I'm trying to create a template to use as a sidebar with links. The template will be static (no variables are used). I first created a page with this directive: \[[!template id=sidebar]], and then created the template with the web interface. This is the code I put in the template: <div class="infobox"> <ul> <li>\[[Existing internal link|exists]]</li> <li>\[[Non-existing internal link|doesnotexist]]</li> <li>[External link](http://google.com/)</li> </ul> <http://google.com/> </div> This is the relevant part of the resulting html file `template/sidebar.html`: <div class="infobox"> <ul> <li><a href="../exists.html">Existing internal link</a></li> <li><span class="createlink"><a href="http://localhost/cgi-bin/itesohome.cgi?page=doesnotexist&from=templates%2Fsidebar&do=create" rel="nofollow">?</a>Non-existing internal link</span></li> <li>[External link](http://google.com/)</li> </ul> </div> Note that the `<http://google.com/>` link has disappeared, and that `[External link](http://google.com/)` has been copied literally instead of being converted to a link, as I expected. > Templates aren't Markdown page. [[ikiwiki/WikiLink]] only are expanded. --[[Jogo]] >> Thanks for the help Jogo. Looking at the [[templates]] page, it says that "...you can include WikiLinks and all other forms of wiki markup in the template." I read this to mean that a template may indeed include Markdown. Am I wrong in my interpratation? --[[buo]] >> I discovered that if I eliminate all html from my sidebar.mdwn template, the links are rendered properly. It seems that the mix of Markdown and html is confusing some part of Ikiwiki. --[[buo]] Worse, this is the relevant part of the html file of the page that includes the template: <div class="infobox"> <ul> <li><span class="selflink">Existing internal link</span></li> <li><span class="createlink"><a href="http://localhost/cgi-bin/itesohome.cgi?page=doesnotexist&from=research&do=create" rel="nofollow">?</a>Non-existing internal link</span></li> <li>[External link](http://google.com/)</li> </ul> </div> Note that the `Existing internal link` is no longer a link. It is only text. What am I doing wrong? Any help or pointers will be appreciated. --[[buo]] ----- I think I have figured this out. I thought the template was filled and then processed to convert Markdown to html. Instead, the text in each variable is processed and then the template is filled. I somehow misunderstood the [[templates]] page. -- [[buo]]