-[[if test="enabled(template)" then="""
-This wiki has templates **enabled**.
+[[!if test="enabled(template)"
+then="This wiki has templates **enabled**."
+else="This wiki has templates **disabled**."
+]]
+
+Templates are files that can be filled out and inserted into pages in the
+wiki.
+
+[[!if test="enabled(template) and enabled(inline)" then="""
+
+## Available templates
-[[if test="enabled(inline)" then="""
These templates are available for inclusion onto other pages in this
wiki:
-[[inline pages="templates/* and !*/discussion" feeds=no archive=yes
+[[!inline pages="templates/* and !*/discussion" feeds=no archive=yes
sort=title template=titlepage]]
"""]]
-"""
-else="This wiki has templates **disabled**."
-]]
+
+## Using a template
+
+Using a template works like this:
+
+ \[[!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.
+
+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
+
+To create a template, simply add a template directive to a page, and page will
+provide a link that can be used to create the template. The template is a
+regular wiki (.mdwn) page, **located in the `templates/` directory** under source control. Nothing to do with **templatedir** from your ikiwiki configuration.
+
+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:
+
+* 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 NAME="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 NAME="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 NAME="color">
+ Favorite color: <TMPL_VAR color><br />
+ <TMPL_ELSE>
+ No favorite color.<br />
+ </TMPL_IF>
+ <TMPL_IF NAME="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 [[WikiLink]] generator. 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 [[WikiLink]].