Editing Template:Infobox ship begin/Usage guide (section)

==Infobox ship begin==
Ship article infoboxes are tables that contain several infobox templates – {{tld|Infobox ship begin}}, {{tlx|Infobox ship image}}, {{tlx|Infobox ship career}}, {{tlx|Infobox ship characteristics}}.  This field is used for all articles and is required because it applies formatting to the table that contains the other infobox templates.

===Title styling===
Ship names are always italicized.  {{tld|infobox ship begin}} can properly style a variety of article titles when the title complies with the requirements set down in [[WP:Naming conventions (ships)]].  In many cases title styling happens without editor intervention. {{tld|Infobox ship begin}} can style article titles when the title is one of these formats:
*ship article titles that include a [[ship prefix]] in the list at [[Module:WPSHIPS utilities]].  The list is primarily naval prefixes with a few of the most common commercial- or private-use prefixes (SS, MV, and the like):
*:<prefix> <name> – {{HMS|Victory}}
*:<prefix> <name> <(dab)> – {{USS|Arizona|BB-39}}
*ship article titles for ships in navies that do not use ship prefixes but include nationality and ship type specified in the lists at Module:WPSHIPS utilities:
*:<nationality> <ship type> <name> – {{ship|German cruiser|Admiral Graf Spee}}
*:<nationality> <ship type> <name> <(dab)> – {{ship|French aircraft carrier|Charles de Gaulle|R91}}
*::where:
*:::<nationality> is one or two words in adjectival form with proper capitalization
*:::<ship type> is one to four words long, typically all lowercase
*ship article titles in the form:
*:<name> <(dab)> – where:
*::<(dab)> is required and has the form:
*:::(XXX-###) – where XXX is one or more uppercase letters and hyphens and ### is one or more digits; the hyphen between XXX and ### is required – {{ship||Esmeralda|BE-43}}
*:::(XXX ###) – where XXX and ### as above; the space between XXX and ### is required – {{ship||Shikishima|PLH 31}}
*:::(XXX###) – where XXX and ### as above – {{ship||Spessart|A1442}}
*:::(####) – where #### is a year in the range of 1000–2999
*:::(*** <ship type> ***) – where *** is any optional text or digits and <ship type> can be found in the ship-type list at Module:WPSHIPS utilities – {{ship||Portland|steam tug 1875|3}}, {{ship||Vaygach|nuclear icebreaker|3}}, {{ship||Baring|1801 Indiaman|3}}
*ship-class article titles in the form
*:<name>-class <ship type> <(dab)> – where:
*::<name> is any text that precedes '-class'; rendered in italics unless {{para|sclass|2}}
*::'-class' (with hyphen) is required
*::<ship type> is any text that follows '-class'
*::<(dab)> is optional
====Parameters====
Several parameters are available to editors if the template is unable to automatically style the article name or when non-standard styling is required.
:'''|display title=none''' – does no article-title styling;
:'''|display title=ital''' – uses {{tld|italic title}} to style the article title
:'''|display title=''article title with markup''''' – uses <code><nowiki>{{</nowiki>DISPLAYTITLE:''article title with markup''}}</code> to style the article title
:'''|display title=''' – when empty or missing, attempts to automatically style the article title

For ship-class articles where the article title has the form <name>-class <ship type> <(dab)>, it is necessary for editors to indicate when the class name is a theme name because the auto-styling code cannot make that determination by inspection of the article title.  The default state is to italicize the class name.  To indicate that the article title should not be styled requires another parameter:
:'''|sclass=2''' – force unstyled title and also unstyled infobox caption (if enabled by |infobox caption=yes or |infobox caption=nodab); the name is taken from {{tlx|sclass2}} which creates links to theme-named-class articles, 

Debugging:
:'''|showerrs=yes''' – for use when auto-styling fails, may give a clue why it failed; requires |infobox caption=yes or |infobox caption=nodab; the article should probably not be saved with {{para|showerrs|yes}}

===Infobox caption===
{{tld|Infobox ship begin}} can put a table caption at the top of the infobox.  The purpose of the caption is to improve accessibility so that readers who use screen reading tools can more easily navigate the ship article.  The infobox caption is controlled by three parameters:
*'''|infobox caption=''' – when omitted or present-but-empty: the infobox does not have a caption
*'''|infobox caption=yes''' or '''|infobox caption=nodab''': the infobox is captioned with the article's title:
**'''|infobox caption=yes''' – formats the infobox caption in the same way that the article title is formatted
**'''|infobox caption=nodab''' – formats the infobox caption in the same way as the title except that the parenthetical disambiguator is not displayed; for article titles in the form <nationality> <ship type> <name> <(disambiguator)>, setting {{para|infobox caption|nodab}} will display only <name>
*'''|infobox caption=''other text''''' – when the assigned value is other than the keywords <code>yes</code> or <code>nodab</code>, that value is used as the infobox caption. Infobox caption text formatting is the responsibility of the editor.
*'''|sclass=2''' – modifies the infobox caption style as described under Title formatting
*'''|showerrs=yes''' – displays error messages as described under Title formatting