Miskitu Aisas!

Miskito Language Course

Layout Using the templates
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Template basics edit

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 edit

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:

 {{TEMPLATE NAME}}

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:

 {{Miskito/NAME}}

Let's try one. If we place this on a page:

 {{Miskito/Later}}

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 edit

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:

 {{Miskito/NAME|PARAMETER}}

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:

 {{Miskito/Review_head|Translate:}}

to produce:

Translate:
Review

or

 {{Miskito/Review_head|Pretend that someone asks you the following
 questions. Pretend that you live in another village and answer the
 questions.}}

to produce:

Pretend that someone asks you the following questions. Pretend that you live in another village and answer the questions.

Review

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):

 {{Miskito/Review_head|
 Pretend that someone asks you the following questions. Pretend
 that you live in another village and answer the questions.
 }}

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:

 {{Miskito/Review_head| }}

or:

 {{Miskito/Review_head|
 }}

These both produce:

Review

Parameters can have many different functions; these are specific to each template, as we shall now see.

Templates with two parameters edit

When a template has two parameters, these are also separated by a pipe symbol:

 {{Miskito/NAME|FIRST PARAMETER|SECOND PARAMETER}}

So for example:

 {{Miskito/Related|Contents|Table of contents}}

specifies the "related" template, with "Contents" as first parameter and "Table of contents" as second parameter. Which gives this result:

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:

 {{miskito/Review|My name is John.|Nini John sa.}}

gives this result:

My name is John.

Nini John sa.

and

 {{miskito/Generic_table|
 This is the heading.|
 This is a list of three numbers:
 
 *number one
 *number two
 *number three
 
 That's the end of the list.
 }}

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 edit

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:

  1. lesson number
  2. lesson name
  3. translation of name
  4. list of sections

The example shown is written as follows:

 {{miskito/Lesson|1|Nini Mary sa|My name is Mary|
 ''is'' / ''this'' and ''that'' / ''the'' / ''a''
 }}

Template limitations edit

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

Template index edit

Chapter chapter entry format in TOC
  1. page name
  2. chapter name
  3. list of sections (separator: /)
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Comment lesson commentary text
  1. text (1 para. max.)
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Contributor row format for author list
  1. name
  2. background
  3. contributions
  4. signature-stamp
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Generic_table generic table format
  1. heading
  2. 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
  1. lesson number
  2. lesson name
  3. translation of name
  4. list of sections (separator: /)
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Mini_exercise exercise format
  1. instructions
  2. questions
  3. answers
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Model format for presentation of model sentences; translations are show/hide toggled
  1. models (bulleted)
  2. translations (bulleted)
--A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Nav navigation links at bottom of lessons
  1. previous lesson
  2. next lesson
--A R King 14:53, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
New_item_log row format for new item log
  1. item
  2. gloss
  3. observation
--A R King 22:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
New_page_log row format for new page log
  1. name
  2. title
  3. signature-stamp
--A R King 08:32, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
New_page_log_ditto row format for new page log (repeats)
  1. name
  2. title
  3. signature-stamp
--A R King 10:14, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
Note note in lesson commentary text
  1. text (1 para. max.)
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Other_contributor row format for other-contributor list
  1. name
  2. contributions
  3. signature-stamp
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
QA row format for questions with answers
  1. question
  2. 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
  1. title (optional)
  2. reading
  3. translation
--A R King 16:16, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Related row format for related pages list
  1. name
  2. title
--A R King 18:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Review row format for review exercises
  1. input sentence
  2. output sentence
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Review_head review exercise heading
  1. instructions or blank space
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Template_index row format for template index
  1. name
  2. description
  3. field list (numbered)
  4. signature-stamp
--A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Temporary format for temporary information blocks
  1. heading
  2. body
--A R King 13:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Title course logo for top of all pages, includes page title and navigation links
  1. lesson number
  2. lesson title
  3. translation
  4. previous
  5. next
--A R King 09:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Vocab row format for lesson vocabularies
  1. item
  2. part of speech
  3. meaning
  4. link
  5. additional info
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Vocab_head heading for lesson vocabulary
  1. instructions or blank space
--A R King 17:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)