Templates

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Standardize how a category of Article begins. A Template copies its content, content type, tags, and Custom Metadata into every new Article created from it — so a runbook, a design document, or an onboarding guide always starts from the same shape instead of a blank page. A Template can also use a Document Profile, and then supplies the starter text for each of the profile's sections.

• ✅ Start new Articles from a consistent, pre-approved shape
• ✅ Pair a Template with a Document Profile: the profile sets the structure, the Template fills in the starter text
• ✅ Keep reusable macro placeholders in the Template body
• ✅ Resolve Resource and C4 node macros from context when available
• ✅ Trace every Article back to the Template it came from

Understanding Templates

A Template is a starting point for new Articles — its content, content type, tags, and Custom Metadata are copied into every Article created from it. Unlike a Snippet, a Template's content isn't included by reference: it's copied once, at creation, and the new Article is then free to diverge from it.

Two Articles created from the same Template. Each copy is independent after creation, but both remember their Source Template.

Profile-Based Templates

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A Template can use a Document Profile, just like an Article. The three document types then share the work:

The Document Profile (blue) owns the structure, the Template (orange) owns the starter text for each Content Part, and the Article (green) is the instance a user writes.

• Editing the Template — choose a Document Profile in the Template editor, and the Template is shown in the same composite workspace as an Article: Snippet Parts locked, and one editor per Content Part for its starter text. The Template's reader shows the composed document.
• Creating an Article from it — the new Article starts profile-based: the Template's Document Profile is preselected, and the Main Body and every other Content Part start with the Template's text. Template variables found in any Content Part are listed to fill in, as for the Main Body.
• A Template without a profile — works as before: one body, copied into the new Article.

Seeded Example Template

On a new installation, Nodinite seeds the Standard Technical Base Template, which uses the seeded Standard Technical Article Document Profile. It supplies starter text for the profile's two Content Parts — Describe purpose and scope. for the Overview Main Body, and Describe implementation details and operational context. for Details — while the profile supplies the header, Next Step, Related Topics, footer, and copyright Snippet Parts.

Note

An upgraded installation keeps the seeded Template it already has: a single body with its own headings and Snippet include tokens, and no Document Profile.

Macros in Template-Based Articles

Templates can contain the same macros as regular Articles. Macro placeholders are kept in the content and resolved when the Article is displayed.

The editor's Template Guidance card summarizes how template content, Source Template tracking, and macro behavior work together, and that a Template may use a Document Profile whose Content Parts become the starter text of new Articles.

Example of the Template Guidance card shown in the editor.

Create an Article From a Template

1. Start creating a new Article
2. Choose Create From Template
3. Pick a Template from the list
4. The Article's content, content type, tags, and Custom Metadata are copied in; for a profile-based Template, the Document Profile is preselected and each Content Part starts with the Template's text

You can also start from a Template in one click: the Add Article dropdown's From Template…, the Create Article From Template row action on the Templates overview, and the Create Article from this Template button on a Template's editor and reader pages. See Ways to Create an Article for every entry point and the templateId deep link. When a link carries both templateId and profileId, a profile-based Template's own Document Profile wins.

Example of choosing a Template while creating a new Article.

Macro Resolution Context

Some macros need context from where the Article is opened:

• Opening the Article from a Resource provides resource.* values
• Opening the Article from a C4 diagram node provides node.* values

If that context is missing, those macros remain unresolved until the Article is viewed in a matching context.

Source Template Tracking

An Article created from a Template remembers it. The reader and relationship views show Based On Template, linking back to the Template it came from — even after the Article's own content has since changed completely.

Copy an Article as a Template

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Your best Article is often the best starting point for the next one. Copy as Template turns an existing Article into a new Template, and leaves the Article itself untouched.

1. Choose Copy as Template, either from the Article's row Action menu on the Articles overview, or from the Clone dropdown in the Article editor's header
2. The Duplicate dialog suggests the title