Template talk:Plainlist

Consistency

Why is it "plainlist" and not "plain list"? Why is it "unbulleted list" and not "unbulletedlist"?

My preference is for spaces but these should be all be named consistently. -- 109.76.86.206 (talk) 02:56, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

{{plain list}} works; it is set up as a redirect to {{plainlist}}. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:52, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

It works but that isn't enough, as editors keep asserting that the version without spaces "plainlist" is somehow more correct. There are a lot of Wikipedia editors who think removing spaces and avoiding indentation are somehow a good idea. The very idea of wiki markup is that it should be simpler and more human readable than alternatives such as HTML. -- 109.76.150.178 (talk) 17:35, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong with using "plainlist" as a template name and when it is used in an article it should not be changed arbitrarily just because you don't like it. It's been a while, but I'm going t ping @Redrose64: as the only other registered user to edit here. --AussieLegend (✉) 18:31, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

I didn't say there was anything objectively wrong with using "plainlist" but you asserted it was "correct" and that it was somehow wrong to use "Plain list" rather than a simple difference in formatting choices.

My personal preference is to write "Plain list" as it doesn't get flagged yet another as a spelling mistake. The option is there so I want to use it.

If the the templates were named consistently and there were no options and I'd use what was available. Make the rules clearer and consistent, that's what we all want right? -- 109.76.150.178 (talk) 21:55, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

I didn't say there was anything objectively wrong with using "plainlist" but you asserted it was "correct" and that it was somehow wrong to use "Plain list" - You arbitrarily changed the spelling in an article to suit your personal preference, which was not the correct spelling for the template name. We don't do that. If everybody edited according to their personal preferences there would be chaos.

as it doesn't get flagged yet another as a spelling mistake - Personally, I've never had that problem in the 12 years that I've been editing so I don't understand why you are. --AussieLegend (✉) 22:01, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Neither form is more "correct" than the other. Both work equally well. Changing one to the other without making some other significant change can be seen as disruptive; people have been blocked in the past for doing that. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 00:08, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

terminating double-brackets

I mostly use this template inside infoboxes. When I do so, I typically put the terminating brackets on the same line as the last entrant. I've seen many edits where the inexperienced (and possibly vandalistic) editor will see the double-brackets on its own line and carelessly treat it as the end of an infobox, and I've not seen that happen when the }} accompany the last list item. I've recenly encountered several IP editors who insist on putting the brackets on their own line because the examples here show that. Are there any reasons we can't include an explanatory line at template:plainlist/doc to explain the harmlessness and potential helpfulness of my habit? Thanks, all. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 17:23, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

Technically speaking, it doesn't make a scrap of difference whether there is a newline before the closing double brace (n.b. not bracket) or not. Anybody whose only edit to the page is to add or remove such a newline (whilst making no other change), and is not making identical changes on hundreds of other pages, is a straight-up good-faith editor, and must not be treated as a vandal. Nor should you edit-war with them. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 10:15, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

While there's no technical difference, I've seen the extra carriage return be the cause of editors' errors with infoboxes. Basically I'm just asking whether we can add to the /doc, it doesn't make a scrap of difference whether there is a newline before the closing double brace […] or not. — Fourthords | =Λ= | 19:11, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

could someone add parity with {{ubl}}? specifically around centering in tables?

So just discovered centered lists can't be done with {{plainlist}} in tables because there's no way to set the CSS for the <ul> element generated by {{plainlist}} and the CSS for <ul> and <ol> elements is explicitly set in the "wikitable" class to be left aligned (why, I do not know):

.wikitable td ul,.wikitable td ol,.wikitable td dl {
    text-align: left

As a result, setting style="text-align:center;" for the <ul> or <ol> elements is necessary to have a list render its <li> elements centered in a cell in a table of class "wikitable" (which is most tables in Wikipedia). You can do this with {{ubl}} already:

{{ubl|list_style=text-align:center;|item 1|item 2|item 3}}

in a table cell renders as:

Header 1	Header 2 wide	Header 3
cell 1	first item second item third item	cell 3

but there's no equivalent way to set the style of the <ul> element using the {{plainlist}} template:

{{plainlist|list_style=text-align:center;|
* item 1
* item 2
* item 3
}}

in a table cell renders as:

Header 1	Header 2 wide	Header 3
cell 1	item 1 item 2 item 3	cell 3

and setting the |style= parameter in {{plainlist}} does nothing (since it is passed to the containing <div> and not the <ul> element:

{{plainlist|style=text-align:center;|
* item 1
* item 2
* item 3
}}

renders as:

Header 1	Header 2 wide	Header 3
cell 1	item 1 item 2 item 3	cell 3

So since in the documentation we describe {{plainlist}} and {{ubl}} as pretty much equivalent other than how you format the list elements (separating elements using * and newlines vs. |), I was hoping someone could add support in {{plainlist}} for all of {{ubl}} parameters, namely:

|class     = class
|style     = style
|list_style  = style for ul tag
|item_style  = style for all li tags
|item1_style = style for first li tag |item2_style = style for second li tag |...

I would attempt to do so myself but a) I don't have template editor privileges, b) I'm not familiar with Lua, and c) I am definitely not experienced enough to be comfortable editing a template that's used on ~1% of all pages. 😅 —Joeyconnick (talk) 19:58, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Class

Hello

I think there is a mistake in the code for the div class.

The code is presently div class="plainlist {{{class|}}}", but shouldn't it be div class="{{{class|plainlist}}}" ?

This is probably the reason for Joeyconnick's problems in the topic above.

Kind regards,  Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 13:53, 19 May 2025 (UTC)

Why would you want to override the plainlist class? It would defeat the purpose of this template. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:45, 19 May 2025 (UTC)