Help talk:A quick guide to templates

Meta:Help:A quick guide to templates authors and history

Old history
Old history of the article form meta
18:35, 31 July 2006 User:64.142.80.229 (Added missing verb to sentence.) 16:40, 13 July 2006 User:66.251.110.50 (→FAQ) 16:39, 13 July 2006 User:66.251.110.50 (→FAQ) 16:39, 13 July 2006 User:66.251.110.50 (→FAQ) 11:11, 20 February 2006 User:213.237.201.117 17:40, 28 January 2006 User:209.98.143.103 (→FAQ) 14:14, 20 January 2006 Meta:User:Mediashrek (Talk | contribs) (simplified link and skipped redirect) 14:12, 20 January 2006 Meta:User:Mediashrek (Talk | contribs) (made bold the most important links on the page) 13:34, 20 January 2006 Meta:User:Mediashrek (Talk | contribs) (added alternative way to force refresh) 03:44, 25 November 2005 Meta:User:Uncle G (Talk | contribs) (Changed initial template.) 06:58, 16 November 2005 Meta:User:Uncle G (Talk | contribs) (Fixed hyperlinks that break when this page is copied to other projects.) 20:06, 27 October 2005 User:82.233.245.33 20:04, 27 October 2005 User:82.233.245.33 19:45, 29 August 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) (→Creating, editing and using templates - readd subst) 11:28, 25 July 2005 User:195.135.164.163 (typo) 00:38, 22 July 2005 User:211.7.138.10 10:04, 20 July 2005 Meta:User:Oscar (Talk | contribs) m (Reverted edits by 221.218.36.143 to last version by 194.138.39.36) 09:59, 20 July 2005 User:221.218.36.143 09:36, 20 July 2005 User:194.138.39.36 (→Creating, editing and using templates) 12:48, 17 July 2005 User:68.123.106.58 12:48, 17 July 2005 User:68.123.106.58 08:42, 27 June 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) m (→Examples) 12:45, 21 June 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) (Full details can be found in m:Help:Template and m:Help:Template names, variable names and parameters depending on a variable or parameter.) 12:34, 21 June 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) (rm dup) 12:25, 21 June 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) m 12:23, 21 June 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) (merge with w:en:) 08:11, 25 May 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) m (→FAQ) 20:53, 8 April 2005 Meta:User:Patrick (Talk | contribs) (oddly, w:eo:Ŝablono:El does not work, rm w:) 20:35, 8 April 2005 User:66.149.9.170 (Remove dead link in the examples) 04:49, 4 April 2005 Meta:User:Pioneer-12 (Talk | contribs) m (cat sort) 04:47, 4 April 2005 Meta:User:Pioneer-12 (Talk | contribs) (Category:English documentation) 03:00, 22 January 2005 Meta:User:YebisYa (Talk | contribs) (→FAQ - Additional note on how many times the same tamplate can be used in the same page.) 22:47, 17 November 2004 Meta:User:Eloquence (Talk | contribs) (please don't use en:, cy: etc. without a qualifier - these, when copied, would point to interlanguage version of the project you copy them to) 09:40, 29 October 2004 User:195.6.25.114 03:03, 17 July 2004 Meta:User:Angela (Talk | contribs) (a one page summary of Help:Template)

From Meta:Help talk:A quick guide to templates

A question for the FAQ?

Where do i find the template i need, rapidly? (it always takes me quite a while)
--Jerome Potts 06:37, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

In the search box, just type in Template: followed by the title of the template. If it does not exist, the word you typed will be in red colour. --Siva1979^{Talk to me} 13:44, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

But, isn't this article the place where there ought to be a link to the list of templates or the article that says how to use them? It's very nice to have an elementary introduction to making templates, but shouldn't we learn first how to find and use appropriate existing ones? Jim.henderson (talk) 17:37, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

The list of templates varies on each mediawiki, even on each wikipedia. It might be a good to include such a list in the en.wikipedia specific portion of the page. It is important to only list lists of useful templates. There are entirely too many templates to list them all. JackSchmidt (talk) 18:10, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Ah. I thought because it's found under en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ it's part of Wikipedia rather than a more general thing. Anyway, far as I see, this page is about entirely the wrong topic, or else it's pointed to by the wrong pointers.

