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Revision as of 15:17, 24 August 2024
Organization of WeRelate Help MenuWeRelate Help is organized according to actions a user may wish to carry out (as opposed to, for example, being organized according to WeRelate's menu structure). Help topics are grouped into major headings, and presented more-or-less in the order we would expect a new user to use functions. Considerable thought was put into organizing WeRelate Help. This means that changes to the organization should not be made lightly. However, it is expected that WeRelate Help, including its organization, will evolve (particularly while it is still under initial development). Structure of WeRelate HelpBefore you attempt to modify WeRelate help pages, you need to be aware of the structure, which was designed to:
WeRelate conventionsWeRelate conventions are documented in a set of subpages under the page Help:Conventions. These subpages are the only place conventions should be documented. That is, other Help pages should not attempt to document any of these conventions, but instead should include or link to these pages. Each convention topic has the following pages:
The last statement in this section (before the ending </onlyinclude> tag) should be "<includeonly><br><span style="line-height:0.5"><br></span>For further information, see [[Help:Conventions/subpage|subpage conventions]].</includeonly>" The <includeonly> tag means that this statement (and link) will be displayed only when the subpage is included on another page.
Any Help page that needs to refer to conventions includes {{Help:Conventions/subpage}}, which can be indented as follows:
For an example, see Help:Conventions/Dates, which is included in Help:Creating a Person page. When modifying the Quick reference section of a Conventions page:
The main Help:Conventions page includes all conventions subpages. There is a direct link from the Help menu to the Help:Conventions page, allowing the user to easily find all conventions in one place. Conventions subpages are monitored by the Overview Committee and watched by anyone with an interest in them. This helps to ensure that conventions are not changed without appropriate community discussion (on their respective talk pages). The Overview Committee reserves the right to reverse any change to conventions that has not first been appropriately discussed on the talk page. The Overview Committee also reserves the right to protect any conventions subpage from editing by anyone other than an Administrator. "How To" instructionsThere are a handful of "how to" instructions that are useful in more than one situation, such as "how to rename a page". Each of these instructions is written on a subpage of Help:HowTo. The contents and usage of these pages is the same as for the conventions pages. When modifying the Quick reference section of a HowTo page:
The collection of HowTo subpages is presented as Frequently Asked Questions on the Help:FAQ/HowTo page (through inclusion). The parent Help:HowTo page (which is not used in the Help Menu structure, but might be looked at when maintaining a subpage), simply replicates the Help:FAQ/HowTo page by including it. Frequently asked questionsFrequently asked questions are grouped by Help topic, with each group having its own subpage of Help:FAQ. Where applicable, a Help page includes the relevant FAQ subpage. The page Help:FAQ also includes all subpages, so that users can see all FAQs in one place and can search them all at once. Instructions vs. tutorialsBy default, WeRelate Help is instructions on how to use WeRelate functionality and isn't considered to be tutorials (since tutorials typically include exact data for the user to enter and show the results of entering that data). Tutorials may be created, but should be in addition to (not instead of) the instruction pages. Since tutorials provide exact data to enter, they have to be executed in the [sandbox]). They also need to accommodate for the fact that someone else may have completed the tutorial since the last time the sandbox was refreshed. Tutorials typically do not need to describe conventions, since they provide all the data to enter, but if they do, they need to include and/or link to conventions pages, just like other Help pages do. |