User:Argy/Manual of Style 2009

This is an instruction manual that addresses the conventions adopted by Bulbanews in writing, editing, formatting and linking. Please read it before you contribute to Bulbanews and refer to it when necessary.

Any questions or disputes regarding Bulbanews style should be directed to Argy, editor in chief.

Basic wikicode

Besides writing articles in the Bulbanews on factual, useful information backed up by reliable sources, contributors are expected to use decent spelling and grammar and a basic level of wikicode. Some of the most commonly used aspects of wikicode are listed below. Should you forget, above the text editors for articles are a row of buttons with many common wikicode attributes.

• Text formatting: To make text bold, put three apostrophes on either side of it, such as '''Bulbanews'''. This will result in Bulbanews. However, bold text is mostly for any names or facts which need a very large amount of emphasis. For a normal emphasis (such as translations of Japanese text), it is common style to put text in italics, which is done with two apostrophes instead of three, such as ''Bulbanews''. This will result in Bulbanews.
• Links: Whenever something is referenced in an article which has its own article on Bulbapedia, be sure to link to it. This is done by putting two brackets, a vertical pipe and the letters bp on either side of a word. For example, {{bp|Pokémon}} will result in Pokémon. However, sometimes there's no way to use the exact name of an article in a sentence without the sentence being awkwardly-worded. In these instances, to have different text display than the article's name, put a vertical pipe between bp:, the article's name and the text you would like to display. For example, [[bp:Pokémon|Pocket Monsters]] will result in Pocket Monsters, which you may notice links to the Pokémon article.
  • Short links: There are several quick links which are not only useful, but common style. For example, when linking to a Pokémon article, typing {{p|Pikachu}} results in Pikachu, which you may notice links to the article Pikachu (Pokémon) on Bulbapedia. Another quick link is {{m|Splash}} for the move Splash, for example.
  • External links: Other links can be done with using a single bracket. In this instance, a vertical line is not necessary to divide the name from the link. However, the full address is needed to link to a page. For example, to link to the Bulbagarden forums, typing [http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/index.php Bulbagarden Forums] would result in Bulbagarden Forums. External links are primarily used to cite sources and to link to any related Web sites.
• 

  Bulbasaur
  Images: Images are added in a manner similar to links. To add in an image, link to the image's name, but add in Image: before the name. For example, [[Image:Pokébuck sign.gif]] will add in a commonly used image, File:Pokébuck sign.gif. Formatting attributes can be added to an image as well, divided with vertical lines. For example, [[Image:001Bulbasaur.png|thumb|100px|Bulbasaur]] will add the image to the right. All images are uploaded to Bulbagarden Archives.
• Headlines: These are not to be confused with traditional news article headlines. Wiki articles are divided by levels of headlines, much like a large outline. These are indicated by equals signs on either side of the headline text. There are six levels of headlines, with one equals sign being the first and highest level, which would look like =Headline text=, and six equals signs being the sixth and lowest level, which would look like ======Headline text======. First and second level headlines are underlined. Text size decreases with lower level headlines.