LabVIEW Wiki:Manual of Style: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:48, 18 May 2020

This is the manual of style for LabVIEW Wiki. Its goal is to achieve a consistent look and feel by providing guidelines for creating, editing and maintaining pages on LabVIEW Wiki. Whenever possible, editors should strive to follow these guidelines.

If you are new to LabVIEW Wiki and all this stuff makes your head swim, start by sharing your knowledge. Other LabVIEW Wiki editors will come forward (they always do) and bring your contributions in line with the style guide.

If you have any questions or want to see it changed/amended/clarified, use the Discussion page or go to the LabVIEW Wiki Support Forum.

Page naming conventions

See also: Help:Starting a new page and Help:Moving a page

Lowercase second and subsequent words in titles

Do not capitalize second and subsequent words unless the title is a proper noun (such as a name) or is otherwise almost always capitalized (for example: "John Wayne" and "Art Nouveau", but not "Computer And Video Games").

Prefer singular nouns

Nouns in page titles should generally be in singular form unless a noun is always used in plural form (such as scissors or trousers).

Avoid "the" and "a" or "an" at the beginning of the page name

If the definite or indefinite article would be capitalized in running text, then include it at the beginning of the page name. This would be the case for the title of a work such as a novel. Otherwise, do not include it at the beginning of the page name.

Add a "See also" section

See also: Help:Links

If you know of other LabVIEW Wiki articles that are related to the current article, add links to them in a special section at the bottom called "See also". This section should be placed at the bottom of the article before the "External links" section. Only LabVIEW Wiki articles should be linked here.

Add an "External links" section

See also: Help:Links

Every page should have an "External links" section. Use this section to link to external (non LabVIEW Wiki) web pages. For example, to the LabVIEW help documentation on ni.com. External links must be named. Do not just add the URL. Use a proper link description or keyword.

Images

See also: Help:Images

Prefer centered images.
Images should always be framed.
If an image is larger than 600px wide then it should be thumbnailed at 600px.
Use captions to explain the relevance of the image to the article.
Don't use image or figure numbers in your caption as this makes editing difficult. Inserting images will result in a large editing task for the remaining image references.
When uploading an image, add a description during the upload process. This can be longer and more detailed than the caption. This is useful when the reader clicks on the image source looking for more information.

Other specific conventions

The following words, when used in the title or body of a page must be capitalized and written as shown below.

LabVIEW - Do not use labview, LV, etc.

Use wikilinks

See also: Help:Wikilink

"Build the web" is the idea of connecting relevant topics throughout an article using wikilinks since all articles in the Wiki are nodes in a hypertext system. Do not just write the article, but also consider its place in the link web. Make upward links to categories and contexts. Make sideways links to neighboring articles. Do not build category trees too deep and narrow, or too flat. Writing category directories first (top-down) will help ensure that subcategory articles get useful names.

If you are not happy with a link, improve the link or improve the linked article. Only in rare cases is it better to remove the link altogether (apart from the case of a duplicate link). Remember that a linked article does not automatically pop up, it only appears if you click on it, so it does not do any harm. If you want to give selected links more emphasis, there are better ways to do that than deleting the less important ones.

Remember that a link can also be useful when applying the "What links here" feature from the target page.

