This is a template that demonstrates variable tag syntax! Because template files are not usually used across projects and libraries (across same TemplateContext) changing a tag syntax to something you like is a good idea. Also in many contexts and problem domains (different output text/languages that template is used for) the standard tags might not work well. Hello, world! Test block. And now we're going to test the shortcut tags feature. Shortcuts allow you to use special tags for marking a specific macro. It could be very useful for often used macros, like KEY-s. So lets test it: Hello, world! This is a lot easier to write than the long , isn't it :) As you can see you can still use the long syntax too, together with the shortcut one. What kind of tags to pick? It depends a lot on the content of the templates you write. You might create conflicts with the template content and tags. So pick them wisely. Also the proliferation of different tags might lessen the readability of your templates. NOTE: For now you can't override the tags for END.