Difference between revisions of "Template:MultiColumnBoxInstructions"

Latest revision as of 01:38, 5 November 2008

Multi-Column Box Instructions

For both 2- and 3-column boxes (collectively known as "MultiColumnBoxes"). For creating single-column boxes, please see AboutUsBasicBox.

Color Variants

There are five color variations for the MultiColumnBox templates, which use proven web-safe colors. Additionally, the {{2ColumnBoxGray}} and {{3ColumnBoxGray}} templates allows for customizing the colors via passed parameters:

Basic uses

There are only 3 (or 4) parameters needed to be passed in the template call:

{{2ColumnBoxBlue
| header = Box header here
| left = text for the left column
| right = text for the right column
}}

Result:

{{3ColumnBoxYellow
| header = Box header here
| left = text for the left column
| center = text for the center column
| right = text for the right column
}}

Result:

Intermediate uses

In addition to the basic uses, users can specify a border (border is the same color as the header), or use these boxes for list with WikiMarkup

Adding a border

{{2ColumnBoxGreen
| header = Box header here
| left = text for the left column
| right = text for the right column
| border = 2px
}}

Result:

Advanced uses

Changing Colors

For advanced users, the {{2ColumnBoxGray}} and {{3ColumnBoxGray}} templates offers a variety of customizations, please note, for best compatibility, use web-safe colors like those found on the W3 Schools website:

• header-color = specify color for header; defaults to dark gray if not present. Note: Supports the AboutUsColorTemplates as well as hex colors.
• body-color = specify color for body style (can be same as header for mono-toned boxes); defaults to light gray if not present. Note: Supports the AboutUsColorTemplates as well as hex colors.

{{3ColumnBoxGray
| header = Box header here
| left = text for the left column
| center = text for the center column
| right = text for the right column
| border = 2px
| header-color = {{DarkPurple}}
| body-color = {{Purple}}
}}

Result:

Working with Lists

Having your text blocks be lists is a common use for multi-column boxes. Due to the way MediaWiki interprets parameters, a very small return is needed before a list, which is provided by {{ClearList}}. NOTE: This needs to be added for EACH column.

{{2ColumnBoxGray
| header = Box header here
| left = {{ClearList}}
* first item in list...
* second item in list...
* third item in list...
| right = {{ClearList}}
* fourth item in list...
* and so on...
}}

Result: