The `template` directive is supplied by the [[!iki plugins/template desc=template]] plugin.
-[[Templates]] are files that can be filled out and inserted into pages in the
-wiki, by using the template directive. The directive has an `id` parameter
+The template directive allows wiki pages to be used as templates.
+These templates can be filled out and inserted into other pages in the
+wiki using the directive. The [[templates]] page lists templates
+that can be used with this directive.
+
+The directive has an `id` parameter
that identifies the template to use. The remaining parameters are used to
fill out the template.
-Example:
+## Example
\[[!template id=note text="""Here is the text to insert into my note."""]]
This fills out the `note` template, filling in the `text` field with
the specified value, and inserts the result into the page.
-For a list of available templates, and details about how to create more,
-see the [[templates]] page.
+## Using a template
+
+Generally, a value can include any markup that would be allowed in the wiki
+page outside the template. Triple-quoting the value even allows quotes to
+be included in it. Combined with multi-line quoted values, this allows for
+large chunks of marked up text to be embedded into a template:
+
+ \[[!template id=foo name="Sally" color="green" age=8 notes="""
+ * \[[Charley]]'s sister.
+ * "I want to be an astronaut when I grow up."
+ * Really 8 and a half.
+ """]]
+
+## Creating a template
+
+The template is a regular wiki page, located in the `templates/`
+subdirectory inside the source directory of the wiki.
+
+Alternatively, templates can be stored in a directory outside the wiki,
+as files with the extension ".tmpl".
+By default, these are searched for in `/usr/share/ikiwiki/templates`,
+the `templatedir` setting can be used to make another directory be searched
+first. When referring to templates outside the wiki source directory, the "id"
+parameter is not interpreted as a pagespec, and you must include the full filename
+of the template page, including the ".tmpl" extension. E.g.:
+
+ \[[!template id=blogpost.tmpl]]
+
+The template uses the syntax used by the [[!cpan HTML::Template]] perl
+module, which allows for some fairly complex things to be done. Consult its
+documentation for the full syntax, but all you really need to know are a
+few things:
+
+* Each parameter you pass to the template directive will generate a
+ template variable. There are also some pre-defined variables like PAGE
+ and BASENAME.
+* To insert the value of a variable, use `<TMPL_VAR variable>`. Wiki markup
+ in the value will first be converted to html.
+* To insert the raw value of a variable, with wiki markup not yet converted
+ to html, use `<TMPL_VAR raw_variable>`.
+* To make a block of text conditional on a variable being set use
+ `<TMPL_IF variable>text</TMPL_IF>`.
+* To use one block of text if a variable is set and a second if it's not,
+ use `<TMPL_IF variable>text<TMPL_ELSE>other text</TMPL_IF>`
+
+Here's a sample template:
+
+ <span class="infobox">
+ Name: \[[<TMPL_VAR raw_name>]]<br />
+ Age: <TMPL_VAR age><br />
+ <TMPL_IF color>
+ Favorite color: <TMPL_VAR color><br />
+ <TMPL_ELSE>
+ No favorite color.<br />
+ </TMPL_IF>
+ <TMPL_IF notes>
+ <hr />
+ <TMPL_VAR notes>
+ </TMPL_IF>
+ </span>
+
+The filled out template will be formatted the same as the rest of the page
+that contains it, so you can include WikiLinks and all other forms of wiki
+markup in the template. Note though that such WikiLinks will not show up as
+backlinks to the page that uses the template.
+
+Note the use of "raw_name" inside the [[ikiwiki/WikiLink]] generator in the
+example above. This ensures that if the name contains something that might
+be mistaken for wiki markup, it's not converted to html before being
+processed as a [[ikiwiki/WikiLink]].
+
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