User:Whiteknight/Help Book

I am planning to completely delete the Help: namespace overtime. All pages will be merged into help books like Using Wikibooks, or Editing Wikitext as appropriate. If needed, we can create additional books too. Eventually, all Help: pages will be deleted, and the entire Help: namespace can be removed. This is a very long-term project. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 13:57, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Help:Contents
This is a navigational map of the current Wikibooks Help namespace and directly linked pages in other namespaces, using Help:Contents as a root node. This is how the help namespace looks currently, and this list should not be changed. Red links on this page represent red links in the help namespace. Do not create these pages now, because creating such pages might be counter to the plan.

For a list of all pages in the help namespace, including those which are not currently linked from Help:Contents, see Special:Prefixindex/Help:.


 * Help:Introduction
 * Help:What is a module
 * Help:Editing
 * Help:How to start a book
 * Help:Logging in
 * Help:Database download
 * Help:Contents/Browsing Wikibooks
 * All bookshelves
 * Help:Searching
 * Help:Explore
 * Help:Namespace
 * Special:Whatlinkshere/Help:Contents/Browsing Wikibooks
 * Help:Keyboard shortcuts
 * Help:Talk page
 * Help:Media help
 * Help:Contents/Editing Wikibooks
 * Help:Starting a new page
 * Help:Page name
 * Help:Editing
 * Help:Section
 * Help:Testing
 * Categories
 * Help:Purge
 * Manual of Style
 * WB:LMOS
 * Help:HTML in wikitext
 * Help:Special characters
 * Help:Contents/Images and media
 * Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting
 * Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting/An introduction to basic Wiki syntax
 * Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting:Less common formatting methods
 * Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting:Headers and when they're appropriately used
 * Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting:Styling with pictures
 * Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting:Organizing your content with tables
 * Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting:When to use one way over another
 * Help:A quick guide to templates
 * Help:Template
 * Help:Boilerplate text
 * List of available templates
 * Help:Table
 * Help:Redirect
 * Help:Editing shortcuts
 * Help:EasyTimeline syntax
 * Help:Formula
 * Help:Link
 * Help:Piped link
 * Help:URL
 * Help:Magic words
 * Variables
 * Help:Contents/Tracking changes
 * Dealing with vandalism
 * Deletion policy
 * Help:Stub
 * Help:Contents/Images and media
 * Special:Upload
 * Help:Media
 * Help:Images
 * Help:Image page
 * Help:Image description page
 * Help:Uploading images
 * Help:Images and other uploaded files
 * Help:Preparing images for upload
 * Help:Extended image syntax
 * Help:Finding images tutorial
 * Help:Picture tutorial
 * Help:Graphics_tutorials
 * Help:Basic bitmap image editing
 * Help:How to use the GIMP
 * Help:How to reduce colors for saving a JPEG as PNG
 * Help:How to improve image quality
 * Help:How to draw a diagram with Dia
 * Help:How to draw a diagram with Microsoft Word
 * Help:How to draw a diagram with OpenOffice.org Writer
 * Help:How to draw a diagram with OpenOffice.org Draw
 * Category:Wikipedia_image_help
 * Image use policy
 * Help:Captions
 * Help:Logos
 * Help:Alternative text for images
 * Help:List of images
 * Help:Image copyright tags
 * Help:Featured picture candidates
 * Help:Public domain image resources
 * Help:Boilerplate request for permission
 * Policies and guidelines
 * Help:Contents/Tracking changes
 * Special:Specialpages
 * Help:Recent changes
 * recent changes patrol
 * Help:Enhanced recent changes
 * Help:Related changes
 * Help:Watching pages
 * Watch
 * Help:Page history
 * Help:Diff
 * Help:User contributions
 * Help:Edit summary
 * Help:Minor edit
 * Help:FAQ
 * Help:Overview FAQ
 * Help:Readers' FAQ
 * Help:Contributing FAQ
 * Help:Editing FAQ
 * Help:Administration FAQ
 * Help:Technical FAQ
 * Help:Problems FAQ
 * Help:Miscellaneous FAQ
 * Help:Glossary
 * Help:What is a module
 * Help:Replies to common objections
 * Help:How to start a book
 * Help:Why contribute to the open textbook project
 * Help:Why not to contribute to the open textbook project
 * Help:Glossary of Wikibooks jargon
 * Help:Account settings and maintenance
 * Help:Preferences
 * Help:Customisation
 * Help:Logging in
 * Help:User style
 * Help:Account deletion
 * Help:Technical information
 * m:Help:Contents
 * MediaWiki feature request and bug report discussion
 * Database download
 * Special:Export
 * Help:Utilities
 * Files to be harvested
 * Public domain and fair use
 * Textbook ideas
 * History of Wikibooks
 * Mailing lists
 * Textbook planning
 * Staff lounge.

Rationale
Reasons for wanting to create several "help books" instead of a single amorphous help namespace:
 * 1) Lead by Example. Show contributors an example of a good book as a model to follow for creating new books. Book will use a proper naming convention, an LMOS, proper and consistent navigation and formatting, etc.
 * 2) Able to quickly and easily separate information according to intended target audience (readers, writers, admins, newbies, etc). Certain topics can be presented differently, depending on the reader.
 * 3) Help pages should be instructional, and advanced topics should build upon basic topics. Such a linear structure lends itself nicely to a textbook with a narrative.
 * 4) Provide a logical organization of pages, by using a "book/page" naming convention. Grouping like topics together by prepending them with a common bookname.
 * 5) Easy ability to create navigational and style templates to suit particular books.
 * 6) Editing the help namespace becomes exactly the same as editing any ordinary book. More users will feel empowered to help improve it because it will be more familiar.
 * 7) Help books created in this way will be easy to find through regular navigation tools such as All bookshelves, etc. New help books can be easily requested at Requested books.
 * 8) New help books can be easily added to the shelf at any time, to account for new or missing information.
 * 9) Changes can be made to a single book without having to make those changes to the entire help namespace.

Help:Contents
Changed to be a "help bookshelf", including the books below and other books from the main module namespace that directly deal with Mediawiki: MediaWiki Administrator's Handbook, History of Wikibooks, etc. We will need a "help bookshelf" template, and we will need to add it to the list at All bookshelves.

REDIRECT to Subject:Help.