Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Using infobox templates

While not mandatory, infoboxes are can be used to provide a brief and organized summary of the article's subject, which is further expanded in the main body of the article. They are intended as a quick reference only and do not need to go into detail because there isn't a lot of room available. For example in an article about an anti-aircraft gun you might show the effective slant range as well as the maximum ceiling that it can reach, even though there are several other relevant range figures that may be relevant, like effective range when used as an anti-tank gun etc. These should be elaborated in the main body. Only the most important or relevant information should be in the infobox when you have several to choose from. It is also important to ensure that the infobox does not contain anything that is not covered in the body of the article.

It is important to wikilink as much as you can in an infobox, a casual reader might want to know, without delving into the body of the article, exactly what a particular term means, for instance a barbette is when you're specifying how thickly armored. It is also important to provide conversions between metric and English units of measurements via the {{convert}} template. This is the easiest method of doing this, but there are many others and this is merely a recommendation. Look over its documentation page carefully. It is a very flexible tool that can display your conversions in almost any way that you might desire. It can convert multiple units, for example nautical miles to kilometers to ordinary miles; it can give a range of numbers separated by dashes or "to", to better suit a table, versus regular text; the units can be spelled out or abbreviated or even turned into their adjectival form (15 inch shell versus 15 inches shell), etc.

The various infobox templates can be found at WP:MILMOS#INFOBOX; each has a documentation section below the template itself that explains all the various entries. Sometimes it is hard to understand exactly what is meant, but examining the infoboxes of highly rated articles can be very helpful. Not only can they serve to clarify understanding, they can be copied and used in your own article, after changing all the appropriate data. This is often the easiest way to learn what should be included. If deciding to write a series of articles on a similar theme consider copying your infobox into Notepad or other similar text editor so you need not refer back to your original article to copy it.

Most infoboxes have provisions for a photo to illustrate the subject of the article. These can be very helpful to orient readers and should be provided if at all possible. Your best source for these is Wikimedia Commons, or you may need to consider uploading an image yourself. Before doing so, it is important to understand the licensing requirements otherwise the image may be deleted. Almost anything can be uploaded if you can legitimately claim fair use, but it is important to understand the restrictions and issues involved. Some guidance can be found here: Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria.