Cookie cutter

A template works just like a cookie cutter.

Templates are pages that help you say or display the same thing over and over again. Think of them as virtual cookie cutters, on a mission to stamp out the same thing many different times.

Since templates can be included in many pages, they can promote a uniform style across pages, as with infoboxes. They can also help you leave the same message on many pages like you might do when trying to make an announcement to a handful of users. And they can make a single page a lot easier to read and maintain, as when the main page is formed by just a few discrete templates.

In short, templates are extremely useful tools, vital to the efficient running of any wiki.

Basic facts


Template pages are created and modified using the source edit mode, but most can be inserted into pages using any editor interface. That said, you'll likely have better luck inserting complicated templates on pages by using source mode.

You must be logged in to edit templates.

Finding and using templates


Once you've figured out what templates you have to work with, you can begin thinking about how to use them in their most basic form. The instructions are slightly different for each editor Fandom offers:

Template Insert VE

Insert a template with the VisualEditor using this dropdown.

  • In the default VisualEditor, click on the bolded word INSERT found in the top middle of the page. Then click "Templates" from the dropdown list, or begin by typing {{, to bring up a list of templates, and then search for the name of the template you want.

How to create a basic template




Advanced templates

Template parameters

Rachel VE template

Selecting parameters in VisualEditor's template tool




To learn more, see Help:Template parameters and Help:Parser functions.

Substituting templates


To learn more, visit Help:Substituting templates.

Lua-based templates


To learn more, visit Help:Lua.

Copying and updating templates

Contributors throughout Fandom have made all different kinds of templates. It is often simpler to copy an existing template and modify it for your needs, rather than creating one from scratch. Great places to start looking for templates are established wikis about a topic closely related to your own. For instance, if you're a TV wiki, look at other TV wikis you admire, particularly those in your topic's own genre.

In most cases, you are free to copy templates based on the shared CC-BY-SA license. Giving credit to the community from which you copied the template is vital.


Here are some basic steps to copy most templates:

  1. Find the template you want to copy.
  3. Create a new template page on your community.
  4. Paste the wikitext code you copied and leave behind a edit summary which credits the wiki from which you obtained the template. Then, press the Publish button.

Template documentation

Many templates have a separate subpage for documentation about the template. If this is the case you might want to bring the documentation across as well. The process is pretty similar to copying the template itself.

  1. Find the template documentation you want to copy.
  3. Create a new template documentation subpage page on your community.
  4. Paste the wikitext code you copied, credit the donor wiki in an edit summary, and press the Publish button.
  5. Often, examples given in documentation can be specific to a particular wiki, so make sure the examples make sense for your wiki.

See also

Further help and feedback
