Help:Templates

General Overview

Templates are used to add recurring messages to pages in a consistent way, to add boilerplate messages, to create navigational boxes and to provide cross-language portability of texts.

Creating and Using templates

You start a new template in the same way you would start a normal page. The only difference is that its title must start with Template:.

Once you have made the template, you can add {{templatename}} to the pages you want to use it on. Every page using this template will get the same boilerplate text, each time a user visits it. When the template is updated, all pages containing the template tag will automatically be updated.

For example, we needed to include the New York Mets roster in a number of pages, including the New York Mets home page and the MLB Rosters page. Thus, when creating the New York Mets roster page, we titled it Template:New York Mets Roster. Then, when including it in the New York Mets page and the MLB Rosters page, we simply inserted the tag {{New York Mets Roster}} into those pages. Then, all you need to do is edit the Template:New York Mets Roster page, and the other pages which include the template will automatically be updated.

Alternatively, you can add {{subst:templatename}} to the pages you want to use the boilerplate text on. The system will fetch a one-time copy of the template text and substitute it into the page, in place of the template tag. If anyone edits the template afterwards, pages that used the subst: keyword will not be updated. Sometimes that's what you want.

Editing a template

If the template you want to edit looks like {{New York Mets Roster}}, you would go to Template:New York Mets Roster to edit it. To get there, type in the URL to your address bar, search for it, or make a link in the Sandbox and click on it.

Once you are there, just click "edit" or "edit this page" and edit it in the same way you would any other page. You can add anything you would add to a normal page, including text, images and other templates. Please be aware that your edit might affect many pages, so be cautious.