Help:Templates

Template:PD text If you have standard texts you want to include on several pages, the MediaWiki template feature comes into play. Templates are wiki pages which can be used in other pages in three ways:

• {{Name}} includes the current content of the page "Template:Name".
• {{subst:Name}} inserts the content of the page "Template:Name" when you save your text.
• {{msgnw:Name}} includes the template in raw wiki syntax, like <nowiki> does

Creating a template

Templates must be prefixed with Template, you create them like any other wiki page.

Parameters

You can use parameters in templates, either numbered as {{{1}}} or named {{{param}}}.

Control template inclusion

You can control template inclusion by the use of <noinclude> and <includeonly> tags.

Anything between <noinclude> and </noinclude> will be processed and displayed only when the page is being viewed directly, not included. Possible applications are:

• Categorising templates
• Interlanguage links to similar templates in other languages
• Explanatory text about how to use the template

The converse is <includeonly>. Text between <includeonly> and </includeonly> will be processed and displayed only when the page is being included. The obvious application is:

• Adding all pages containing a given template to a category

Note that the usual update problems apply -- if you change the categories inside a template, the categories of the referring pages won't be updated until those pages are edited.