Help:Formatting

This page should be used to identify whether a page matches the criteria to be classified as "properly formatted". If a page is not properly formatted then the Template "{{Formatting}}" should be added to the top of a page. If a page with this template is properly formatted then you may remove this template.

Formatting Guide

The following is a basic guide to improving formatting and determining whether a page's formatting is sufficient.

Sub-Titles

• Sub-titles should be used at the start of every section, level two ("==") and level three ("===") subtitles should be used if you need two levels, only if you need a third should you use a level one title ("=").
• Sub-titles should have a clear title that clearly describes all the text that is beneath it.

Horizontal rules

We used to use them, now we do not. Please remove them whenever you see them and replace the accompanying titles with level 2 titles.

Lists

• Avoid adding "sub-points" where possible as it adds a lot of scrolling
• Do not use lists for long explanations, properly formatted paragraphs are more easily digested.
• If you need to use images in a list, or have lots of data that needs to stick together then use a table.

Links

• All external links should be placed at the bottom of the page.
• Links to related articles should be kept at the bottom of the page.
• Navboxes should be placed at the bottom also.
• Categories should be defined either directly before or after the navbox or at the bottom of the page.

Images

• Should be kept on the right side of the page unless more appropriate on the other side
• Any images larger than a few hundred pixels should be made into thumbnails

Spacing

On occasion pages may start to get cramped, particularly if you have a string of thumbnails on the right side of the page or if you have short paragraphs after subtitles. In this event you should add extra lines between sections so that they're spaced out. You should however, take caution not to over-space as this adds too much scrolling.

Table of Contents

• If you have several short sections then you can / should disable the table of contents using __NOTOC__ so that the page is less cluttered.
• Sometimes the table of contents looks out of place, you can resolve this by adding more text above the first section on a wiki page.

Pages which need formatting improvements

You find find a full list of pages which have been marked as needing formatting improvement. Any help to reduce the length of this list is greatly appreciated by all Wiki Staff.