Wikibooks talk:How-tos bookshelf

Inclusion of Public Domain material
How should we include public domain how to material? For example, "Popular Mechanics ShopNotes" available on Google Books is in the public domain and well worth inclusion here given the large number of topics covered. Likewise, Popular Mechanics in the public domain contains many how to articles.

Adapted from Wikipedia:How-to
A how-to on Wikibooks should include:
 * A brief overview of the project being built or end result of the instructions.
 * A list of materials, tools or prerequisites (if needed).
 * Time needed.
 * Appropriate safety warnings (if needed).
 * Instructions for the project.
 * What to do after the project is finished (cleanup).
 * How to use the result or object constructed.

If there are multiple ways to do something, consider including more than one.

How-tos in Science
Often it is appropriate for Wikipedia to include details of a particular scientific experiment that are of interest. For example, if they are the first of their kind, or if they are commonly performed, or if they are just generally well known. It is important that scientific how-tos explain why they are of interest.

Some questions that you should consider in articles on scientific experiments:
 * Who first performed this experiment? When? Where? With whom?
 * What technical inventions allowed this experiment to be performed?
 * Where and when were the results published? Under what title?
 * What was the scientific reaction to this experiment?
 * What was the public reaction?
 * What theories did this experiment confirm or disprove?
 * How has this experiment been simplified or made redundant by later innovations?
 * What scientific principles were used in the design of this experiment?
 * Is this experiment commonly performed in schools or universities? At what age range is it typically performed?
 * What conclusions can be drawn from the experiment?

Merging Savoir-faire
Transwiki:Savoir-faire should be incorporated here somehow. Uncle G 11:16, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I think that Savoir-faire ("know-how-to-make") should become a book called Savoir-faire or Basic human needs. That book would be an instructional resource listed on the How-tos bookshelf. The red links on Transwiki:Savoir-faire would become links to chapters of that book. --Kernigh 19:27, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Move from Wikipedia
Hi,

I know this is ancient history by now, but I really didn't quite get the move in the first place (except for very long how-tos meriting their own "book". The association with the name "book" I think may turn people off who just want to get a simple how-to answered. If procedural knowledge is really so offensive to Wikipedia, how about a dedicated wiki (at least Wikicities wiki) for short how-tos? thanks... User:Brettz9

Create Separate Wikihowto Site (updated)
I really like the en.howto.wikia.com page you've built. What's the next steps for it? 208.54.15.1 18:00, 21 April 2006 (UTC)penchina

I have been working on a WikiHowTo demo/proposal for a new Wiki Project.


 * Demo site: http://en.howto.wikicities.com/
 * Scope: WikiHowTo would offer tutorials in any numbers of subjects, and unlike most on line tutorials these will stay up to date, as long as they are popular enough to be viewed.
 * Comments:
 * I believe my demo site has a long way to go before making a formal proposal, I would appreciate any help or suggestions anyone can give., thanks ZyMOS 02:16, 15 January 2006 (UTC)


 * to read old discussions on this visit http://en.howto.wikicities.com/wiki/Wikihowto/old


 * WikiHowTo, Wikisolutions, and wikicities have joined as one site
 * http://en.howto.wikicities.com/
 * We are currently working on finalizing policy and creating good examples of Howto's and Guides.
 * We could use help if anyone is interested.


 * The are now over 100 howtos on WikiHowTo. Most are small, some are stubs.

Opinions?


 * Adding a point to this thread: You are welcome to fork and grab any Wikibooks content in any form, provided you do so according to the terms of the GFDL.  While I like Wikia for a number of reasons, this is not a Wikimedia project and any forked how-to content on the how-to Wikia (formerly Wikicities) should not be construed as moving content to that other web server.  As far as I'm concerned, How-to books need to remain on Wikibooks, even though perhaps the standards for keeping them here on Wikibooks should be raised in terms of content quality and editorial standards.
 * Consider this above announcement as an advertisement for a competing (even if sympathetic) project. We are working for the same overall goals, but this is a different community.  --Rob Horning 14:10, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

List of topically arranged how-tos
Note: Someone please move the code from here to here (the last version before it was migrated to How-tos bookshelf and the listing was alphabetized. (I am in a country now where I can't reach Wikipedia for editing. The old wiki code has the advantage of being language independent (not alphabetical) and to allow one to intuitively find items by their general subject, without having to know ahead of time which exact alphabetical listing they are looking for)...Please allow this alternative categorization!!! Thank you... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Anonymous User (talk • contribs) comment moved from deleted page.

