Wikipedia: Article series

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Article series are useful for tying together information on very broad subjects. For example, the article Israeli-Palestinian conflict could contain a table that provides links to all the major issues surrounding that subject.

Note that an alternative to an article series (for instance, where only one title is appropriate for the entire exposition) is a single, long, tightly-written article. Wikipedia:Long article layout provides guidelines for such articles.

There are proposals to restyle these boxes. See Wikipedia_talk:Article_series#Change_the_style?

See also:

• Wikipedia:Long article layout
• Wikipedia:Long articles (a list)
• Wikipedia:List of article series
• Wikipedia:Incumbent series
• Wikipedia:Navigational templates (basics about the boxes that can be used for article series; templates of available series boxes)
• General policies governing article series: Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and series boxes
• Proposed policies about the series boxes and/or templates:
  • Wikipedia:Series templates
  • Wikipedia:Article series boxes policy (proposed)

Article series box guidelines

• In a series table, the title of the article currently being viewed should be de-linked, bolded, and have gray background. (Note: if using the Template {{foo}} syntax, the current article is bolded and de-linked but does not appear with a gray background, cf. talk).
• The number and order of the series items in the series box should be the same on every page in the series.

Article series box format options

Parent article

This is a parent article, meaning that it provides an overview of each of the subjects in the subarticles. (Please note that in this context, subarticle does not confer any changes in the article's status in the software, and subarticles should stand on their own as a description of a particular phenomenon)

Example: use a MediaWiki custom message

See Template:Electronic music top

Source: {{electronic_music_top}}

Example: new wiki markup

Source

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="float: right; border: 1px solid #8888aa; background: #f7f8ff; padding: 5px; font-size: 95%; margin: 0 15px 0 15px;"
|style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;"|<small>This article is the top of the<br>'''History of [[Australia]]''' series.</small>
|- 
|[[History of Australia before 1901]]
|-
|[[History of Australia since 1901]]
|-
|[[Constitutional history of Australia]]
|-
|}

Example: old HTML table markup

Source

<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="float:right; margin:5px; border:3px solid;">
<tr><td style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;">
<small>This article is the top of the<br>
'''History of [[Australia]]''' series.</small></td></tr>
<tr><td>
  [[History of Australia before 1901]]</td></tr>
<tr><td>
  [[History of Australia since 1901]]</td></tr>
<tr><td>
  [[Constitutional history of Australia]]</td></td>
</table>

Daughter articles

In one of the subarticles, the format changes to link to the parent article in the title at the top (This article is part of the History of Australia series.); the header referring to the article in question is changed from a link to a bold title.

Example: use a MediaWiki custom message

Template:Electronic music

Source: {{electronic_music}}

Example: new wiki table markup

Source

{| cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0 style="margin:5px; border:3px solid;"
|style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;"|<small>This article is the part of the<br>[[History of Australia]] series.</small>
|- 
|[[History of Australia before 1901]]
|-
|style="background:#efefef;"|'''History of Australia since 1901'''
|-
|[[Constitutional history of Australia]]
|-
|}

Example: old HTML table markup

Source

<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="float:right; margin:5px; border:3px solid;">
<tr><td style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;">
<small>This article is part of the<br>
[[History of Australia]] series.</small></td></tr>
<tr><td>
  [[History of Australia before 1901]]<tr><td>
  </td></tr>
<tr><td style="background:#efefef;">
  '''History of Australia since 1901'''</td></tr>
<tr><td>
  [[Constitutional history of Australia]]</td></tr>
</table>

Sister articles

E.g. the footer of Netherlands showing all countries of the European Union. Self links do not give any complication: they are neatly displayed in bold and not as link.

Blended series tables

It is also possible to place an article in two different series. For example, Franks is part of both the History of France and History of Germany series.