Warhammer 40k Wiki:Manual of Style

Learning to use a wiki definitely has a learning curve. We develop skills as we experiment with ways to use wiki markup to create our articles. Every post shows us new ways to express what we want to say. We all want to make our posts and our Wiki a comprehensive and scholarly source of information. This is a guide to providing this information in a coherent and structured manner. If you are new to wikis, please check out the Wiki tutorial before returning here.

Helpful Tools

If you are going to do a lot of editing, I recommend getting a few wiki widgets go to Special:WidgetDashboard and get the bookmark, and contributions widgets. They make editing much easier.

Methods

Here are some of the basics you need to be aware of to create credible and useful articles.

Structure

A solid and consistent structure aids in providing users a good experience and saves time in development. It is better to use headers than presentational markup. The reason for this is the wiki will automatically create a table of contents including each header label used.

This is an example of how structural information hiearchy works.

==Biography==

This (Header 2) is an overview of the biography

(This is the highest level of the document hiearchy.)

===Youth===

This (Header 3) is a section dealing with part of the person's life

This is the middle level of the document hierarchy

====Schooling====

This (Header 4) is a subsection dealing with a part of the person's youth.

This is a low level of the document hierarchy

====Friends====

This (Header 4) is another subsection dealing with a part of the person's youth.

This is the lowest level of the document hierarchy

The table of contents will look like this:

1. Biography

2 Youth

2.1 Schooling

2.2 Friends

Templates

There are a large selection of templates for page development. They make articles more uniform in structure and are not difficult to use.

Images

Image Uploads

There may come a time when you need to add an image to an article.

Here is a list of special pages that you will need:

• Special:Upload Use this page to upload a single image.
• Special:MultipleUpload This page allows you to upload up to five images at a time.
• Special:ImportFreeImages Use this page to search Flicker for images.
• Special:NewImages This will let you preview the images uploaded on the wiki server.

Adding Images

Learn how to format images to fit into your page layout. A thumbnail is better than a full-sized image in an article. You can control the width, positioning and the wiki will format the image and provide the markup for enlarging the image.

Anatomy of an Image Tag

This is the structure of a thumbnail image tag:

[[Image:filename.graphic format|position:left, right, or center|thumb|width in pixels|Image caption text]]

Here is a real life thumbnail tag:

[[Image:Mantis_Legion_Armor.png|right|thumb|240px|Mantis Legion's Color Scheme]]

Here is the structure of a basic image tag

[[Image:filename.graphic format|Image caption text]]

You can use any of the values except for thumb to add an image without the bordering. It works well when adding an image to an infobox.

Adding Links

Adding links to terms in an article adds depth and easy navigation to related content. There is one problem though. If you do not point to the correct file name, you will get a link to a non-existent page. It gets worse when someone clicks the link and creates a stubby duplicate page when a perfectly good article exists. I have found that the best way to link is by searching for the phrase I want to make a link at Special:Search page.

Spell Checking

This is a sticky point to some. The United States and Great Britain are two great nations separated by a common language. The native spell checker on this wiki is keyed to the spelling used by American English. When in doubt refer to it. It is better to spell check using it than not spell checking at all. However, in keeping with its source material which is proudly British in language and sensibilities, the Warhammer 40k Wiki uses British English spelling as its default in most articles. American English spelling is an acceptable alternative, but British English is the preferred format. Too many times people never look for errors before posting an article, and this wiki aims to hold its editors to the highest possible standards of grammar, spelling and syntax. As such, all new articles will be proofread, edited and in certain cases rewritten by administrator fiat to meet the wiki's formatting and quality standards.

References

Adding citations to your pages adds credibility and scholarship to your articles.

There is a page with commonly used references citations: WH40k:Reference

Anatomy of a Reference Tag

The structure for a reference is simple.

Stuff that you are writing about that needs references.... <ref name="shorthand">citations go here</ref>

Here is a real reference tag for pages 72 and 73 on the Codex Space Marine 4th edition

<ref name="CSM4-p72-73">''Codex: Space Marines'' 4th Edition, (2004). p 72-73, Chambers, Andy, Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-526-0.</ref>

However, it is also acceptable to use a simplified form of a reference simply indicating the source of your information, like so:

• Codex: Necrons (3rd edition), p. 19
• Horus Rising (Novel), by Dan Abnett

If you choose to use this simplified referencing format, please make sure that you follow standard bibliographical formatting regarding the use of italics, quotes, and the author's name, where applicable. Also, when adding sources to an article that does not have them or when adding them to a newly created article please entitle the section "Sources" rather than "References".

Adding a Reference List

Then place the following near the bottom of the edited article, just above the categories {{Reflist}}. It will automatically create a list of references for the article. It will also auto-number the references, that are links that allow navigation between the article section, and the reference list.

Categorization

Always categorize your new article. It saves time when we have to go through page by page to add categories later. There is a list of categories at Special:Categories to help you find the proper categories for your articles.

The Fluff Bible Project

We have been working on a dynamically updating alphabetical list of all the articles on this Wiki. But the project will only work with your help.

When you create an article, or see one that does not have a capital letter category corresponding to the first letter of the article's title, please add one.

With over 900 pages hunting down all the pages still needing fluff categories has been a time consuming endeavor.

Formatting Quirks

The wiki has a peculiarity in how it displays indented text. It renders it as a single line in a scrollable box. For most purposes it is not what you want for an article. If you see this when previewing your article, look for a leading space in your text.

Things to Avoid

There are several practices that are cause for concern.

Copyright Issues

Get permission if you are using copyrighted material.

Game Stats

All game stats are off-limits. They are the most important intellectual property of Games Workshop and posting them is a violation of their copyright and can cause legal problems for the Warhammer 40k Wiki. PLEASE DO NOT POST ARTICLES OR CREATE PORTIONS OF ARTICLES WITH GAME MECHANICAL INFORMATION OR STATISTICS. IT WILL BE DELETED BY ADMINISTRATOR FIAT.

Fan Created Content

This wiki is for official, Games Workshop-produced Warhammer 40,000 material only, and not fan-based content or fan fiction. Fan-based Space Marine Chapters, characters and campaigns will be removed from the Wiki by administrator fiat.

Also See

• Warhammer 40k:Content
• Warhammer 40k:Articles for Deletion

---

This article is a stub. You can help the Warhammer 40k Wiki by fixing it.