Help:Starting a new page or book
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
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Wikibooks is an open content collection of non-fiction books (especially textbooks). You are contributing to a free, publicly-usable database of information. You automatically license everything you contribute under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 and the GNU Free Documentation License; you can only do that if you own the copyright to the material (which you do if you created it), or if the material is in the public domain. See Wikibooks:Copyrights for details. Never submit copyrighted material without permission from the copyright owner.
For background on Wikibooks see Why contribute?.
Starting a new page or book
Books, chapters and pages can be created, rewritten, altered, renamed and improved by anyone. Chapters can be changed in order, added, and deleted. Books should conform to the definition of What Wikibooks is about. Some materials that belong elsewhere:
- Original, finished, unalterable works belong on Wikisource.
- Cooperative fiction can be hosted on a Fiction Wikicity.
- Travel guides can be added to WikiTravel.
Please check all bookshelves to see if your work could be part of an existing book, before starting a new one. Perhaps it is better to add the text to a related page (especially if the text is not very long); that page can always be split later, after it has grown.
Starting a book
You can learn how to create a good book and find new ideas by analyzing existing ones. Wikibooks doesn't have strict policies determining shape of a book so don't be confused if you find books that are designed completely different. Generally, it's a good idea to look up some Featured books like How To Assemble A Desktop PC and Chinese (Mandarin).
- Review the book naming conventions. See also Help:Page name.
- Choose a book title carefully. Names are important, un-doing mistakes can take time, so it's always a good idea to do a little homework first. Before saving the page, decide whether you want to use the suggested name. If not, check the What links here option on the edit mode page. If changing the name will not break any other links (inappropriately), update the link on the referring page.
- Once you have a few strong ideas about a new book, write a few paragraphs and lay out an outline for it.
- Decide on a writing style and how to format contents. See Help:Manual of Style.
- If nothing points here, the page is isolated. Add a link to the new book title on the appropriate bookshelves.
'Create a book' takes you to an edit page to enter the new text. The edit page has a link for Editing help, so you won't be lost. If you want to experiment, use the sandbox first.
New pages can also be started by:
- Following a link to a new page which does not exist yet, which likewise launches the edit page.
- Search for the page name. If the page you want to use does not already exist you will get a message saying:
- There is no page titled "page name". You can create this page. By clicking the link you will be switched to editing a new page.
- Creating a link to the new page on an existing page, such as the sandbox, and click the preview button to preview your changes. From the preview area click on the newly created link, which will switch you to editing a new page, if the page does not already exist, without updating the previous page.
- You can type the name of new page in the address field of your browser, replacing current page name. Using this method for the new page displays the default 'no module' message. The default page has the usual Edit this page link, which can be used to begin adding content. An interwiki or external link to a non-existent page gives the same result, but is not recommended.
Links to non-existing pages are typically created in preparation of creating the page, and/or to encourage other people to do so. Links are not only convenient for navigation, but also make people aware of the new page (those who read a related page and also those who watch the related page). New page links are not really broken, as long as the name correctly identifies the intended content. (A new page link with a "wrong" or misspelled name, or that duplicates content found under another name is "broken". but in a different sense.)
New page links typically look different from links to existing pages. Depending on settings, a different color or a question mark is used. (Sometimes links to new pages are called "red links", the display option of one of the settings). Links to non-existent pages are created with [[New page name]] from the wiki editor. (In this case, the empty page "New page name" would be created).
To get access to a MediaWiki project page, with the links at the edges but without the superfluous loading of a page, use a bookmark to a non-existing page. The default 'no article' page will display the edge links.
Creating an empty page
A new page is distinguished from a blank page: the latter has a page history. However, creating a new page is just like editing a blank page, except that a new page displays the text from MediaWiki:Newarticletext (which may vary by project).
Occasionally it is useful to create an empty page - For example a template can be made such that, depending on a parameter, it produces either just a standard text or also an additional text. This is done by having it call another template, of which the name is a parameter; one version of the other template contains the additional text, the other version is blank. See optional text.
To create an empty page, save a page with the wikitext __END__. This code will not be saved, it just prevents refusal by the system to create an empty page. Alternatively, first create a non-empty page, e.g. with just one character, then edit the page to make it empty. A page with one or more blank spaces at the end, including a page only contating one or more blank spaces, is not possible.
Defining an outline and scope
Wikibooks are all about working with others. To help others contribute to a new book, it helps very much to define and publish the concept, layout and scope of the book right from the beginning. This serves as some kind of contract and can avoid long discussions what should or shouldn't be in the book and how the book should look. Please be aware that there is really no such thing as "your" book on a wiki like this - it is up to early contributors to demonstrate the writing and leadership for other contributors to accept them as the "lead authors" for a book. Some books have no lead authors, and develop organically over time.
Some questions you want to answer in defining the book:
- What type of book will it be? Reference, textbook, self-study course, tutorial, experimentation instructions, travel report, etc.
- Who is the target audience? How old are its constituents? What is their background? How advanced are their reading skills? Are they children or adults, students, hobbyists, or professionals, researchers or scientists? An advanced level for a hobbyist is quite different from that of a researcher.
- What is the scope of the book? How much you want to cover -- in terms of topic, history and/or audience level -- helps determine where you start, and where you end. This also determines what to leave in and what to leave out.
Publish this information at the beginning of the book and on the discussion page, so people can decide if this is the right book they want to read or contribute to.
Write the first page
Read the naming policy on how to arrange and name your book. Then make the table of contents or cover page. Choose a title, something short and descriptive without abbreviations. Create the page the way you want it, and save it.
When creating modules it is also good practice to run the text through a spell checker before submitting. You may find it more convenient to take a copy of the original page, work on it, then paste the edited copy back in. Creating brand-new topics is a great way to help Wikibooks increase its breadth (and depth).
Show the book to the public
Make the book available to other users. Of course, people can see it on Recent Changes, but its visibility on that list is not permanent, so you need to properly categorize it. Put {{New book}} on the main page of the book, and also use the {{Subject}} template to put the book into an appropriate category. If you are not sure what category to put your book in, you can browse Subject:Major Subjects, or ask at The New Books Staff Lounge.
Add your book in the correct category (if applicable) in alphabetical order. Save that page and go back to the Main Page. Create all of the pages within that textbook as "Textbooktitle/Whateverthepageis" to avoid problems with other textbooks. See Wikibooks:Naming policy for more.
Suggesting a Book
If you only have an idea for a new book but are not completely sure on how far you want to go with it, add a suggested book to Wikibooks:Requested books instead. You may find someone else has had the same idea. You might also look at what others have suggested for new books, and create one of those suggested books instead.
An appropriate place to look for other people to help out on a new book is the staff lounge. Many regular contributors to Wikibooks read this page periodically, so you can get suggestions for how your book idea can be put together, or find other people who might be interested in helping you put it together. This is a good place to suggest ideas for books whcih do not seem to fit in any bookshelf.
Other elements
Create printable books
If you want people to read your book as continuous text, in a PDF file etc., it is worthwhile maintaining a "print version" from the start. See Wikibooks:Print versions.
Note changing stages of development
You can mark which chapters are finished using development stage marks. You should similarly show how much of your book is ready next to its entry on the pages for its parent bookshelves.
Suggested chapters and appendices
- Forewords and Postscripts
- You can create "Foreword" or "Introduction" or "Postscript" chapter explaining the scope of the book and how to read it.
- List of authors and manual of style
- It's likely that other people may edit your book. There should be a page listing most important contributors to the book. It can be named "Authors". It is also good practise to create a local manual of style for the book - explaining how it should be written, which templates are used, etc.
