This page provides an index for a wide range of standard templates in use within Wikipedia. Whether you are providing a custom message or a pastel box or are flagging articles, adding tags, or adding templates, this page also gives an overview of what subjects are covered within each heading.

There are two main ways to use templates on articles: transclusion (also called "inclusion", and accomplished by using {{Template name}}), and subclusion (also called "substitution"). The former will include the content of {{Template Name}} on the fly whenever the article is loaded, while the latter will permanently insert the content of the template into the article. With substitution, even if the template content is modified at a later date, the article's content will not change. The common method for using template messages is transclusion, implemented by usage of a tag with the form {{template name}}, in whatever article or talk page one wants the template code/text to be shown. A less common usage is to implement an automatic one-time copying of a template's code/text to the location of a template tag; a method called substitution or subclusion, implemented simply by adding subst:.

Substitution is the preferred method for permanent notices (i.e., no probability that it will change) because it is less confusing, and it even helps to lighten the load on the database. Substitution has the further advantage in that a template's content may be de-linked from any associated category or slightly modified to suit the circumstances, such as when the template is used on a talk page. Transclusion is preferred for displaying material that is normally updated (i.e., high probability that it will change), that way, all the places it appears are updated in a single operation.

Using this page

The bold links at the top of each cell lead to detailed pages which describe the templates in that section in detail and explain how and when to use them.

If you cannot find the template you are looking for, please click on the section headers that seem most relevant, since there may be templates for a particular usage covered on the detailed pages, but not listed in the table below.

If, after searching, you still cannot find the template you need, you can request it on Wikipedia:Requested templates. For help on creating templates, see Help:Template or contact a user who has identified himself or herself as an adept template coder. Note that in order to maintain consistent design of templates, there have been significant discussions about a variety of templates at both Wikipedia talk:Article message boxes and Wikipedia talk:Talk page templates.

A more comprehensive category system may also be viewed at Category:Wikipedia templates.

Can improvements be made easily?

Before placing templates on a page, it is worthwhile to cast a critical eye over the page to determine whether or not the improvements could be made easily, thus eliminating the need for a tag.

Article-related namespace

Please list navigational templates (as, for example, between pages relating to a specific topic) at Wikipedia:Navigation templates or at the appropriate WikiProject page.

Non article-related namespace

Related pages for specific types of templates

Meta has related information at: Template messages

MediaWiki has a page about this at: Help:Templates

• Wikipedia:Template messages/Main page and alternatives for templates used on one of the Wikipedia's Main Pages.
• Wikipedia:Navigation templates and Category:Navbox (navigational) templates for list of the navigation templates.
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (infoboxes) and Category:Infobox templates for the list, designed to present summary information about an article's subject in a uniform format.
• Wikipedia:Taxobox usage describes taxonomical infoboxes for biological classification.
• Wikipedia:Inline templates linking country articles that provide a tiny thumbnail of a country's flag.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types is the full listing of thousands of stub types.
• Wikipedia:MediaWiki namespace controls interface messages for internal system use, and can only be modified by administrators.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject user warnings to create a complete, standardised set of user warning templates with full documentation and help pages.
• Category:Internationalisation maintenance templates noting a particular national or regional bias of an article, and asking for a worldwide view.
  • Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias#Related cleanup templates for useful examples.
• Wikipedia:Deprecated and orphaned templates to coordinate efforts to maintain the template namespace by removing unneeded templates in an orderly and systematic manner.
• Special:Unusedtemplates - lists all templates which are not transcluded in another page.

See also

• Wikipedia:Template standardisation
• Wikipedia:Colours in templates
• Wikipedia:Stub - guidelines for stub template creation
• Wikipedia:Template limits
• Wikipedia:Template substitution
• Help:Template - wiki template help page
• Help:Magic words
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Templates
• m:Help:Substitution - more detailed information on subst template (on the Meta-Wiki)
• Help:Link
• Historical list, Wikipedia:List of templates by usage