have a small example patch as an image it would be possible to embed.
I tried this without luck, maybe you can take a look?
the next thing I want to do, is to make all fields that are empty disappear in the infobox.
It looks like you'll need http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:ParserFunctions#Installation to do that; then I think it will look something like this:
{| class="infobox borderless" |+ colspan="2" style="text-align:center; font-size: large; background:#ffdead;" | '''{{{name}}}''' |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | {{{example_image}}}<br>{{{caption|''caption''}}} |- ! [[Description]]: | {{{description|''description is required''}}} {{ #if: {{{abbreviation|}}} | {{!}}- ! [[Abbreviation]]: {{!}} <b>{{{abbreviation|}}}</b> }} |}
Mmm, great : ). (the statement is {{ #if: <condition string> | <then text> }}, but you can't use "|" in the condition or then string (or it will think it is the separator between <condition> and <then>, so you use a template called Template:! which contains | instead. Found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:ParserFunctions#Caveats and http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Template#A_parameter_value_containing_a_... )