Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout - Wikipedia Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia < Wikipedia:Manual of Style Jump to navigation Jump to search Style guide which presents the typical layout of Wikipedia articles This page is about the layout of Wikipedia articles. For the layout of Wikipedia talk pages, see Wikipedia:Talk page layout. This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. Shortcuts MOS:LAYOUT WP:MOSLAYOUT Manual of Style (MoS) Content Accessibility Biography Disambiguation pages Hidden text Infoboxes Linking Self-references Words to watch Formatting Abbreviations Capital letters Dates and numbers Pronunciation Spelling Text formatting Titles Images Captions Galleries Icons Images Layout Layout Lead section Tables Trivia sections Lists Lists Lists of works Road junctions Stand-alone lists Legal Legal Trademarks By topic area Arts Comics Film Lyrics and poetry Novels Philosophy Television Video games Visual arts Writing about fiction Music Music samples Record charts Stringed instruments Category Regional Specific naming conventions Canada China and Chinese-related France Hawaii India Ireland Japan Korea Pakistan Philippines Poland Singapore Trinidad and Tobago Religion Islam Latter Day Saints Science Chemistry Computer science Mathematics Medicine Sports Cue sports Snooker Related guidelines Article size Article titles Categories, lists, and navigation templates Categorization Citing sources Hatnotes Military history Notability Signatures Subpages Talk page guidelines Template namespace Understandability User pages Wikimedia sister projects WikiProjects Overview Contents Tips v t e Sample article layout (click on image for larger view) This guide presents the typical layout of Wikipedia articles, including the sections an article usually has, ordering of sections, and formatting styles for various elements of an article. For advice on the use of wiki markup, see Help:Editing; for guidance on writing style, see Manual of Style. Contents 1 Order of article elements 2 Body sections 2.1 Headings and sections 2.2 Names and orders for section headings 2.3 Section templates and summary style 2.4 Paragraphs 3 Standard appendices and footers 3.1 Headings 3.2 Works or publications 3.3 "See also" section 3.4 Notes and references 3.5 Further reading 3.6 External links 3.6.1 Links to sister projects 3.7 Navigation templates 4 Specialized layout 5 Formatting 5.1 Images 5.2 Horizontal rule 6 See also 6.1 Other project pages 7 Footnotes Order of article elements Shortcuts MOS:ORDER MOS:SECTIONORDER WP:ORDER See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Section headings A simple article should have at least a lead section and references. The following list includes additional standardized sections in an article. A complete article may not have all, or even most, of these elements. Before the lead section Short description[1] Hatnotes[2] Deletion / protection tags (CSD, PROD, AFD, PP notices) Maintenance / dispute tags English variety and date style[3] Infoboxes Language maintenance templates Images Navigation header templates (sidebar templates) Body Lead section (also called the introduction) Table of contents Content Appendices[4] Works or publications (for biographies only) See also Notes and references (this can be two sections in some citation systems) Further reading External links[5] End matter Succession boxes and geography boxes Other navigation footer templates (navboxes)[6] (navbars above {{Portal bar}}) Authority control templates (taxonbar above Authority control) Geographical coordinates (if not in Infobox) or {{coord missing}} {{Featured list}}, {{Featured article}} and {{Good article}} (where appropriate for article status) Defaultsort Categories[7] Stub templates Body sections Shortcuts MOS:BODY MOS:OVERSECTION Further information: Help:Section and Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Article titles, headings, and sections Body sections appear after the lead and table of contents (click on image for larger view). Articles longer than a stub are generally divided into sections, and sections over a certain length are generally divided into paragraphs; these divisions enhance the readability of the article. The names and orders of section headings are often determined by the relevant WikiProject, although articles should still follow good organizational and writing principles regarding sections and paragraphs. Headings and sections Further information: Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Section headings Headings introduce sections and subsections, clarify articles by breaking up text, organize content, and populate the table of contents. Very short sections and subsections clutter an article with headings and inhibit the flow of the prose. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own subheading. Headings follow a six-level hierarchy, starting at 1 and ending at 6. The level of the heading is defined by the number of equal signs on either side of the title. Heading 1 (= Heading 1 =) is automatically generated as the title of the article, and is never appropriate within the body of articles. Sections start at the second level (== Heading 2 ==), with subsections at the third level (=== Heading 3 ===), and additional levels of subsections at the fourth level (==== Heading 4 ====), fifth level, and sixth level. Sections should be consecutive, such that they do not skip levels from sections to sub-subsections; the exact methodology is part of the Accessibility guideline.