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Infoboxes emulated with Tables
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 Assistant to build wikicode for an infobox (emulated with tables) and insert it into a page.
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An infobox is a panel, usually in the top right of an
article, next to the lead section (in the desktop view),
or at the very top of an article (in mobile view), that
summarizes key features of the page's subject.
Infoboxes may also include an image, and/ or a map.
Infoboxes generally use the template software
feature (see Templates). The templates have
parameters; to work properly, the parameter values
have to be specified when the template is inserted in
the page. This allows each infobox to show
information relevant to the article subject, while
requiring only a minimal amount of coding within
each article. This assistant makes possible to
emulate an infobox using table markup, although this
loses the advantages of standardization and
reusability.
When considering any aspect of infobox design,
keep in mind the purpose of an infobox: to
summarize (and not supplant) key facts that appear
in the article (an article should remain complete with
its summary infobox ignored). The less information it
contains, the more effectively it serves that purpose,
allowing readers to identify key facts at a glance. Of
necessity, some infoboxes contain more than just a
few fields; however, wherever possible, present
information in short form, and exclude any
unnecessary content. Do not include links to sections
within the article; the table of contents provides that
function.
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 Example of an infobox built with the
assistant.
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Style, color and formatting
A good guideline is not to add extraneous style formatting over that in a default infobox without
good reason. Infoboxes may tend towards greater abbreviation than that generally used in
article bodies. As with navigation templates, the purpose of the infobox is for its utility, not
appearance; therefore, infoboxes should not be arbitrarily decorative.
Many infobox templates insert decorative images in the main header, but this tool allows to
emulate a generic infobox with LightGray background in the main header and in the section
headers, which is the header default color in Infobox person, which is one of the three more
extensively transcluded infoboxes. But if you know the default background color associated to
the topic of the article you can change manually this color in the generated wikicode.
When adding an image to an infobox, thumbnails should NOT be used.
For consistency the following guidelines apply:
Before creating a new Infobox template, check first to see whether a suitable Infobox
already exists.
If for some reason {{infobox}} is
not suitable and the table is to be created manually,
the template code should use class="infobox" for the main table declaration. This
automatically picks the right alignment, font sizes and spacing to fit in with existing
infoboxes. A width of 22 ems (22em in CSS) is suggested as an additional declaration
to match the {{infobox}} default.
The template should have a large title line. Either a table caption or a header can be
used for this. It should be named the common name of the article's subject but may
contain the full (official) name; this does not need to match the article's Wikipedia title,
but falling back to use that (with the {{PAGENAME}} magic word) is usually fine. It
should not contain a link.
Usually, infoboxes are formatted to appear in the top-right corner of a Wikipedia article
in the desktop view, or at the top in the mobile view.
Infoboxes for geographical items (e.g. cities and countries) should generally be headed with
the article title, although the formal version of a name (e.g. Republic of Montenegro at
Montenegro) can be substituted. Alternate or native names can appear beneath this.
Extensive historic names are often better in a second infobox, as at Augsburg.
The use of infoboxes is neither required nor prohibited for any article. Whether to include an
infobox, which infobox to include, and which parts of the infobox to use, is determined through
discussion and consensus among the editors at each individual article. Like navigation
templates, infoboxes should avoid flag icons and redlinks.
References are not needed in infoboxes if the content is repeated (and cited) elsewhere or if
the information is obvious. If the material requires a reference and the information does not
also appear in the body of the article, the reference should be included in the infobox.
However, editors should first consider including the fact in the body of the article.
This assistant allows you to build generic Infoboxes using table markup instead of any infobox
template. The infoboxes created with this tool look very similar to those created using
templates (see example above). For the sake of consistency it is advisable to search for a
similar infobox template in order to obtain a consistent look and choose consistent names for
the parameters.
Illustration image (optional)
The third and subsequent rows may be of three different kinds:
1. Section header
2. Single section
3. Divided section (section with two columns)
/div>
A section header is any row containing a title. It is common to select a section header as the
first choice immediately after the image, but you can choose any other option you prefer. You
should type the title you want to show in the section header, just in the "Unique/First column"
of the assistant, This title will appear centered in bold type with a colored background.
A single section is a row containing one or several lines of information. The text will appear
always centered in normal type. Its very usual to force line-breaks. Do not forget that simple
line breaks are ignored by the Wikipedia motor. You may use the command button <Insert
line-break> to make a quick insertion of a line-break. Single sections can also contain
additional illustration images. If you want to insert an image in a single section you must type
the full image code in the corresponding single section cell. You should only type a code like
this:
Enter the image caption in the following line, not in the same line.
A divided section looks like a cell divided in two columns (actually is a nested table with two
columns and one row). You should type name of the parameters in the first column, and the
corresponding data in the second column. You may also use the command button <Insert line-
break> to force line breaks whenever necessary. You can include several parameters
separated by line-breaks in the same divided section. It is not absolutely necessary to use a
divided section for each parameter if the names are enough short. The names of the
parameters in the first column are displayed in bold type, while data in the second column are
displayed in normal type as is usual in Wikipedia.
These three different kinds of sections may be combined in any order you prefer to satisfy the
requirements of your infobox. You can use as many sections as you need.
After having completed the information click on the command button <Generate code> to
generate the wikicode of the infobox. Click on <Insert code> when you are ready to insert the
code into the Edit window.
Remember to insert the infobox at the beggining of the article, before the lead section and
immediately after the hatnotes, Deletion/Protection tags and Maintenance/dispute tags. It will
appear aligned to the right side of the page according to the style prevailing in Wikipedia.
You can consult a list of previously created infoboxes in the window Collection or
guidelines:List of infoboxes or going online, in the page:
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Most common infoboxes in English Wikipedia arranged
in order of frequency from higher to lower.
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The assistant for templates (see: Administrator of Templates) offers more than 80 original
templates for infoboxes, including the 55 (see above) most commonly used in English
Wikipedia.
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