Forum:Changes to rules and policies for 2013/Layout Guide

This Layout Guide is an in-depth description about how to lay out an article. It is not a guide for wiki markup or a Manual of Style; it is simply a summary of how to write a clean, simple, and well-organized article. Complicated articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure.

General
As a general note, editors must ensure that the Era template is included in all in-universe articles at the top of the article. The Era tag inserts symbols at the side of the title bar of the article, to indicate which era subject of the article exists in. They may be used to indicate if the article was a featured article in the past.

For usage instructions, see Template:Era.

Introductory material
Like on any wiki, the article must feature a short introduction, starting by the article name in in bold. A game title must be in italics. At least one relevant picture should be at the right side of the article (in the Infobox when there is one).

If the article is several paragraphs long (or more), it's best to keep the first paragraph as short and succinct as possible, with a clear explanation of what the article is about. However, do not title your introductory text with an "Introduction" or similarly-titled header. Leave the opening paragraph(s) without a header, so that the table of contents is generated after the introductory text.

Structure
Keep your paragraphs relatively short; break up longer ones so that the reader's eye doesn't start to drift and gloss over the article. To that note, try to avoid extremely long sentences for the same reason. By the same token, articles as a whole should also be as short as possible while still covering all relevant information adequately.

Headers are a useful way to divide the content of an article into appropriate sections. However, do not use an excessive number of headers, because the article will start to look cluttered, the more headers there are. Try to avoid creating one-paragraph sections, for example. In these cases, perhaps bullet point lists would be more appropriate.

Optional sections
Any or all of the following sections may be added to the end of an article as a means to provide the reader with resources at which to find further information.


 * Some subtitles can sometimes appear in only one page, depending on the subject.
 * Sometimes a quote can be added at the start of a section when justified.
 * Sections can feature subsections and are obviously not all used all the time.
 * "Behind the scenes"/"Production notes" is reserved only for development information, such as design evolution, cut content, name change, etc.
 * "Trivia" is for trivial information, such as little details that does not add much to the subject, could even be disregarded, but are fun to know. Pointless and irrelevant trivia will be removed however. Subsections can be included under "Trivia", such as "Easter eggs", "Glitches", "References", and "Miscellaneous". If there is only one trivia entry, no bullet point is needed.
 * The section "List of appearances" must only contain official Halo titles in release date order. See also Appearance lists.
 * A typical "Gallery" section should include at least two images. To add the gallery feature, simply use, add in your images and close the feature with.

Appearance lists
Halopedia uses dedicated appearance lists to list the appearances of fictional subjects in real-world works. There are a number of standards to follow when utilizing these lists:

The definition of "appearance" as used here varies depending on the type of media. As a general rule, in visual media (games, comics, films, etc.), everything the viewer can see constitutes as an appearance. In literature, the subject must be specifically mentioned by name, or described in enough detail to discern what it is, in order to qualify as an appearance.

Deriving appearances of individual constituents from an appearance of a larger whole should be applied with discretion. Although there are exceptions, it is generally advised that the appearance or mention of an entity alone does not constitute as an appearance of all of its constituents. For example, in Halo: The Fall of Reach, there are instances in which all of the SPARTAN-IIs are gathered in the same space; however, only the Spartans who are explicitly named or described in the narrative are considered to "appear" in the novel. Similarly, while the quantum mirror is a component of MJOLNIR Mark VI armor and is thus fictionally present in all media in which the armor appears, it is only mentioned or seen in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx which is thus listed as its only appearance.

There are several templates which can be used to further detail specific types of appearances:
 * - used to identify a subject's first appearance in any work; if the subject is only mentioned for the first time, but does not appear as described above, use the "First mentioned" tag instead.
 * - used if the subject is mentioned in the source, but is not physically present in the narrative; in visual media, this means that the viewer cannot see the mentioned entity.
 * - when a previously-unseen or unmentioned subject is mentioned for the first time, use this in the place of "First appearance" and "Mentioned only".
 * - applies to instances in which the subject is not directly mentioned by name, but is being alluded to in an unambiguous manner.
 * - can be used to provide more specific, although brief, information on appearances that do not fit any of the aforementioned categories; this may include notes such as "Cameo appearance" or "Possible appearance" (used in very rare cases in which the possibility is highly likely or strongly implied, though uncertain).

"List of appearances" in in-universe articles

Articles written from an in-universe perspective feature a list of appearances to detail the works in which the article subject has appeared. All works the subject appears in should be listed in chronological order of release date, regardless of the type of media. Appearance lists must only contain official and canonical Halo titles.

"Appearances" in articles for real-world media

Pages for real-world media (e.g. games) have lists for the in-universe entities that appear within that work. In these lists, the appearances are grouped into categories (characters, technology, etc.) and listed in alphabetical order within their respective categories. In order to prevent these lists from becoming too extensive, less significant appearances or mentioned-only subjects may not be included.

Specific layout
There are several standards for specific articles and each may differ from another. Users are advised to refer to these layout standards as they edit the wiki.
 * Starship (UNSC/Covenant) article standard
 * Characters (incl. SPARTANs) article standard
 * Weapon article standard
 * Vehicle article standard
 * Campaign Level article standard
 * Walkthrough Standards article standard
 * Multiplayer Level article standard
 * Action Figures article standard
 * Music & Songs article standard
 * Military Unit article standard