[8] Between sections, there should be a single blank line; multiple blank lines in the edit window create too much white space in the article. There is no need to include a blank line between a heading and sub-heading. When changing or removing a heading, consider adding an anchor template with the original heading name to provide for incoming external links and wikilinks (preferably using {{subst:anchor}} rather than using {{anchor}} directly—see MOS:RENAMESECTION). Names and orders for section headings See also: Help:Section, WP:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Headings, WP:Manual of Style § Section headings, and WP:Manual of Style/Capital letters § Section headings Because of the diversity of subjects it covers, Wikipedia has no general standard or guideline regarding the names or order of section headings within the body of an article. The usual practice is to name and order sections based on the precedent of similar articles. Contributors should follow the consensus model to establish an order. If a section is named inappropriately you may also use the {{Rename section}} template. Section templates and summary style When a section is a summary of another article that provides a full exposition of the section, a link to that article should appear immediately under the section heading. You can use the {{Main}} template to generate a "Main article" link, in Wikipedia's "hatnote" style. If one or more articles provide further information or additional details (rather than a full exposition, see above), references to such articles may be placed immediately after the section heading for that section, provided this does not duplicate a wikilink in the text. These additional references should be grouped along with the {{Main}} template (if there is one), or at the foot of the section that introduces the material for which these templates provide additional information. You can use one of the following templates to generate these links: {{Further}} – this generates a "Further information" link {{See also}} – this generates a "See also" link For example, to generate a "See also" link to the article on Wikipedia:How to edit a page, type {{See also|Wikipedia:How to edit a page}}, which will generate: See also: Wikipedia:How to edit a page Paragraphs Shortcuts MOS:PARA MOS:LINEBREAKS "MOS:LINEBREAKS" redirects here. For preventing line breaks, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Controlling line breaks. See also: Wikipedia:Writing better articles § Paragraphs Sections usually consist of paragraphs of running prose. Between paragraphs—as between sections—there should be only a single blank line. First lines are not indented. Bullet points should not be used in the lead of an article, and should not be used in the body unless for breaking up a mass of text, particularly if the topic requires significant effort to comprehend. However, bulleted lists are typical in the reference, further-reading, and external links sections towards the end of the article. Bullet points are usually not separated by blank lines, as that causes an accessibility issue (see MOS:LISTGAP). The number of single-sentence paragraphs should be minimized, since they can inhibit the flow of the text; by the same token, paragraphs that exceed a certain length become hard to read. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own subheading; in such circumstances, it may be preferable to use bullet points instead. Standard appendices and footers Shortcuts MOS:APPENDIX MOS:FOOTERS For the list and order of common appendices and footers, see § Order of article elements. Headings When appendix sections are used, they should appear at the bottom of an article, with ==level 2 headings==,[9] followed by the various footers. When it is useful to sub-divide these sections (for example, to separate a list of magazine articles from a list of books), this should be done using level 3 headings (===Books===) instead of definition list headings (;Books), as explained in the accessibility guidelines. Works or publications Shortcut MOS:BIB Further information: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists of works Contents: A bulleted list, usually ordered chronologically, of the works created by the subject of the article. Title: Many different titles are used, depending on the subject matter. "Works" is preferred when the list includes items that are not written publications (e.g. music, films, paintings, choreography, or architectural designs), or if multiple types of works are included. "Publications", "Discography", or "Filmography" are occasionally used where appropriate; however, "Bibliography" is discouraged because it is not clear whether it is limited to the works of the subject of the article.[10] "Works" or "Publications" should be plural, even if it lists only a single item.[11] "See also" section Shortcuts MOS:SEEALSO MOS:ALSO For "other uses" templates such as {{See also}}, see Wikipedia:Hatnote. See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Embedded lists § Related topics (navigational lists) Contents: A bulleted list of internal links to related Wikipedia articles. Consider using {{Columns-list}} or {{Div col}} if the list is lengthy. The list should be sorted either logically (for example, by subject matter), chronologically, or alphabetically. One purpose of "See also" links is to enable readers to explore tangentially related topics; however, articles linked should be related to the topic of the article. Whether a link belongs in the "See also" section is ultimately a matter of editorial judgment and common sense. The links in the "See also" section should be relevant, should reflect the links that would be present in a comprehensive article on the topic, and should be limited to a reasonable number. A "See also" section is not mandatory—some high-quality and comprehensive articles do not have one. Shortcut MOS:NOTSEEALSO The "See also" section should not link to pages that do not exist (red links), nor to disambiguation pages (unless used for further disambiguation in a disambiguation page). As a general rule, the "See also" section should not repeat links that appear in the article's body.[12] Editors should provide a brief annotation when a link's relevance is not immediately apparent, when the meaning of the term may not be generally known, or when the term is ambiguous. For example: Joe Shmoe – made a similar achievement on April 4, 2005 Ischemia – restriction in blood supply If the linked article has a short description then you can use {{annotated link}} to automatically generate an annotation. For example, {{annotated link|Winston Churchill}} will produce: Winston Churchill – British statesman; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1940–1945; 1951–1955) If the linked article doesn't already have a short description then you can add one to the linked article using the {{short description}} template. Other internal links: {{Portal}} and {{Wikipedia books}} links are usually placed in this section. Title: The most common title for this section is "See also". Notes and references Shortcuts MOS:FNNR MOS:NOTES MOS:REFERENCES For how to generate and format these sections, see Help:Footnotes, Help:Shortened footnotes, and Wikipedia:Citing sources (particularly § How to create the list of citations). "WP:NOTES" redirects here. For hatnotes, see Wikipedia:Hatnotes. For Musical notes, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Music § Images and notation. Notes and References appear after See also (click on image for larger view). Contents: This section, or series of sections, may contain any or all of the following: Explanatory footnotes that give information which is too detailed or awkward to be in the body of the article Citation footnotes (either short citations or full citations) that connect specific material in the article with specific sources Full citations to sources, if short citations are used in the footnotes or in parenthetical references in the body General references (full bibliographic citations to sources that were consulted in writing the article but that are not explicitly connected to any specific material in the article) Editors may use any citation method they choose, but it should be consistent within an article. If there are both citation footnotes and explanatory footnotes, then they may be combined in a single section, or separated using the grouped footnotes function. General references and other full citations may similarly be either combined or separated (e.g. "References" and "General references"). There may therefore be one, two, three or four sections in all. It is most common for only citation footnotes to be used, and therefore it is most common for only one section to be needed. Usually, if the sections are separated, then explanatory footnotes are listed first, short citations or other footnoted citations are next, and any full citations or general references are listed last. Title: Editors may use any reasonable section title that they choose.[13] The most frequent choice is "References"; other articles use "Notes", "Footnotes", or "Works cited" (in diminishing order of popularity) for this material. Several alternate titles ("Sources", "Citations", "Bibliography") may also be used, although each is questionable in some contexts: "Sources" may be confused with source code in computer-related articles, product purchase locations, river origins, journalism sourcing, etc.; "Citations" may be confused with official awards or a summons to court; "Bibliography" may be confused with the complete list of printed works by the subject of a biography ("Works" or "Publications"). If multiple sections are wanted, then some possibilities include: For a list of explanatory footnotes or shortened citation footnotes: "Notes", "Endnotes", or "Footnotes" For a list of full citations or general references: "References" or "Works cited" With the exception of "Bibliography", the heading should be plural even if it lists only a single item.[11] See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting § Citations Further reading Shortcut MOS:FURTHER See also: Wikipedia:Further reading Contents: An optional bulleted list, usually alphabetized, of a reasonable number of publications that would help interested readers learn more about the article subject. Editors may include brief annotations. Publications listed in further reading are cited in the same citation style used by the rest of the article. The Further reading section should not duplicate the content of the External links section, and should normally not duplicate the content of the References section, unless the References section is too long for a reader to use as part of a general reading list. This section is not intended as a repository for general references or full citations that were used to create the article content. Any links to external websites included under "Further reading" are subject to the guidelines described at Wikipedia:External links. External links Shortcuts MOS:LAYOUTEL MOS:ELLAYOUT Main page: Wikipedia:External links Contents: A bulleted list of recommended relevant websites, each accompanied by a short description. These hyperlinks should not appear in the article's body text, nor should links used as references normally be duplicated in this section. "External links" should be plural, even if it lists only a single item.[11] Depending on the nature of the link contents, this section may be accompanied or replaced by a "Further reading" section. Links to sister projects Main page: Wikipedia:Wikimedia sister projects Links to Wikimedia sister projects and {{Spoken Wikipedia}} should generally appear in "External links", not under "See also". If the article has no "External links" section, then place sister links at the top of the last section in the article. Two exceptions: Wiktionary and Wikisource links may be linked inline (e.g. to an unusual word or the text of a document being discussed). Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wikipedia logos. More precisely, box-type templates (such as {{Commons category}}, shown at right) have to be put at the beginning of the last section of the article (which is not necessarily the "External links" section) so that boxes will appear next to, rather than below, the list items. Do not make a section whose sole content is box-type templates. If box-type templates are not good, either because they result in a long sequence of right-aligned boxes hanging off the bottom of the article, or because there are no external links except sister project ones, then consider using "inline" templates, such as {{Commons category-inline}} in the "External links" section, so that links to sister projects appear as list items, like this: Media related to Wikimedia Foundation at Wikimedia Commons Navigation templates Shortcuts MOS:LAYOUTNAV MOS:NAVLAYOUT Main page: Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates § Navigation templates Contents: Navigation templates and footer navboxes, such as succession boxes and geography boxes (for example, {{Geographic location}}). Most navboxes do not appear in printed versions of Wikipedia articles.[14] In unusual cases, some navigation boxes are sidebars, and usually appear immediately below an infobox or lead-section image, if present, though the exact layout can be adjusted a little to account for things like long tables of contents. These are mostly limited to the key articles in a cohesive topic of high encyclopedic importance. Such an article may also end with various non-sidebar navigation boxes. Example: {{Democracy sidebar}} at Athenian democracy. Specialized layout Stand-alone lists and talk pages have their own layout designs. Certain topics have Manual of Style pages that include layout advice, including: Chemistry Film Medicine, for articles on treatments, procedures, medical products, fields of medicine, and other concepts Television Video games Some WikiProjects have advice pages that include layout recommendations. You can find those pages at Category:WikiProject style advice. Formatting Images Shortcut MOS:LAYIM Main page: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images Each image should ideally be located in the section to which it is most relevant, and most should carry an explanatory caption. An image that would otherwise overwhelm the text space available within a 1024×768 window should generally be formatted as described in relevant formatting guidelines (e.g., WP:IMAGESIZE, MOS:IMGSIZE, Help:Pictures#Panoramas). Try to harmonize the sizes of images on a given page in order to maintain visual coherence. If "stacked" images in one section spill over into the next section at 1024×768 screen resolution, there may be too many images in that section. If an article overall has so many images that they lengthen the page beyond the length of the text itself, you can use a gallery; or you can create a page or category combining all of them at Wikimedia Commons and use a relevant template ({{Commons}}, {{Commons category}}, {{Commons-inline}} or {{Commons category-inline}}) to link to it instead, so that further images are readily available when the article is expanded. See Wikipedia:Image use policy § Image galleries for further information on galleries. Use |upright=scaling factor to adjust images sizes; for example, |upright=1.3 displays an image 30% larger than the default, and |upright=0.60 displays it 40% smaller. Lead images should usually be no larger than |upright=1.35. Avoid article text referring to images as being to the left, right, above, or below, because image placement varies with platform (especially mobile platforms) and screen size, and is meaningless to people using screen readers; instead, use captions to identify images. Horizontal rule Shortcuts MOS:LINE MOS:---- Horizontal rules are sometimes used in some special circumstances, such as inside {{sidebar}} template derivatives, but not in regular article prose. See also Editors' Index Other project pages Help:Editing Help:Preferences Help:Section Wikipedia:Article titles Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines – Shows how to use headings on talk pages Footnotes ^ Discussed in 2018 and 2019. ^ Wikipedia:Hatnote § Placement. ^ These templates can also be placed at the end of an article. The matter was discussed in 2012, 2015 and 2014. ^ This sequence has been in place since at least December 2003 (when "See also" was called "Related topics"). See, for example, Wikipedia:Perennial proposals § Changes to standard appendices. The original rationale for this ordering is that, with the exception of "Works", sections which contain material outside Wikipedia (including "Further reading" and "External links") should come after sections that contain Wikipedia material (including "See also") to help keep the distinction clear. The sections containing notes and references often contain both kinds of material and, consequently, appear after the "See also" section (if any) and before the "Further reading" section (if any). Whatever the validity of the original rationale, there is now the additional factor that readers have come to expect the appendices to appear in this order. ^ There are several reasons why this section should appear as the last appendix section. So many articles have the "External links" section at the end that many people expect that. Some "External links" and "References" (or "Footnotes", etc.) sections are quite long, and when the name of the section is not visible on the screen, it could cause problems if someone meant to delete an external link, and deleted a reference citation instead. Keeping the "External links" last is also helpful to editors who patrol external links. ^ Rationale for placing navboxes at the end of the article. ^ While categories are entered on the editing page ahead of stub templates, they appear on the visual page in a separate box after the stub templates. One of the reasons this happens is that every stub template generates a stub