Help:Templates

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Templates enable you to do things much faster and/or easier. Templates are used very frequently on pages, so it's best to learn about them. When the wiki sees a template it recognizes on a page, it will automatically replace it with something else. What appears there is up to the users.

1  How to use a template
2  Making templates
3  Templates not updating
4  Template shortcuts
5  Useful templates
6  Magic words
7  See Also

How to use a template

Before a template can be added somewhere, first its contents must be defined on its own page. Template pages should start with the prefix Template:.

Templates have some limited programming abilities, which gives them lots of possibilities. We'll talk more about those later.

To add a template to a page (which is called transcluding), simply type {{, the name of the template, and then }}. If you wish to add any parameters, put a | between the template's name and the }}, and define the parameters there. All parameters you define need to be separated by another |.

Note:Any page can be transcluded by another one actually. Below is a transclusion of the Main Page using {{Expand|{{:Main Page}}}}:

Welcome to the Valve Developer Community 13,096 articles documenting the development process. Sign up to become part of the community! Whether you're building a commercial project or a modification for Half-Life® 2, you'll want to sign up as a Valve developer today. It's free to join and is open to anyone working with the Source engine and its software development kit.  GoldSrc and the Half-Life SDK  If you want to create a Mod for Half-Life or looking for more GoldSrc documentation, click above.  Source and the Source SDK  If you want to create a Source SDK Base mod, or content-based mod for Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 or looking for more Source documentation, click above.  Source 2 Documentation  If you want to port Source content to Source 2, create a content-based mod for Source 2 games or looking for more Source 2 documentation, click above. Otherwise, you can check out the following Source 2 games with Workshop Tools: Dota 2 Workshop Tools  SteamVR Workshop Tools  Half-Life: Alyx Workshop Tools  Counter-Strike 2 Workshop Tools  The engine under the hood of Half-Life 2 can make your game a success. Let Source™ do the heavy lifting so that your team can focus on building great games. If you're interested in building a product using Source or Source 2, talk to us about options for distribution on Steam. Read about Valve Technology  For Mod Teams Source Engine Features Why choose the Source engine for your mod? Read Making a Mod - building a team through the shipping process. Already using the SDK? Check the Source SDK FAQ for some helpful answers. New to Source coding? Get started with basic programming articles. Read (or add) a tutorial on Source development, or any part of the content creation process. New to the wiki? For help with using the wiki, see Help:Contents. For help with navigating the wiki, see Category:Entry pages or Category:Valve Developer Community. For more information on the community itself, see Community Portal. Wiki Contents  Community Portal  © 2005–2025 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries. See the Terms of Use for details About Valve Developer Community · Privacy Policy · Third Party Legal Notices

Examples

Here's a template where we don't define any parameters, you just drop it right in.

{{restart}}

Result: Requires restart to take effect.

If you visit this template's page, you'll see that its just those five words.

The ent template is a template that can accept up to two unnamed parameters.

{{ent|sv_cheats|1}}

Result: sv_cheats 1

Unnamed parameters must be defined in a specific order.

KV is one of the most common templates used. It accepts an optional named parameter (since).

{{KV|Script think function (thinkfunction)|string|Name of a function in this entity's script which will be called automatically every 100 milliseconds (ten times a second) for the duration of the script. It can be used to create timers or to simulate autonomous behavior. The return value (if present) will set the time until the next call.|since=l4d2}}

Result:

Script think function (thinkfunction) ([todo internal name (i)]) <string> (in all games since )

Name of a function in this entity's script which will be called automatically every 100 milliseconds (ten times a second) for the duration of the script. It can be used to create timers or to simulate autonomous behavior. The return value (if present) will set the time until the next call.

Without the |since=l4d2 at the end, the Template:L4d2 add message would not have displayed. Named parameters can be defined in any order.

Templates can also use templates (nesting). In the KV template above, the |since=l4d2 part adds {{l4d2 add}} into the page, which is the Template:L4d2 add message.

Substitution (for advanced users)

Instead of transcluding a template, one can choose to substitute it. Substitution will replace a template with the contents of the template directly onto the page. To substitute a template, transclude it like you normally would, then add subst: between {{ and the template's name. After that, click the save button and the wikitext will automatically be added. Do not substitute carelessly, because the substituted wikitext will not be updated when the template is. See Wikipedia:Help:Substitution for more information.

{{subst:delete|This is a bad page.}}

When the page is saved, that text will be replaced with this:

{{Delete-meta|{{#if: This is a bad page. | This is a bad page. }} }}[[Category:Candidates for speedy deletion]]

Note the automatic forwarding of parameters. When substituting, the page should not appear any differently than it would if transcluded. The only difference is in the page code.

Making templates

Making a template like Template:Restart is rather easy - just type the text you want, and save it. What about ones with parameters?

Tip:When making templates, you may want to space out your code to make it easier to read, but watch out for unintentional whitespace. HTML comments (<!-- -->) can also be useful.

Unnamed parameters

To add an unnamed parameter, simply put {{{1}}} where you want it to be.

Here's part of the code for Template:Tip:

Tip:{{{1}}}

If you've seen this template before you know that it has its own special look, but this is all we will look at for now. All the user has to do when transcluding this is enter the text they want:

{{tip|Do not carve without vertex editing afterward.}}

Result:

Tip:Do not carve without vertex editing afterward.

If you want to add more than one unnamed parameter, simply change the number. Here's the old (condensed) code for Template:Distinguish:

:''Not to be confused with [[:{{{1}}}]]{{#if:{{{2|}}} |{{#if:{{{3|}}} |, [[:{{{2}}}]]| or [[:{{{2}}}]].}}|.}}{{#if:{{{3|}}} |{{#if:{{{4|}}} |, [[:{{{3}}}]]|, or [[:{{{3}}}]].}}}}{{#if:{{{4|}}} |, or [[:{{{4}}}]].}}''

This template has some things we haven't talked about yet, but you can still see that there's four unnamed parameters used: {{{1}}}, {{{2}}}, {{{3}}}, and {{{4}}}.

All the user has to do when transcluding is this:

{{distinguish|Combine|Civil Protection|Overwatch}}

Result:

Not to be confused with Combine, Civil Protection or Overwatch.

Named parameters

Usually you would want to have named parameters affect anything only if they are defined when being transcluded. We'll talk about conditions later. For now, let's look at Template:IO, which has many named parameters. In this template, {{{param}}} marks a place to add wikitext that's defined by |param=texthere when transcluding.

With named parameter:

{{IO|SetString|Updates the string.|param=string}}

Result:

SetString <string>

Updates the string.

Without named parameter:

{{IO|SetString|Updates the string.}}

Result:

SetString

Updates the string.

Default value

To make a parameter have a value by default, add a | to the right of the parameter name, and then define the value. Named and unnamed parameters can use this.

{{{1|3000}}}

This would make the value for 1 3000.

{{{value|}}}

This returns nothing. Without the |, it would literally return "{{{value}}}" as text, if it hasn't already been defined at some other point.

Parser Functions

#if: checks if a string or parameter has anything inside it.

{{#if: {{{target|}}} | Target aqcuired | Sleep mode activated... }}

Result: Sleep mode activated... (The parameter {{{target|}}} returns null because you (probably) are not viewing this page through a transclusion, so it's never had a chance to be defined.)

{{#if: Something is there! | Target aqcuired | Sleep mode activated... }}

Result: Target aqcuired

#ifeq: checks for equality between two strings. It can be used with parameters as well.

{{#ifeq: {{{target|}}} | friend | Friend... | Go away! }}

Result: Go away!

{{#ifeq: friend | friend | Friend... | Go away! }}

Result: Friend...

#expr: solves math problems.

{{#expr: 2 + 2}}

Result: 4

See m:Help:Calculation for all it's abilities.

#ifexpr: tells if a math expression is correct.

{{#ifexpr: 6 + 3 = 9 | Right | Wrong }}

Result: Right

{{#ifexpr: 6 + 3 = 23 | Right | Wrong }}

Result: Wrong

Documentation

Please give a description of what your template is, and maybe examples. To keep this describing text from appearing on pages that use the template, there are 3 different HTML tags you can use.

• <noinclude>...</noinclude> makes wikitext inside it not appear on the destination page, while keeping it on the template's page.
• <onlyinclude>...</onlyinclude> makes only wikitext inside it appear on destination pages. Text not inside these will still appear on the template's page.
• <includeonly>...</includeonly> makes wikitext inside it not appear on the template page. It has no effect on the destination page.

They can sound very confusing at first. If you're confused on how to use them, check the source code for a template, because almost all use them for one purpose or another.

Templates not updating

If you've recently edited a template and the changes are not applying on pages it's been transcluded to, add ?action=purge at the end of the URL for those pages. This will tell the server to update the page's HTML immediately. You can achieve the same effect by editing a page and saving it without making any changes.

Template shortcuts

Some templates may have template shortcuts, which are redirects that are abbreviated or otherwise different forms of their target templates. Template shortcuts can be transcluded just like their target templates.

Useful templates

All templates in green text are that color so that they stand out against the greyscale tones of most pages. Most templates with that color also automatically add pages they are transcluded on into Category:TODO.

Per-game templates

All games have templates that show their associated icon, e.g. {{hl2}} delivers: . See Category:Game icons or {{game icon name}} for the full list.

• {{Game link}} automatically links to a game's page and displays its icon next to it, e.g. {{Game link|Half-Life 2}} delivers: Half-Life 2 .
• {{Game name}} does the same but is more colorful and needs another parameter, e.g. {{Game name|hl2|name=Half-Life 2}} delivers: Template:Game name.
• {{since}} can be used to quickly note features that were added in a game and are available in all Source games afterwards, e.g. {{since|{{portal2}}}} delivers: (in all games since ).
• {{only}} indicates features that are exclusive to a specific game, e.g. {{only|{{csgo}}}} delivers: (only in ).
• {{also}} notes that earlier game also has a feature, usually backported from newer engine branches. These should be used with in conjunction with another game notice template, e.g. (only in ) (also in ) or (in all games since ) (also in ).
• {{removed}} indicates that a feature was removed in a game and all later engine branches, e.g. {{removed|{{L4d}}}} delivers: (removed since ).
• {{not}} indicates that a feature might be in other games but not in a specific one, e.g. {{not|{{czds}}}} delivers: (not in ).

=

Template:= is a template that only returns an equal sign. The character is sometimes needed because multiple wiki features make use of it. An equal sign generated through this will never be counted as formatting.

bug

Template:Bug notifies readers of a bug.

{{bug|The amount is double what it should be. Be careful!}}

Result:

Bug:The amount is double what it should be. Be careful!  [todo tested in ?]

clarify

Template:Clarify marks things that should be clarified.

PAS is a kind of bounding-box for Player or NPC AI sound detection.{{clarify}}

Result: PAS is a kind of bounding-box for Player or NPC AI sound detection.^[Clarify]

cleanup

Template:Cleanup marks a page that needs to be fixed up, preferably by someone knowledgeable. The text message is optional. If you do not give sufficient reason for the notice on the transclusion or the talk page, expect it to be removed by someone else.

{{cleanup|The last section needs to be clarified.}}

Result:

This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality because:

The last section needs to be clarified.

For help, see the VDC Editing Help and Wikipedia cleanup process. Also, remember to check for any notes left by the tagger at this article's talk page.

clr

Template:Clr clears the vertical space to the left and right of floating tables, floating images etc. To clear only the left or only the right side, use {{clr|left}} or {{clr|right}}. This is commonly used for making headlines not get moved around by images.

This text should appear next to the image. If you put {{clr}} right after this, this bit of text here will get moved down right under the image.

This text should appear next to the image. If you put {{clr}} right after this, this bit of text here will get moved down right under the image.

confirm

Template:Confirm marks something that needs to be confirmed. It's green color is meant to stand out.

{{confirm|Always goes to the left.}}

Result:

Confirm:Always goes to the left.

Always goes to the left.{{confirm}}

Result: Always goes to the left.^[confirm]

delete

Template:Delete marks a page that should be deleted. If you do not give sufficient reason for the notice on the transclusion or the talk page, expect it to be removed by someone else. When putting this on a page, you should also list the reason on that page's talk page, for any future readers that may want to know the purpose of the deletion.

{{delete|This is not a real thing.}}

Result:

This page is a candidate for speedy deletion because:

This is not a real thing.

If you disagree with its speedy deletion, please explain why on its talk page. If this page obviously does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion, or you intend to fix it, please remove this notice, but do not remove this notice from articles that you have created yourself.
Administrators - Remember to check if anything links here and the page history (last edit) before deleting.

distinguish

Template:Distinguish lets you notify users about pages that share similar names or may be confused for something else.

Example from Follow Freeman:

{{distinguish|"Follow Freeman!"|desc1=The HL2 chapter}}

Result:

Not to be confused with "Follow Freeman!" (The HL2 chapter).

ent

Template:Ent is a really small template for making text that's both code and a link.

{{ent|noclip}}

Result: noclip

Expand/ExpandBox

Template:Expand or Template:ExpandBox allows you to hide stuff inside a box that can be shrunk down so that it doesn't make pages as long.

{{Expand|{{KV BaseEntity|noscroll=1}}}}

Result: {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="background:rgba(0,0,0,0.05) ;float:no;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0;padding-right:0.5em;border:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.1); border-left:solid 1px #8bb9e0; padding-left:1em;" |+ style="text-align:left; white-space:nowrap; font-weight:bold; color:#ddd; " | | |}

{{ExpandBox|{{KV BaseEntity|noscroll=1}}}}

Result:

how

Template:How asks the question how?

Players can get past these.{{how}}

Result: Players can get past these.^[How?]

idea

Template:Idea is a nifty way to suggest ideas.

{{idea|Reward players for being clever and creative, instead of forcing things to be only one way.}}

Result:

Idea:Reward players for being clever and creative, instead of forcing things to be only one way.

merge

Template:Merge is a notice that notifies editors that it's been suggested for two or more pages to be combined into one. All merges should be discussed before being done.

{{merge|HDR}}

Result:

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with HDR. (Discuss)

messagebox

Template:Messagebox provides a standard message box. This template is used by many notice templates, such as merge and cleanup.

{{messagebox|text=Remember to follow wiki etiquette.}}

Result:

Remember to follow wiki etiquette.

morescreenshots

Template:Morescreenshots marks pages that should have more images on them. It allows for an optional text message to clarify what needs images.

{{morescreenshots|$envmapcontrast, $envmapsaturation}}

Result:

This article or section needs additional screenshots for:

$envmapcontrast, $envmapsaturation

You can upload screenshots at Special:Upload. For help, see the Help:Images.

note

Template:Note is for making notes stand out more.

Bug:Appears to not accept HTML tags inside it...?  [todo tested in ?]

{{note|This will spawn at the map origin if you do not specify the position.}}

Result:

Note:This will spawn at the map origin if you do not specify the position.

obsolete

Template:Obsolete marks things that should no longer be used. Accepts three parameters, entity, tool, and shader.

{{obsolete|entity=1}}

Result:

This entity is obsolete; its use is discouraged and it may only exist/function in older engine branches.

otherlang2

Template:Otherlang2 is used for linking to versions of pages in other languages. For an example of its use, see the Main Page.

Note:It is preferrable to use Template:Lang instead, because it automatically recognizes every translation for a page, so long as the page name conforms to a standard naming scheme.

shortcut

Template:Shortcut displays a small box noting (abbreviated) redirects to a page.

{{shortcut|VDC:AL}}

Result:

spammer

Template:Spammer marks users that should be banned for spamming.

Bug:This template's formatting may look weird sometimes. It's intended to be the only thing on a page.  [todo tested in ?]

{{spammer}}

Result:

Note:This user is a spammer, vandal or other problem poster and should be considered for a ban

---

• Block this user. (Requires admin rights)
• Check if this user has been banned.
• View this user's contributions.

split-apart

Template:Split-apart marks pages that should be split into multiple pages. All splits should be discussed before being done.

{{split-apart}}

Result:

It has been suggested that this article or section be split into multiple articles. (Discuss)

stub

Template:Stub marks pages that are very small. See Help:Stubs for info on using.

{{stub}}

Result:

This article is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

tip

Template:Tip marks text as a tip to readers.

{{tip|This is a much less tricky process when using the vertex edit tool as well.}}

Result:

Tip:This is a much less tricky process when using the vertex edit tool as well.

toc-right

Template:toc-right shifts the table of contents over to the right side of a page. For an example, see Half-Life 2 map reference.

todo

Template:Todo marks things that need to be done. It's green color is meant to stand out.

{{todo|Find where this is in the game files.}}

Result: To do: Find where this is in the game files.

unsigned

Template:Unsigned is for talk pages. It should be added at the ends of unsigned comments.

{{unsigned|JeffLane}}

Result: —Unsigned comment added by JeffLane (talk • contribs) Always sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~)

update

Template:Update marks outdated pages.

{{update}}

Result:

This article needs to be updated to include current information regarding the subject.

warning

Template:Warning marks things that readers should take caution of when doing something.

{{warning|This tool has been known to corrupt files. Try an alternative listed below.}}

Result:

Warning:This tool has been known to corrupt files. Try an alternative listed below.

why

Template:Why asks the question why?

This shader has been deprecated.{{why}}

Result: This shader has been deprecated.^[Why?]

wip

Template:Wip marks pages that are in the middle of major edits. The adder requests that other users do not edit in the meantime.

{{WIP|~~~}}

Result:

This article is actively undergoing a major edit.
As a courtesy, please do not edit this article while this message is displayed. If this page has not been edited for at least several hours to a few days, please remove this template. This message is intended to help reduce edit conflicts; please remove it between editing sessions to allow others to edit the page. The user who added this notice, should you wish to contact them, is: Pinsplash (talk)

Magic words

Magic words are special character strings that are kind of like templates. To apply one, simply type it on the page.

__TOC__

Forces the table of contents to be placed at this spot.

__FORCETOC__

Forces the table of contents to be placed at its normal spot. (Only useful on pages that don't have enough sections to automatically display a TOC.)

__NOTOC__

Hides the table of contents.

__HIDDENCAT__

Marks a category as hidden. To make the website show hidden categories for you, check the Show hidden categories box in Special:Preferences.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:title}}

Changes the title of a page at the top bar only.

See Also

• Special:ExpandTemplates - Shows completely expanded versions of templates, including substituted wikitext code and automatic substitution for any nested templates.
• Special:MostTranscludedPages - Lists templates most frequently used on pages. This doesn't show just templates actually; any page can be transcluded.
• Special:UncategorizedTemplates - Lists templates that are not listed under any categories.
• Special:UnusedTemplates - Lists templates that are not used on any pages.
• Special:WantedTemplates - Lists templates that are frequently used on pages, but do not exist. This list should be showing no pages, ideally.
• Wikipedia:Help:Magic_words_for_beginners - More about magic words.
• Wikipedia:Help:Template - A very helpful resource for template programming.
• New Help Desk - Questions? Ask here.