Help talk:Template

Discussion on use of TemplateStyles outside of template space

There is a discussion on the use of template {{Uses TemplateStyles}} outside of template space, and more generally, the use of */styles.css pages in namespaces other than template and module space. Your feedback would be appreciated at WP:VPT#TemplateStyles not just for templates anymore. Mathglot (talk) 21:24, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Can some one use this lead and take on the task of making it possible (using Template:rtl?) to graph Negative Numbers using a template (i.e. Bar chart)?

So https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special-purpose_acquisition_company&oldid=1292866071 almost works to graph Negative Numbers in Bar chart. (Reverted back to the working but kinda inferior chart with the following edit.)

I can't make heads or tails of the source of {{Bar chart}}, to actually make it work, so I'm writing here, seeking help from someone skilled in template writing to try to make it work. This is a start, but it's over my head to tackle. RememberOrwell (talk) 07:35, 29 May 2025 (UTC)

@RememberOrwell: The "correct" place to ask this would have been the talk page of the actual template, or Wikipedia:Help desk if the template has very few watchers (ideally you would probably ask on the actual template's talk page first, and then repost on the help desk a few days later if there isn't a response, but I quite understand why you, and most people, might go to the help desk straight away). Please don't take that as a complaint, I just want to help you for the future, because help talk pages like this are usually watched by quite few people, because the way that Wikipedia works doesn't change frequently.

That aside, a simple workaround (though probably with a slightly less easy-to-read syntax than the original template) would be to use a wikitable and {{Bartable}} (for examples see the {{Bartable}} documentation), which allows positive and negative numbers by allowing having the data span two columns (with a common header). I'll add a link to this, and make it clear that {{Bar chart}} doesn't support negative numbers, in its documentation.

However, for the page in question, in my opinion, what's there currently looks just fine, as all of the data is negative, so the template used works fine in showing the relative magnitudes. To be clear, were you envisioning all the data to have right-aligned bars, or should some of it be positive and some of it negative (and some of the data or signs are currently excluded)?

Another alternative, if what you're looking for is a way of presenting the data that makes the 90% loss look small and the 19% loss look big, would be to replace the data with its additive complement from 1 – that is, to display '2025 share price as a % of 2009' instead of '% losses from 2009–2025'. (I am not watching this page, so please ping me if you want my attention.) WT79 ^{(speak to | editing analysis | edit list)} 03:17, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Hi, @WT79. I'm wanting to present the data as the bars (themselves) at the version of the page I linked to do, but with the surrounding text not borked. As is is passable, but not good. Thanks for the help! I chose to post here presuming Wikipedia:Help desk visitors/followers probably mostly don't edit templates, but most visitors/followers here do. Correct, no? Thus drawing attention mostly of folks who could help. I chose to post here presuming a post to {{Bar chart}}'s talk would not garner help. I'm not seeing any rationale in your positing of purportedly better places to post. "because help talk pages like this are usually watched by quite few people" makes this a correct place to post, to my reading. It does seem switching to using {{Bartable}} would work but making {{Bar chart}} better (by using {{Bartable}}?) would be cooler. RememberOrwell (talk) 21:14, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

@RememberOrwell: Sorry, when I said 'watched by few people', I was meaning 'not very many people', as opposed to 'a few people', which I would use to mean a sort of halfway towards 'lots of people'. It might be dialectal or maybe I just can't speak English (more than possible). In numeric terms (see page info for this page and page info for WP:Help desk, the help desk has about 40 times as many watchers as this, and I expect more than that proportion are familiar with magic words, HTML, etc. However, no matter – we're here now.

I'm now very confused by what you want for the page/template – what is wrong with the surrounding text? I had thought from your original post that your issue was the alignment of the bars, nothing to do with the surrounding text. Is it instead the alignment of the chart as a whole, or the wrapping (having text beside the chart) which is the issue? I'm very eager to help, but don't understand what you'd like to be achieved. WT79 ^{(speak to | editing analysis | edit list)} 12:19, 15 June 2025 (UTC)

I guess what's confusing you is not looking at the relevant version. Take another look at the bars in the version I linked to above, and I'm sure you'll see what I mean: The surrounding text, because I tried using {{rtl-para}}, becomes obviously messed up - clear if you look at the version I linked to where it's in use. It fixed the alignment of the bars but messes up the surrounding text. So I removed it (the rtl-para). :-) Also, wouldn't it be nice if someone formatted {{Bartable}} (newlines, indentation) it so it's readable? And {{Bar_chart/bar}}. Wild guess, but if I'm not mistaken, it looks like the latter could be edited to incorporate bits of the former to make {{Bar_chart}} able to graph Negative Numbers. RememberOrwell (talk) 23:59, 18 June 2025 (UTC)

Created Template:Bartable/doc#Formatted, commented code (as of 22 Jun 2025). RememberOrwell (talk) 18:15, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Created Template:Bar chart/doc#Formatted, commented code (as of 22 Jun 2025). RememberOrwell (talk) 18:22, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Template space alias

In case you haven't noticed yet, the template space alias is now "TM:". Just as WP:PAGENAME can be used as a shortcut for Wikipedia:PAGENAME, TM:PAGENAME is a shortcut for Template:PAGENAME. Just spreading the word. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. – welcome! – 15:59, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Harmonize the width of two templates

I often encounter two templates and would like for them to be the same width. The first one, Template:Trump–Russia relations, is the one that needs adjusting as it is used much less than Template:Donald Trump series, and I want them to be the same width.

I suspect that all "series" templates are the same width. If not, they should be. In that case, make both templates the width of all "series" templates.

I am clueless how to do this, so would really appreciate some help. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 17:57, 6 December 2025 (UTC)

The width of Template:Trump–Russia relations is defined by the greater of two items - the |250px parameter of the main image, and the width:23.5em; declaration in the |style= parameter. The width of Template:Donald Trump series is set by the width: 22em; declaration at Module:Sidebar/styles.css#L-5. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 11:31, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. They are now the same width. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 17:19, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

User:Redrose64, I'd also like to get an image to be the same width and can't figure it out. Please look at this test page and make the image the same width as the templates: User:Valjean/Template test -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 18:15, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

You would need to use an absolute size such as |236px. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:50, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

That was exactly the right width! One would think you've tried this before. Much appreciated. Have a good day. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 19:42, 7 December 2025 (UTC)