category, and those stub categories appear after the "main" categories. Another is that certain bots and scripts are set up to expect the categories, stubs and interlanguage links to appear in that order, and will reposition them if they don't. Therefore, any manual attempt to change the order is futile unless the bots and scripts are also altered. ^ For example, skipping heading levels, such as jumping from == Heading 2 == to ==== Heading 4 ==== without === Heading 3 === in the middle, violates Wikipedia:Accessibility as it reduces usability for readers on screen readers who use heading levels to navigate pages. ^ Syntax: ==See also== * [[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] * [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]] Which produces: See also Wikipedia:How to edit a page Wikipedia:Manual of Style ^ Rationale for discouraging the use of "Bibliography." ^ a b c For further information, see Wikipedia:External links § External links section. ^ The community has rejected past proposals to do away with this "rule". See, for example, this RfC. ^ One reason this guide does not standardize section headings for citations and explanatory notes is that Wikipedia draws editors from many disciplines (history, English, science, etc.), each with its own note and reference section naming convention (or conventions). For more, see Wikipedia:Perennial proposals § Changes to standard appendices, § Establish a house citation style and Template:Cnote2/example. ^ The rationale for not printing navigation boxes is that these templates mostly consist of wikilinks that are of no use to print readers. There are two problems with this rationale: First, other wikilink content does print; for example See also and succession boxes. Second, some navigation boxes contain useful information regarding the relationship of the article to the subjects of related articles. v t e Writing guides Starting an article Getting started Layout Visual structure of articles The perfect article A checklist of components Article development Suggested stages of an article Manual of Style Comprehensive style guide Writing better articles A collection of advice v t e Manual of Style Overview Directory Tips Quiz Content Accessibility Biographies Disambiguation pages Infoboxes Linking Self-references Words to watch Formatting Abbreviations Capitalization Dates and numbers Pronunciation Proper names Spelling Text formatting Titles Images Captions Galleries Icons Images Layout Layout Lead section Tables Trivia sections Lists Embedded lists Lists Lists of works Road junctions Stand-alone lists Legal Legal Trademarks Arts Anime and manga Comics Film Lyrics and poetry Novels Television Video games Visual arts Writing about fiction Music Music Music samples Record charts Regional Canada China France Hawaii India Ireland Japan Korea Malaysia Philippines Poland Singapore Trinidad and Tobago Religion Islam Latter Day Saints Science Chemistry Computer commands Mathematics Medicine Taxonomy Sports Cue sports Snooker Related Article size Article titles Categories, lists, and navigation templates Categorization Citing sources Hatnotes Military history Signatures Subpages Talk page guidelines Template namespace Understandability User pages Wikimedia sister projects WikiProjects Search Book Category v t e Wikipedia key policies and guidelines (?) Five pillars Ignore all rules Content (?) P Verifiability No original research Neutral point of view What Wikipedia is not Biographies of living persons Copyright (Copyright violations) Image use Article titles G Notability Autobiography Citing sources Reliable sources medicine Do not include copies of lengthy primary sources Plagiarism Don't create hoaxes Fringe theories Patent nonsense External links Conduct (?) P Civility Consensus Harassment Vandalism Ignore all rules No personal attacks Ownership of content Edit warring Dispute resolution Sockpuppetry No legal threats Child protection Paid-contribution disclosure G Assume good faith Conflict of interest Disruptive editing Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point Etiquette Gaming the system Please do not bite the newcomers Courtesy vanishing Responding to threats of harm Talk page guidelines Signatures Deletion (?) P Deletion policy Proposed deletion Biographies Books Criteria for speedy deletion Attack page Oversight Revision deletion Enforcement (?) P Administrators Banning Blocking Page protection Editing (?) P Editing policy G Article size Be bold Disambiguation Hatnotes Broad-concept article Understandability Style Manual of Style Contents Accessibility Dates and numbers Images Layout Lead section Linking Lists Classification Categories, lists, and navigation templates Categorization Template namespace Project content (?) G Project namespace WikiProjects User pages User boxes Shortcuts Subpages WMF (?) P Terms of Use List of policies Friendly space policy Licensing and copyright Privacy policy List of all policies and guidelines P: List of policies G: List of guidelines Summaries of values and principles Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Layout&oldid=998913093" Categories: Wikipedia how-to Wikipedia Manual of Style (layout) Wikipedia naming conventions Hidden categories: Project pages with short description Wikipedia semi-protected project pages Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Project page Talk Variants Views Read View source View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Languages العربية অসমীয়া Català Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia עברית Latina Lietuvių Magyar മലയാളം مصرى Bahasa Melayu Minangkabau မြန်မာဘာသာ Nederlands नेपाली 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Simple English Slovenščina Suomi Svenska தமிழ் తెలుగు ไทย Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 7 January 2021, at 16:36 (UTC). 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