Wikipedia: Manual of style (headings)
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
Headings are used to divide an article into sections. This helps both writers to structure their text better and makes it easier for readers to understand the article.
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Wording of heading titles
In general, heading titles should be nouns or noun phrases. (See also is an exception to this rule.)
- Not: About their behaviour in the wild
- But: Behaviour in the wild
"The", "a" and "an" should be omitted from the beginning of heading titles.
- Not: The mammals
- But: Mammals
Avoid restating the subject of the article or of an enclosing section in heading titles. It is assumed that you are writing about the same subject, so you usually do not need to refer to it again.
- Not: His early life
- But: Early life
Standard heading titles
Some heading titles have standard wordings:
- See also
- External links
- References
- Footnotes
Please do not vary the wording or capitalisation of these headings.
Headings markup
Use the == (two equal signs) style markup for headings, not the ''' (triple apostrophes) used to make words appear bold in character formatting.
Start with "==", add the heading title, then end with "==".
Major benefits of marking headings this way:
- Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set.
- A table of contents can be automatically generated from the sections.
- Sections can be edited individually.
- Words within properly marked headers are given greater weight in searches.
- Visually-impaired users may be using software which begins by giving a summary of the article, built from the heading tags.
Nesting
Nest headings correctly, for the same reasons as above. The top-level heading of any page is a H1 which gives the article title. The headings within the article must therefore be H2, ie "==".
Below that, the sub-heading of "==" is "===", the sub-sub-heading below that is "====" and so on.
Example:
==Heading 1==
===Heading 1.1===
====Heading 1.1.1====
==Heading 2==
Capitalisation
Headings begin with a capital letter just like any other normal text. So, capitalise the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns in headings, but leave the rest lower case.
- Not: External Links
- But: External links
Links within headings
The Wikipedia:Manual of Style says "Avoid links within headers. Depending on settings, some users may not see them clearly. It is much better to put the appropriate link in the first sentence under the header."
Spaces
Spaces below headings are completely optional. According to the Wikipedia:Manual of Style, an additional space after the heading will not affect the appearance of the heading in any way; it is much like the issue of whether to use one or two spaces after a full stop. It only affects the appearance of the text in the edit box, so use whichever approach works for you.
See also
- Wikipedia:Section explains sections and table of contents which are generated with creation of headings.
External links
ja:Wikipedia:スタイルマニュアル (見出し)
