Template talk:Helpbox

This template was considered for deletion on 2020 April 20. The result of the discussion was do not merge.

Since this template has been inserted into heavily used Template:Guideline list I would strongly suggest, that the creator prepared a documentation as soon as possible. In particular, in IE6 the Template:Guideline list is taking 100% page width, and I have no freakin idea how to fix it. --Kubanczyk 08:16, 9 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

I've undid recent table-to-div change. It helped. --Kubanczyk 08:23, 9 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

Is there the capability to modify this template so that its sections could be collapsible? The Style template is very long and awkward, and collapsibility would make it much more convenient. Regards, Waltham, The Duke of 12:32, 3 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

I'm concerned with the issue for a little while. The problem that we face is too much MoS sections and guidelines. They overlap each other and form a nice instruction creep. I don't think that what you are proposing is a solution to the problem. What would you say about deleting the project-specific links from the {{Style}} (e.g. anime, US highways, etc...)? --Kubanczyk (talk) 20:29, 25 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

{{editprotected}} I don't care if you reduce the length of the {{style}} template or not; one should still have the option to collapse a helpbox.--Father Goose (talk) 03:01, 10 August 2008 (UTC)Reply

Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. Could be tricky... why don't you try in a sandbox first and come back with some code? Happy‑melon 19:47, 10 August 2008 (UTC)Reply

How do I get two helpboxes to go one under the other? For example, I want to get {{Policy list}} followed by {{Guideline list}}, both on the right of the page; but when I just call the templates one after the other I see them next to each other instead of stacked vertically.--Kotniski (talk) 09:04, 18 July 2008 (UTC)Reply

Since no-one could answer that, I've created a new template, {{Helpbox stackable}}, for which the above behaviour works (I added class="infobox vcard" - I have no idea why this works, since I can't find the class definition in any css file, but it seems that it does work).--Kotniski (talk) 12:07, 19 July 2008 (UTC)Reply

Could someone proficient at wiki-code please Merge these 2 templates, to make stackability an optional parameter. See thread at User_talk:Kotniski for agreement between us two. Thanks. -- Quiddity (talk) 22:39, 27 July 2008 (UTC)Reply

{{editprotected}}

Could a float parameter be added? (This code might be wrong.)

style="float: {{{float|right}}};"

This, that and the other _[talk] 09:27, 9 January 2009 (UTC)Reply

I'm reluctant to make an edit when you're not sure if it's right or not. How about making the change in a subpage like Template:Helpbox/sandbox first, and testing it? --Elonka 19:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)Reply

As part of an ongoing project to get the dozens of different sidebar meta-templates we presently have singing from the same hymn sheet, I've rewritten this template as a wikitable. Other than code readability, I've also added the navbox-vertical class for semantic value and added clear: right so that this no longer ends up floating in entirely random locations when it's stacked with other sidebars. If there are no objections I'll sync this in a few days. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 17:47, 7 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

I actually went further than this and subclassed the template to {{sidebar}}, which is a significant win both in code footprint and readability. This has been undone without discussion: it should be reinstated. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) - talk 10:44, 8 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

If you are going to re-instate the changes please ensure that the net visual effect on the rendered page (in e.g. {{dispute-resolution}}) remains as close to the original as possible, especially in terms of width of the box and font-size. –xeno^talk 15:54, 8 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

I've put a tweaked version in the sandbox: see the test case at Template:Dispute-resolution/testcases. Can you check the fonts are okay at your end? Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 10:18, 9 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Looks fine - thank you =) –xeno^talk 14:56, 11 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

 Done: cheers. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 15:40, 17 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

• I have reverted these modifications because it is causing formatting errors on Template:Naming conventions. Specifically, it is ignoring {{{1}}} being set to "width:300px;" on many browsers and wide-screen monitor resolutions, and instead defaulting as if no width is ever specified (See new example on Template:Helpbox/testcases; the widths are not equal when viewed on a wide-screen monitor resolution.[1] . Please test and make the necessary modifications before reinstating. Thanks. Zzyzx11 (talk) 05:03, 21 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

  I think I found the bug. {{#if:{{{1|}}}|{{{1}}}}}; needs to appear last in the "style" parameter if one wants to override one of the "background-color: #f5faff; font-size: 90%; width: auto; line-height: 1.6em;" CSS attributes. Zzyzx11 (talk) 06:00, 21 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

• • • Ah, good catch. Sorry for the fallout. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (talk) 10:09, 21 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

As a navigational template, this should probably be part of Category:Exclude in print. GreenReaper (talk) 10:04, 24 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please update with the version currently (as of this message) in the sandbox here. From the revision history: (removed duplicate heading12/content12 entries then replaced headingN/contentN with heading(N+10)/content(N+10) in order to use content1 to place spacer between title and template's contents). In other words, a gap between the title and first heading is the only (substantial) change. Thank you, Sardanaphalus (talk) 12:19, 20 May 2014 (UTC)Reply

@Sardanaphalus: You can do this with the titlestyle parameter, like I've done in the sandbox. How does that look to you? — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 14:02, 20 May 2014 (UTC)Reply

Not done: please make your requested changes to the template's sandbox first; see WP:TESTCASES. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 19:14, 20 May 2014 (UTC)Reply

I've made the edit with my version of the sandbox, and I also lowered the protection to semi-protection. (Also, Technical 13, your comment here doesn't make much sense, as both Sardanaphalus and I both put our code in the template sandbox.) — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 06:12, 22 May 2014 (UTC)Reply

• Thank you – and for display:block;margin-bottom:N, which looks like something useful to know. Perhaps it might be added as optional styling to {{Sidebar}} itself, activated e.g. by |spacer=on and/or |titlebodyspacer=on, ...? Sardanaphalus (talk) 08:28, 22 May 2014 (UTC)Reply

It's probably not worth the bother of adding an extra parameter for - it's easy enough just to add the styling with titlestyle. But that's only my opinion - feel free to ask at Template talk:Sidebar. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 08:37, 22 May 2014 (UTC)Reply

I have experimented with softer colors, see Template:Helpbox/testcases (note updated 5/6/15 but maybe not the same if you read this later). Also, all colors are shades of blue. Any views? --Jules (Mrjulesd) 19:10, 5 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

@Gonnym, regarding Special:Diff/1321897937. Regular expression group[1-20] matches three strings: group1, group2, and group0, because hyphen inside square brackets means a range between characters, not numbers. Character class [1-20] matches a range between 1 and 2 and the character 0, which is unrelated to the range. It's the same as [01-2], [0-2], or [012].

A possible regex to match all strings from group1 to group20 would be something like group[12]?%d, however it also matches group0. I'm almost sure that Lua regexp cannot cover all twenty numbers and leave out the zero. It's not that big a deal.

I have no strong preference – keeping all 20 parameters written out is simple and correct, but switching to a slightly misleading but shorter regexp is fine too. —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:11, 13 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for reminding me. Totally blanked there. I could possibily change it to

| regexp1 = group[1-9]
| regexp2 = list[1-9]
| regexp3 = group1[0-9]
| regexp4 = list1[0-9]

and having the group20 and list20 as normal, if that is better. Not sure if it is. Gonnym (talk) 16:24, 25 November 2025 (UTC)Reply