# Miskito/Templates

| Layout | Using the templates |
| > Next | Using the templates |
| Contents | |

## Template basics

Some elementary instructions for using the course's templates are provided for authors/contributors here. For further information about templates in Wikibooks, see the general Help pages.

### Templates without parameters

Some templates require that certain parameters be specified. Before discussing these, let us look at the simplest templates to use: those which have no parameters.
Such a template is placed on the page simply by enclosing the name of the template in double curly braces:
All the templates specially developed for this course have names beginning with Miskito/, so once we know that we can talk informally about those templates here by only mentioning the part after Miskito/. For example, when we say "Later" we are actually referring to the template whose name is Miskito/Later. Therefore we can say that the way to call up a Miskito course template is by writing the following:
Let's try one. If we place this on a page:
then this is what we shall get:
* THIS CONTENT WILL BE ADDED LATER
Notice that this is the template listed below (in the template index) as "Later".

### One-parameter templates

However, most of the course's templates have at least one parameter. A parameter is like a field, a place where we specify "something" when calling up a template, and that "something" is then incorporated into the way the template shows. We'll start with templates that just have one such parameter. The syntax is then as follows:
Thus the parameter is placed after the name, with a pipe symbol (|) in between. An example of a template taking one parameter is "Review_head". This template places a title bar at the beginning of a review exercise. The parameter represents the instructions to appear at the top of the exercise; whatever we write in the parameter position will appear as the instruction. So for example we can write:
to produce:
or
to produce:
In this case the way the template is formatted can be improved to make it more legible and easier to edit, by inserting a line break after the separator for convenience, and another one before the closing curly braces, as follows (this will make no difference to the final appearance on the page):
We can leave a parameter blank (i.e. specify "nothing" for a parameter) by putting either a blank space or a line break in the position corresponding to that parameter. So if we don't want to include any instructions in this template we may write either:
or:
These both produce:
Parameters can have many different functions; these are specific to each template, as we shall now see.

### Templates with two parameters

When a template has two parameters, these are also separated by a pipe symbol:
So for example:
specifies the "related" template, with "Contents" as first parameter and "Table of contents" as second parameter. Which gives this result:
* Table of contents
Observe that this element says "Table of contents" (the second parameter) but has a link to the "Contents" page (actually "Miskito/Contents", but referred to as "Contents" for short) - the first parameter. Here are two more examples of templates with two parameters:
gives this result:
Nini John sa.
and
produces:
* This is the heading.
* This is a list of three numbers:
* number one
* number two
* number three
* That's the end of the list.

### Templates with more than two parameters

Other templates work in the same way, but there are more parameters, each with a defined function. Let us take one example: the "lesson" template which is used to insert a new lesson in the table of contents in the following format:
Lesson 1: Nini Mary sa (My name is Mary)
is / this and that / the / a
This template has four parameters:
* lesson number
* lesson name
* translation of name
* list of sections
The example shown is written as follows:

### Template limitations

* Apparently templates will not work properly if a parameter contains an equals sign. --A R King 08:38, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

## Template index

| Chapter | chapter entry format in TOC | page name chapter name list of sections (separator: /) | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Comment | lesson commentary text | text (1 para. max.) | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Contributor | row format for author list | name background contributions signature-stamp | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Generic_table | generic table format | heading body | --A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| General_vocab | general vocabulary (for the moment, this doesn't work!) | (NONE) | --A R King 11:58, 1 February 2007 (UTC) |
| Later | "content will be added later" message | (NONE) | --A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Lesson | lesson entry format in TOC | lesson number lesson name translation of name list of sections (separator: /) | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Mini_exercise | exercise format | instructions questions answers | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Model | format for presentation of model sentences; translations are show/hide toggled | models (bulleted) translations (bulleted) | --A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Nav | navigation links at bottom of lessons | previous lesson next lesson | --A R King 14:53, 25 August 2007 (UTC) |
| New_item_log | row format for new item log | item gloss observation | --A R King 22:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| New_page_log | row format for new page log | name title signature-stamp | --A R King 08:32, 27 January 2007 (UTC) |
| New_page_log_ditto | row format for new page log (repeats) | name title signature-stamp | --A R King 10:14, 3 March 2007 (UTC) |
| Note | note in lesson commentary text | text (1 para. max.) | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Other_contributor | row format for other-contributor list | name contributions signature-stamp | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| QA | row format for questions with answers | question answer | --A R King 16:16, 18 February 2007 (UTC) |
| QA_head | question-answer heading | (NONE) | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Reading | format for presentation of readings; translation is show/hide toggled | title (optional) reading translation | --A R King 16:16, 18 February 2007 (UTC) |
| Related | row format for related pages list | name title | --A R King 18:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Review | row format for review exercises | input sentence output sentence | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Review_head | review exercise heading | instructions or blank space | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Template_index | row format for template index | name description field list (numbered) signature-stamp | --A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Temporary | format for temporary information blocks | heading body | --A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Title | course logo for top of all pages, includes page title and navigation links | lesson number lesson title translation previous next | --A R King 09:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Vocab | row format for lesson vocabularies | item part of speech meaning link additional info | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |
| Vocab_head | heading for lesson vocabulary | instructions or blank space | --A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC) |