Link word order
I feel that the change of all the link titles by Kernigh to the format XXXXX, how to make a makes the page very difficult to read through. The English-speaking brain is not accustomed to reading that way, and any benefit to alphabetizing is lost in the extra effort needed to read each line.

For example, these:


 * Novel writing
 * How to write a novel
 * Write a novel

are much easier to read than these:


 * Novel, How to go about writing a
 * Novel, How to write
 * Novel writing, How to

We usually read groups of words at a time, not individual words, so the reordering breaks up the groups we would normally pick out easily, and the line must be read one word at a time and "translated" into something sensible. If there were hundreds of links in each category, then maybe this would be worth it, but with so few I don't think it is. Jonathan Kovaciny 15:37, 14 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I tried to make each bookshelf link match the title of the book. The book is called How to go about writing a novel, so I do not like bookshelf links such as Novel writing . I introduced the "XXX, How to" format so I could continue the existing convention of alphabetical sorting.


 * However, if you think that the bookshelf is now confusing, feel free to edit this bookshelf and fix it. --Kernigh 16:00, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Proposal to convert the bookshelf into a book
Most of the how-to books linked here are one-pagers - not exactly what you'd term a book. Where we've had a significant number of short one-pagers in the areas of cooking and cocktails we've turned them into a coherent book (Cookbook and Bartending]). To my mind, all the how-tos would look better if organised as a (more or less complete, but readily expandable) book. We can also give it a fun name The Great Wikibook of How-Tos or something of that ilk. Comments? Jguk 08:05, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
 * That seems like a very sensible suggestion. Thryduulf 21:40, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I think that &rarr; DIY &larr; might have been an effort like that. --Kernigh 23:52, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

external how to sites
I found a new how to site that I tried to list in the external how to site links but, the page is locked. How can I add to this list?

I too would like to add to the external sites links list. Is that possible? --John Stumbles 00:37, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Answered on your talk page - thanks -- Herby talk thyme 12:48, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Wait, really?
There's a how-to guide in the listing, under "Other Guides". It's a red link, and I'm going to assume it NEVER existed. It's "How to Understand a Teenage Female". Probably vandalism, but still humorous. Could someone verify this and remove it?

How to search only in How-tos of Wikibooks ?
How can we search in How-tos of Wikibooks, I mean to search only in books of How-tos bookshelf and in books of Category:How-tos (and his sub-categories) ? This filter is necessary when we are searching a practical and immediat solution to a problem. Without such a filter we get more books related to various aspects of our search-text than books providing a howto. I know that http://howto.wikia.com (and the french version http://fr.howto.wikia.com that I initiated) can provide this quick answer, but today howto.wikia.com does not provide all answers and we have to search also in other wikies as Wikibooks/How-tos. One thing could make this search difficult in Wikibooks : many how-tos books are not in the Category:How-tos, then how could they be filtered by a search tool? Please help! Thanks.--Jean-Baptiste Martin 19:13, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Too Small
The list of How-Tos is too small. Uncyclopedia has a list that is ten or so times as big. 59.183.183.120 18:40, 27 May 2007 (UTC)Vader1941

Variation in Titles
I was just going through the how-to section on WikiBooks when I noticed that there is no stardard form for naming the books. Some books titles are How To Build A Computer (with the "how to" in the link), Overcoming Procrastination (in active tense), and How to make Armour (with the "how to" not in the link). I think it should be standardised one way or another. Maybe make a "how to" folder and add all the files in it (all titles in one tense), so that it would be How To/Build a Computer, How To/Overcome Procastination, and How To/Make Armour. I think this make alot more sense for organization and linking. I would be willing to spend the time to go through them and change all of the names but then I would have to change the links on the how to page would I not? And it is protected and I am not an administrator. Any thoughts or ideas as to what could be done? Mason L. 13:05, 5 September 2007 (UTC)