External links

Wikipedia Manual of Style

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-__NOTOC__
+{{TOCright}}
-{| align="right" border="0"
+This is the manual of style for LabVIEW Wiki. Its goal is to achieve a consistent look and feel by providing guidelines for creating, editing and maintaining pages on LabVIEW Wiki. Whenever possible, editors should strive to follow these guidelines.
-|__TOC__
-|-
-|}
-Our Manual of style is a collection of rules of thumb and guidelines for giving LabVIEW Wiki a consistent look and feel. Most of these rules have exceptions, but to put together a good reference work collaboratively, it's best to follow the rules unless they're quite inappropriate for a particular situation.
-These are not rigid laws: they are principles that many editors have found to work well in most circumstances, but which should be applied with flexibility. In this vein, editors should strive to have their articles follow these guidelines. If all this stuff makes your head swim, and you don't want to bother with it, by all means plunge forward and just start sharing your knowledge. Other LabVIEW Wiki editors will come forward (they always do) and bring your contributions in line with the style guide.
+If you are new to LabVIEW Wiki and all this stuff makes your head swim, start by sharing your knowledge. Other LabVIEW Wiki editors will come forward (they always do) and bring your contributions in line with the style guide.
-If you have a question about the specifics of the Manual, or want to see it changed/amended/clarified, use the discussion topic for the section in question. Otherwise, you can always post a comment in the [http://forums.lavag.org/LabVIEW-Wiki-Support-f91.html LabVIEW Wiki Support Forum].
+If you have any questions or want to see it changed/amended/clarified, use the [[{{TALKPAGENAME}}|Discussion]] page or go to the [https://lavag.org/forum/54-wiki-help/ LabVIEW Wiki Support Forum].
 == Page naming conventions ==
+{{see also|Help:Starting a new page|Help:Moving a page}}
-{| class="wikitable"
-|-
-'''Note:''' If an article has been named inappropriately, it can be renamed by moving the article to a more appropriate title. See [[Help:Moving a page]] for more on renaming pages.
-|}
 === Lowercase second and subsequent words in titles ===
+Do not capitalize second and subsequent words unless the title is a proper noun (such as a name) or is otherwise almost always capitalized (for example: "John Wayne" and "Art Nouveau", but not "Computer And Video Games").
-''Convention:'' Do not capitalize second and subsequent words unless the title is a proper noun (such as a name) or is otherwise almost always capitalized (for example: John Wayne and Art Nouveau, but not Computer And Video Games). The first letter of an internal wikilink need not be capitalized and will direct the reader to the same page (for example, computer and video games or Computer and video games can be used interchangeably as needed).
 === Prefer singular nouns ===
+Nouns in page titles should generally be in singular form unless a noun is always used in plural form (such as scissors or trousers).
-''Convention:'' In general only create page titles that are in the singular, unless that noun is always in a plural form in English (such as scissors or trousers).
 === Avoid "the" and "a" or "an" at the beginning of the page name ===
+If the definite or indefinite article would be capitalized in running text, then include it at the beginning of the page name. This would be the case for the title of a work such as a novel. Otherwise, do not include it at the beginning of the page name.
-''Convention:'' If the definite or indefinite article would be capitalized in running text, then include it at the beginning of the page name. This would be the case for the title of a work such as a novel. Otherwise, do not include it at the beginning of the page name.
 == Categories ==
+{{see also|Help:Starting a new page|Help:Editing pages|Help:Category}}
-'''Every''' page in the article namespace should belong to at least one category. Categories should be major topics that are likely to be useful to someone reading the article. See [[Help:Categories]] for technical information on how to add a page to a category.
+Every page should belong to at least one category. Leave the page uncategorized if you don't know which category to use. Uncategorized articles can be found using [[Special:Uncategorizedpages]].
-*You '''must''' use the following notation when adding the category tag: <nowiki>[[Category:Name|{{PAGENAME}}]]</nowiki>'''
-*Each LabVIEW Wiki article can appear in more than one category, and each category can appear in more than one parent category.
-*If you don't know where to put an article, don't worry about it. Use the <nowiki>[[Category:Uncategorized]]</nowiki> to bring attention to the article. Editors who love to categorize articles will find a good home for your article.
 == Add a "See also" section ==
-If you know of other LabVIEW Wiki articles that are related to the current article, add links to them in a special section at the bottom called "See also". This section should be placed at the bottom of the article before any "External Links" section. Only LabVIEW Wiki articles should be placed here. See below for external links.
+{{see also|Help:Links}}
+If you know of other LabVIEW Wiki articles that are related to the current article, add links to them in a special section at the bottom called "See also". This section should be placed at the bottom of the article before the "External links" section. Only LabVIEW Wiki articles should be linked here.
 == Add an "External links" section ==
-If you know of any external (non LabVIEW Wiki) web pages that may provide more information on the article topic, add links to them in a special section at the bottom called "External Links". This section should be placed after the "See Also" section. A typical example would be linking to the LabVIEW help documentation on ni.com.
+{{see also|Help:Links}}
+Every page should have an "External links" section. Use this section to link to external (non LabVIEW Wiki) web pages. For example, to the LabVIEW help documentation on ni.com. External links '''must''' be named. Do not just add the URL. Use a proper link description or keyword.
 == Images ==
-It is difficult to suggest image positioning recommendations however if in doubt, centering is preferred.
+{{see also|Help:Images}}
-*Images should always be framed.
+* Prefer centered images.
-*If an image is larger than 600px wide then it should be thumbnailed at 600px.
+* Images should always be framed.
-*Use captions to explain the relevance of the image to the article.
+* If an image is larger than 600px wide then it should be thumbnailed at 600px.
-*Avoid using image or figure numbers in your caption as this makes editing difficult. Inserting images will result in a large editing task for the remaining image references.
+* Use captions to explain the relevance of the image to the article.
-*When uploading an image, add a description during the upload process. This can be longer and more detailed than the caption. This is useful when the reader clicks on the image source looking for more information.
+* Don't use image or figure numbers in your caption as this makes editing difficult. Inserting images will result in a large editing task for the remaining image references.
+* When uploading an image, add a description during the upload process. This can be longer and more detailed than the caption. This is useful when the reader clicks on the image source looking for more information.
 == Other specific conventions ==
+The following words, when used in the title or body of a page must be capitalized and written as shown below.
+* LabVIEW - Do not use labview, LV, etc.
+== Use wikilinks ==
+{{see also|Help:Wikilink}}
+"Build the web" is the idea of connecting relevant topics throughout an article using [[Help:wikilink|wikilinks]] since all articles in the Wiki are nodes in a hypertext system. Do not just write the article, but also consider its place in the link web. Make upward links to [[Help:categories|categories]] and contexts. Make sideways links to neighboring articles. Do not build category trees too deep and narrow, or too flat. Writing category directories first (top-down) will help ensure that subcategory articles get useful names.
+If you are not happy with a link, improve the link or improve the linked article. Only in rare cases is it better to remove the link altogether (apart from the case of a duplicate link). Remember that a linked article does not automatically pop up, it only appears if you click on it, so it does not do any harm. If you want to give selected links more emphasis, there are better ways to do that than deleting the less important ones.
+Remember that a link can also be useful when applying the "What links here" feature from the target page.
+== See also ==
+* [[Help:wikilink|Wikilink]]
+* [[Help:Categories|Categories]]
+* [[Help:Contents|All Help Contents]]
-The following words, when used in the title or body of the page must be capitalized and written as shown below.
+== External links ==
-*LabVIEW - Do not use labview, LV, etc.
+* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style Wikipedia Manual of Style]
 [[Category:LabVIEW Wiki style guidelines]]