Let me back up a bit. Half a day ago I was looking at en:Hempstead Plains which is a really crummy article on a topic that deserves better. It had three templates that all indicate it stinks and I wanted to find one that says this more precisely; perhaps one that indicates a topic in physical geography. Assuming there's no {{this article stinks}} template I went to WP:HELP to see how to find a better one and sure enough there's a button for this quick guide article. Problem is, it's a quick guide to making templates. Maybe that's part of why there are so many templates. Newbies go looking for templates, discover only how to make them, and either give up the impulse or make their own instead of reusing someone else's.

Instead. the pointer in the help page should lead to an article about finding and using someone else's templates, and only incidentally mentioning that if we don't like the old templates we can make our own. As it happens I know more about the Hempstead Plains than about either making templates or making help files, but darn it, this is more important than that crummy article. I can't imagine why any of the Wikimedia projects would want the first business of a "quick guide to templates" to be about making rather than using templates. Jim.henderson (talk) 01:25, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps Jim.henderson is talking about tags, not templates. Or maybe *I* am confused! GeorgeLouis (talk) 18:21, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

I'm confused? Tags or templates? Is there a list of tags? Could Wiki Edit Help conceivable lead to a list of tags? "As of" is a tag or a template? where do I find a list of the other markup thingies?Feldercarb (talk) 22:31, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Search or Special

I would like to re-iterate Jerome's and Jim's comments. I am trying to determine if a template to perform a certain task already exists. I looked here and also at Help:Template and MediaWiki's Templates page for a list of existing templates. I am thinking of something similar to Special:Categories -- I tried "[[Special:Templates]]", but received a "No such special page" message. Does any means of searching existing templates exist? (By the way, I am looking for a template for an information box that can be placed on an page for an individual that points to an entry for that individual's surname. I realize that I may need to create such a beast.)--Rpclod (talk) 13:16, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

FAQ?

Any objection to converting this page into a plain FAQ page and moving it into WP:FAQ/ space?--Kotniski (talk) 10:39, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I am not sure what you mean by this. What is wrong with the way it is now? In puzzlement, GeorgeLouis (talk) 18:23, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

sandboxing

I know I could just wade in and create a template in the main namespace but I don't feel terribly comfortable doing that straight off. Is there a way to create one in the sandbox or in my user space?--Alastair Rae (talk) 18:17, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

You can create one anywhere; for example you can create one at User:X/Sandbox, then transclude it with {{User:X/Sandbox}} (or substitute it with {{subst:User:X/Sandbox}}). They are normally created not in the "main" namespace but in the "Template" namespace (but the Template: prefix can be omitted when transcluding or substing). In fact it won't do very much harm if you experiment in template namespace (as long as you don't change any existing heavily used templates).--Kotniski (talk) 07:37, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Fix this

Copied from Template talk:Europe: this page is linked from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:A_quick_guide_to_templates#Examples correct origination page or this one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.219.154.164 (talk • contribs) 20:20, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I fixed the help page by removing the example link pointing here. ^Avic_ennasis @ 21:18, 7 Adar I 5771 / 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Find all pages using a template?

I'd like to find all the pages using the radar infobox? How to? Maury Markowitz (talk) 02:17, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

@Maury Markowitz: Go to Template:Infobox radar and then click "What links here" in the "Tools" section of the left sidebar. That gives a list of pages that use the template or mention the template. Then click "Hide links" at the top so that you are left with this list of pages that use ("transclude") the template. More at Help:What links here. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:03, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

Most useful, thanks! Maury Markowitz (talk) 12:54, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

Minimum number of articles to justify a template (table)?

A little over a month ago I was told on a talk page:

This [table] also shouldn't be transcluded in, as there's no reason for a template to exist solely to transclude a table to 2 articles. I've substituted the table with the MOS fixes; please do not re-add that content.

[Note: The MOS issues were resolved.]

Is there a policy concerning a minimum number of pages to justify a transcluded table? This editor has basically taken ownership of the amphetamine article and after this dispute he substituted every transcluded table, while "fixing" only the one I transcluded. The "...please do not re-add that content" feels like ownership and I am skeptical of the "no reason ... to transclude a table to 2 articles" remark. (It may belong in a few others.) Please help! — Box73 (talk) 10:51, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

How to change a photo for a government employee's page.

