` method provides a way to resolve a single value according to it's definition in a page parameter (i.e. in the content's front matter) or a site parameter (i.e., in your `config`).
### Access Nested Fields in Front Matter
When front matter contains nested fields like the following:
```
---
author:
given_name: John
family_name: Feminella
display_name: John Feminella
---
```
`.Param` can access these fields by concatenating the field names together with a dot:
```
{{ $.Param "author.display_name" }}
```
If your front matter contains a top-level key that is ambiguous with a nested key, as in the following case:
```
---
favorites.flavor: vanilla
favorites:
flavor: chocolate
---
```
The top-level key will be preferred. Therefore, the following method, when applied to the previous example, will print `vanilla` and not `chocolate`:
