Templates are a way of reusing pieces of content in Knowledge Base articles. Instead of writing a set of instructions multiple times, you can create and update it in one place, and then refer to it in other pages. The other pages will stay up-to-date with changes to the Template automatically!

What are Templates

A Template is just a special wiki page whose name starts with "Template:". It has all the features of a wiki page: it can be localized, it has a history, it understands wiki markup.

How to make a Template

1. Create a new KB article. Try it out by creating a new KB article on our test server.
2. Make sure the name begins with "Template:" - for example, Template:aboutconfig.
3. Set the Category to "Template".
4. Continue writing the Template the same way you would any other Knowledge Base article.

How to include a Template in an Article

To use a template in a wiki page, all you have to do is "link" to the template.

For example:

[[Template:Some Template]] or [[T:Some Template]]

Instead of creating a link, the content of Template:Some Template will be included into the current page. Any wiki markup in the template will be rendered.

Templates and numbered lists

For most purposes, using a numbered list in a template works exactly the same way as it does in any other Knowledge Base document. There is one important exception — if your template is a numbered list that will be used as part of a larger numbered list, the numbering will break.

Workaround:
Don't use "#" on any of the steps and Do add <li> </li> around the second and subsequent steps, like this:

This is the first step in your list
<li>This is the second step</li>
<li>This is the third step</li>


Then, when adding the template to an article, add the "#" before the template:

#[[T:List]]
#This is another step that's not part of the template

It will look like this:

1. This is the first step in your list
2. This is the second step
3. This is the third step
4. This is another step that's not part of the template

Another important piece - you can't use block level {for} in these templates. For example:
Bad:
{for not fx10}
First step - Firefox 9 and lower
{/for}
{for fx10}
First step - Firefox 10 and higher
{/for}
<li>This is the second step</li>

Good:
{for not fx10}First step - Firefox 9 and lower{/for}{for fx10}
First step - Firefox 10 and higher{/for}
<li>This is the second step</li>

Using arguments with a Template

Templates support passing in arguments, to let you reuse content that is almost the same.

Say, for example, you had a standard notice that told users that a document only applied to Firefox 4, and another version that said it only applied to Firefox 3.6. The text of those notices might be identical except for the Firefox version: a perfect time to use a template!

Template:OnlyVersionX:

{note}This document or section only applies to '''Firefox {{{1}}}'''!{/note}

Then, in one wiki page, you could do this:

[[Template:OnlyVersionX|4]]

And in another page, you could do:

[[Template:OnlyVersionX|3.6]]

You can use multiple arguments or the same argument twice, too!

Template:XLikesY:

# {{{2}}} likes {{{1}}}.
# {{{3}}} likes {{{2}}}.
# Class! Nobody likes {{{2}}}!

Then to use it:

[[Template:XLikesY|Lisa|Milhouse|Janey]]

This would result in:

1. Milhouse likes Lisa.
2. Janey likes Milhouse.
3. Class! Nobody likes Milhouse!

Keeping track of all those numbers can get confusing, so you can also name arguments to a template:

Template:XPrecededY:

First comes {{{first}}}, then comes {{{second}}}.

And using it:

[[Template:XPrecededY|first=love|second=marriage]]

With named arguments, you don't need to worry about the order when you use the template:

[[Template:XPrecededY|second=marriage|first=love]]

Both examples of using Template:XPrecededY will have the same result.

Knowledge Base guidelines

More guidelines on Knowledge Base contribution can be found here.