Variables and stored alerts

Can we use variables and stored alerts in advanced triggers?

I did not see it in the tutorial page. If it exists, please point me to the relevant article.

Frankly, I think writing advanced alerts with dependent alerts in real time will be cumbersome. Having alert templates that are stored in the users account with variables will make it very easy to add new advanced alerts, as all I will need to do is change the values of the variables. Are there any plans to introduce this in the product?

Till then only the Plus package will make sense to me.