Help:Templates

A template is a page, like its title says, a page which can be included into any other page, and sometimes be customized. This page gives tips on creating and using templates.

Creating templates

Templates in most cases, are very easy to create. They should have the prefix Template: (see Help:Namespaces), but it doesn't need to be included to other pages.
This template below is an example. It can be included in the current page by typing {{example}}. "Example" is the name of the template, and the two curly braces are used to include it:

Correct
The template was successfully included in this page.

Sometimes, you may want to write about the template on its page (often to explain how and when to use it), but you don't want this text to appear on the template itself. To do this, you should enclose such text with <noinclude> and </noinclude> so that it does not appear on every page you use the template on. An example can be found in the {{policy}} template. Below the box is a line of text that does not appear on policy pages. The opposite can also be made, by writing <noinclude> and </noinclude> tags around to only make text appear when included. This is very useful for categories.

Modifyers

Non-template namespace

By writing {{Namespace:Page name}}, pages from various namespaces can be included. To include namespaceless pages, {{:Page name}} should be written.

Substitution

Templates can be substituted by writing {{SUBST:Template name}}, {{SUBST:Namespace:Page name}} or {{SUBST::Page name}}. By writing {{SUBST:Example}}, the content on {{Example}} is placed on the page instead of just {{Example}} when someone edits.

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