Bureaucrats, confirmed, Administrators
4,558
edits
Changes
adds local help link
== Wiki Template System ==
See the [[meta:Help:Template|handbook]] for full details and ; the local [[Help:Templates]] article covers essentials as does the [[meta:Help:A_quick_guide_to_templates|Quick Guide]] on meta
See [[wp:Wikipedia:Template_messages]] for info about the templates used in the wikipedia project.
Templates are a system for streamlining the data entry and display formatting of article content.
=== Types and Examples ===
==== Static Templates ====
Templates can also be used to include static content on a page (kind of like a keyword macro). This is useful when you want to mark a bunch of pages with some common message content, e.g. 'obsolete', '[[:Template:stub|stub]]', 'needs attention' etc.; or perhaps you have a collection of articles that you want to apply a common resource box or navigation to.
=== Using Templates ===
# (optional) create a new page
# insert the template marker in the page content e.g. <nowiki>{{my footer}}</nowiki> would use the 'my footer' template on a page
# (optional) save and re-edit the page as needed to fill out a data entry template
== OpenOffice ==
The [[Open Office]] productivity suite includes a template system so that you can create documents that have a common layout.
* Templates are good to create a uniform look to [[presentation]]s made with OpenOffice Impress.
* [http://documentation.openoffice.org/Samples_Templates/User/template/index.html the documentation project] offers many templates you can add to your default OpenOffice installation. A Google search will reveal many more if you are looking for something in particular.
To use OpenOffice templates in your local system, save the tempate file to your local user template directory. E.g. for Linux users, it would be "/home/<nowiki>[user]</nowiki>/.openoffice.org2/user/template/"
== Programming with Template Systems ==