Bogtannica Wiki Style Guide

This page outlines the basic style of the Wiki and goes over formatting and content policies for articles. Much of the formatting is handled by the editor, and requires little attention, but in order to produce coherent and consistent articles, entries should be held to the same standard.

## Page Titles

Pages can be named anything, but should not start with "the" unless it is absolutely necessary. Wikia sorts articles alphabetically, so this keeps everything in order. Also bear in mind that we'll be referencing articles on other pages, so simple memorable names help this.

## The Text Editor

Wikia has two text editors for some reason, which makes explaining this difficult and formatting articles even more difficult. when you create a new page you will be brought to a full-screen style editor, this is referred to by wikia as the "classic editor." when you edit an existing page you will be shown a smaller editor with slightly different options. this smaller editor has different features than the classic editor, but both work essentially the same. if something isn't working right in one editor, save it and edit the page in the other editor. to access the classic editor on an existing page, select the drop-down menu next to the "edit" button.

## Page Layout Example

   Most Wikis are formatted fairly similarly. Each page contains an *infobox*, *table of contents,* and, *hotlinks* to other pages. This example page is from the *Combine Overwiki*, the Wiki dedicated to the *Half-Life* series of games.

## The Infobox

   The Sidebar contains basic categorical information about the article or subject of the article, and also frequently includes a picture, where applicable. the sidebar can be added to the page by selecting it from the menu on the right of the editor. it may be difficult to position it on the page, so try selecting the text at the highest point on the page and adding it there. if you are using the other editor, look on the top of the page where it says "insert" and select the element there.

## The Table of Contents

   The Table of Contents is an automatic feature in the Wiki editor, and can be activated relatively easily at any point. It is supposed to turn itself on when an article reaches the right length, but if you want it on anyway, you can force it to appear by editing the page, and selecting the three-bar icon menu on the top right of the editor. this may not appear in the regular "new page" editor, so you may have to reopen the article to use this feature.

the table of contents will only format properly if you are using *headers* in your writing. The main level 1 header will create a line-break on the page and form a section in the table of contents. if no headers are used, nothing will appear in the table of contents.

## Hotlinks

Hotlinks direct a reader to other pages on the same Wiki, or even to external websites. A high-quality article should be filled with *blue* hotlinks, which indicate that they are directed at live, existing pages. the basic etiquette here is to make every *first* reference to any other entry on the wiki a hotlink, where applicable. preceding references can be normal text, so long as somewhere in the article the link exists to the referenced page. adding a hotlink is easy, simply highlight your reference and click the *link* button at the top of the page and type in the name of the page. Wikia does the work by checking if the page exists and creating the actual link within the text. You can also create links to pages that do not exist, but they will appear as red. this is useful to help remind us to expand the articles later on, as we don't want any missing articles.

## Other Useful Links

www.thedarkwoodbog.wikia.com/wiki/Special:SpecialPages