Wikibooks:Local manuals of style
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Unlike wikipedia or wiktionary — which are essentially very large books with a single manual of style — the individual wikibooks found on Wikibooks can be written in vastly different styles, according to what best suits the topic and the preference of the authors.
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[edit] Purpose
While Wiki-books are written by many authors, each book should have a consistently used "voice" and style, in order to provide the reader, instructor, or student with a consistent experience when using the book in learning or teaching.
While the Wikibooks:Manual of Style has a few tips that apply to all books, each individual Wikibook typically has its own local manual of style that attempts to describe the desired "voice" and explains how to use book-specific templates and other helpful tools that only apply to that one book.
[edit] Language
Books require a consistent use of language. A decision needs to be made whether the book will rely on British English or American English, or whether to use a simple subset of either of those languages (small words for children, simple english, or E-Prime, for instance). When possible, books should attempt to be neutral to all english speakers, and not rely on mannerisms or language specific to one region.
[edit] Basic structure
[edit] Flat structure (Book/chapters)
The flat structure is often preferred, because it's easier to keep organised and to link to. "Flat" means that there is only one level of subpages (Book/chapter1, Book/chapter2).
- Advantages
- Allows for easy linking both within the book and from other books and projects.
- From the main page, chapters can be linked to using [[/Chapter/]].
- Within the book, chapters can be interlinked using the form [[../Chaptername/]], rather than using the full header.
- From other books and projects, templates are much simpler if only one variable needs to be entered, e.g. {{See also [[Book/{{1}}]]}}, etc.
- Disadvantages
- The automatic headers on the top of the page only lead to the main book page, rather than to section headings.
[edit] Deep structure (Book/chapters/subchapters/subsubchapters/etc.)
The deep structure has a stronger inherent organisation. "Deep" means that there are more than one level of subpages (Book/chapter1, Book/chapter1/section2, Book/chapter2/section5/page9).
- Advantages
- The organizational structure is "built in", so that subchapters auto-link to main chapters, allowing for easier navigation within the book
- Disadvantages
- Linking between chapers, other books, and other projects can become more arduous
- Does not look as "neat" when printed out.
[edit] Examples
[edit] Naming conventions
[edit] Use "Name of this Chapter", "Name of Section"
Most books (both on wikibooks and in print) capitalise all words except for articles and prepositions.
- Advantages
- Looks better when printed, since it follows the standards of most published books.
- Disadvantages
- May be harder to link to.
[edit] Use "Name of chapter", "Name of section"
Some books (both on wikibooks and in print) capitalise only the first letter of book and chapter titles
- Advantages
- More familiar "wiki" style of naming, as established on Wikipedia
- Disadvantages
- Doesn't conform to normal book publishing styles.
[edit] Examples
[edit] Page length restrictions
[edit] Restricted page length
Some books may have a limit on page length (wikipedians for example try to limit page length for articles).
- Advantages
- Limiting page length will make chapters easier to download for users with slow connection speeds.
- May be helpful to set an arbitrary limit on page length to give the book a more consistent feel.
- Disadvantages
- May bring about arbitrary section breaks that might otherwise not be warranted.
[edit] Templates
It's often helpful to use templates for each chapter or page, in order to create a consistent structure. A template can create an outline using headers, infoboxes, and other features to make each chapter of a book resemble others.
[edit] All chapters follow a template?
Some books may benefit from the use of standardized templates for the chapters.
- Advantages
- Gives the book a consistent feel.
- Disadvantages
- Can be limiting.
- Makes it more difficult for new contributors.
[edit] Different templates for different types of chapters?
Some books may use different templates for different types of pages. The Cookbook, for example, uses different templates for recipes, ingredients, etc.
- Advantages
- Allows a more customized (yet consistent) style for pages that discuss general types of topics.
- Disadvantages
- Can make the book difficult for new contributors to get used to.
[edit] Complex templates?
Some very useful and attractive templates can be made using parser functions.
- Advantages
- Attractive and flexible.
- Disadvantages
- Difficult for inexperienced authors to use.
[edit] Examples
[edit] Wikilinking
[edit] Use only intra-book piped links?
Restricting links to only the chapters of a book makes the book "self contained"
- Advantages
- Keeps the book together, without needing to rely on external sources.
- Disadvantages
- Requires making a new page for every term
[edit] Use cross-project links?
Links can be made across wikimedia projects using prefixes within the brackets. w: leads to wikipedia, wikt: leads to wiktionary, etc.
- Advantages
- Allows easy explanations of terms
- Disadvantages
- Makes the book rely on other projects. If this kind of linking is done, authors should check periodically to make sure the destination page has not been moved.
[edit] Restricted links?
Books might use wikilinks for certain cases only, when the information being linked to is well beyond the scope of the book.
Many books restrict links outside the book to a "Further reading" section on each page. Some go even further and restrict links outside the book to a single "Bibliography and resources" page.
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
[edit]
[edit]
- About
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
[edit] Use an index?
- About
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
[edit] Images
[edit] Fair use
"Fair use" images are those that are copyrighted, but are considered to be fair game for public use.
- Advantages
- Allows for more images to be used than if fair use images are not acceptable for a book.
- Disadvantages
- Definitely a gray area of law, and it might be better to simply avoid using these .
[edit] Commons only?
Images used in wikibooks can either be stored in the wikibooks image namespace, or on commons.
- Advantages
- By only using images that are on commons, it makes it easier for other projects to transwiki the book (e.g., if German Wikibooks wants to make a translation, they can copy it over without having to chase down the images).
- The images will likely be organised into galleries and/or categories on commons, which might lead the author to related and/or better images for the book.
- Disadvantages
- Fair use images are not permitted on commons.
[edit] Use thumbnails?
Thumbnails are small versions of an image, that can be expanded by clicking.
- Advantages
- Allows for many images to be placed on a page without taking up too much space or bandwidth.
- Disadvantages
- Thumbnails are often too small to be useful in printed versions.
[edit] Categories
[edit] Use a single category for all book chapters?
- Advantages
- Keeps the whole book "in one place", so it's easy to keep track of.
- Disadvantages
- For larger books with more than 200 pages, the category page will be broken up.
- Limits the organisation of the book
[edit] Use subcategories within the book?
- Advantages
- Helps to organise related sections of a particular book
- Disadvantages
- Makes it more difficult to see all chapters at once.
[edit] Cross-categorise to major topics?
- Advantages
- Makes the book more "visible", for readers who use the category system to navigate or look for source material for other books.
- Disadvantages
- Can clutter the bottom of the page with long lists of categories.
[edit] Mathematical Formulae
Many books in the mathematics, science, and engineering bookshelves make use of mathematical formulae. Also, these books will also frequently rely on various notations to denote different mathematical concepts. Whenever a book makes use of such formulae or notations, they should be consistent throughtout the entire book.
For example, some books have a LMOS that recommends using "2+3i" vector notation, while other books have a LMOS that recommends using "2+3j" vector notation.
[edit] Other Stylistic Concerns
- Use __NOTOC__ on all pages? (this tends to look better on printed versions)
[edit] Print versions
Many books have a printable version, and some books even have multiple printable versions. Many books also include PDF versions for easy reading and downloading. Print versions should use page transclusions so that all updates to the main book pages are automatically reflected in the print version text. PDF versions should likely be updated on a regular basis, to stay consistent with the text.
There are a number of specialized templates for use with print versions and PDF versions. For more information, see Wikibooks:Print versions.
Print versions may typically want to use the __NOTOC__ magic word to suppress the automatically generated TOC in the book. In this way, the printed version can produce its own TOC.
