Help:Templates

Templates are models that can save lots of time when you are editing.

Introduction
MediaWiki templates are a clever invention, but actually anyone can use and even create them now that the software is in place. You type or paste something quite short, enclosed in double curly brackets, and the page miraculously displays with something much more impressive.

Examples
One that you may use often is, applied to short "stub" pages that need more content.

One to add to the bottom of a game page is template:civilization.

If copying material from the "en" (English) version of Wikipedia, use with the actual page name pasted after the "|" so as to give the proper acknowledgment. See complete list at http://civilization.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=10

Two ways to use one

 * 1) straight; it stays the same as the template, no matter what changes that suffers, and you can't edit it
 * 2) "substituted" - type "subst:" in front of the name and you will get the same result initially but as soon as it is saved it will be independent of the template and you can edit it