The page on Steve Bannon has a photo that makes him look less than the intelligence they this great man possessed. His mouth is kind of hanging open. Since there are about 100 great pics of him available to anyone, why should his page use a lesser pic? I want to change it but the page indicates being locked to prevent vandalism. Could the photo be locked to prevent someone from replacing it? That would not be preventive vandalism, but improvement. I realize that the Left exists by maliciously slandering Conservatives. That day should not prevent me from providing a better photo. Keep in my that I had not used my Wikipedia account for over ten years. The last thing I did on here was to add some chemical equations to a page, and some other information providing. I could not sign in this time with my old username and password, which my name was Cheryle. Apparently someone else has my account name now. I don't know how this works anymore! If I'm going to write on here again I'll have to learn it all over again, or maybe anew. If someone has the ability to take the photo that I chose to replace the much less flattering pic of Steve Bannon, please let me know if you'll do that for me? Flufferstuff (talk) 05:47, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

QA: How to track all the names used by a template

I wonder for a template, as its name can be changed over time, so how to identify all the names used by a template previously? Thanks! Bobo.03 (talk) 16:22, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

Which template to start with?

Hello.

I'm creating a Military Gear Infobox for the WikiProject Military history group. I got some good feedback in fixing this stuff. I'm going to have a template page set up, but I don't know where to start in terms of putting the template page first or the documentation page first. Ominae (talk) 14:17, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Military Gear Infobox template

Military Gear Infobox documentation

Semi-protected edit request on 15 August 2018

Sangeetha.rs (talk) 06:15, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:04, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Automatic boilerplate

On a personal wiki, how to add a boilerplate automatically for a category of page (for instance: a dictionary)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.91.51.235 (talk) 12:32, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

Export to a different Wiki

Hi, I'd like to recreate a few English templates in the Galician Wiki, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Simply pasting the source doesn't seem to work. Is there any page that explains the process in detail? Thanks. Manudosde (talk) 12:12, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

First letter "usually" case-insensitive?

The FAQs read: Are templates case-sensitive? Yes, except usually the first letter. Why does it say 'usually', isn't the first letter always case-insensitive? Are there examples of templates that must be used with the correct case for the first letter, otherwise they won't work? --Deeday-UK (talk) 11:07, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

@Paine Ellsworth, maybe you know the answer to this? --Deeday-UK (talk) 15:04, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

To editor Deeday-UK: thank you for asking! That's explained a little more thoroughly on Meta-wiki: ... the part of the name after "Template:" is case sensitive except (on most wikis) for the first letter, .... I know of no templates on the English Wikipedia with case sensitivity of the first letter. Evidently there are other wikis where that is not true. Hope this helps and thanks again! P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 19:49, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Great, thanks. I'll clarify the FAQs to remove the vagueness (I see it's already sorted). --Deeday-UK (talk) 21:36, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Pleasure! Yes, I'm kinda "old school" on stuff like this. It's like companys' ratings based upon letters they receive. One letter has the weight of maybe 100, or even 1000 or more, opinions, because they figure that if one person writes with a problem, hundreds more have the same problem but don't write in for whatever reason. For me, if an editor notices a problem and notifies me, then it means that something needs to be fixed or clarified. Again, it's my pleasure to be of some help! P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 22:01, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Clearing the browser cache.

The FAQ has a wrong list of browser shortcuts to WP:BYPASS the browser cache. It's an easy fix but I am not a confirmed user.

LevitatingBusinessMan (talk) 23:46, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone may add them for you, or if you have an account, you can wait until you are autoconfirmed and edit the page yourself. Tollens (talk) 01:27, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

I think I was fairly specific with what changes should've been made and was not requesting additional user rights at all... However I've been autoconfirmed so made the edit myself. LevitatingBusinessMan (talk) 12:26, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Onam greetings

Can someone have a look at Template:Onam greetings and it's documentation and suggest any edits before the upcoming Onam day next week? Thanks. The Herald (Benison) (talk) 04:25, 26 August 2023 (UTC)