Editing Pikmin Technical Knowledge Base:Guidelines

In order to ensure the comfort of readers and editors, everybody is encouraged to use the following style and formatting guidelines when editing the wiki. They are ''not mandatory'', but highly recommended for the sake of clarity, cleanliness, and consistency.

== Formatting ==
; File names, file paths, hexadecimal values, and internal names should be inside code blocks.
: A file name (e.g. <code>navi.ini</code>), the path to a file (e.g. <code>/dataDir/parms/navi.ini</code>), a hex value (e.g. <code>0x1F</code>), or an internal name (e.g. <code>KoChappy</code>) should all be written inside "code" blocks. To do so, type it as follows: <code>&lt;code&gt;text&lt;/code&gt;</code>. Naturally, be careful not to include commas, quotes, or periods that belong to your sentence inside of these blocks.

; File paths should be like the [[wikipedia:Filesystem Hierarchy Standard|Filesystem Hierarchy Standard]].
: A file path should use forward slashes (<code>/</code>) as the directory separator, and the root of an ISO should start with a forward slash as well.

; Hexadecimal values should start with the hex prefix.
: When writing a hexadecimal value, include the "0x" prefix before it, so it's clear that the number you've shown is in hex format.

; Hexadecimal values should start with 0x.
: e.g. <code>0x3A</code>. Consider adding a leading zero if it looks better, e.g. <code>0x05</code> instead of <code>0x5</code>.

; File formats in prose should be in all uppercase, without a dot.
: e.g. type "PNG file" instead of ".png file". The exception is, of course, unless you're referring to the name of a specific file, in which case you use <code>abc.png</code> as usual.

== Headers ==
; Like Wikipedia, don't capitalize words in article titles or section headers.
: Wikipedia's page on it can be found [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(capitalization)|here]], along with the reasoning.

== Game names ==
; Italicize game names.
: Italicize (i.e. write in <code><nowiki>''italics''</nowiki></code>) the names of games in the series.

; The first game in the franchise is called ''Pikmin''.
: In other words, don't use the term "Pikmin 1".

== Article contents ==
; If the article's title has a game name, italicize it.
: You can change the style of an article's title with the <code><nowiki>{{DISPLAYTITLE}}</nowiki></code> magic word. For instance, for an article called "Pikmin 2 quick notes", you should add <code><nowiki>{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Pikmin 2'' quick notes}}</nowiki></code> at the start.

; All main articles must be in the category of the game(s) they're about, as well as the type of article they are.
: At the end of each article, you should have the categories that it belongs to. To categorize an article, write something like <code><nowiki>[[Category:Pikmin 3]]</nowiki></code> at the end. See [[:Category:Browse]] for the existing types of article.

== Misc. ==
; When in doubt between spellings, use American English.
: Not sure if you should write "colour" or "color"? Doesn't matter much, but for consistency, might as well use the US spelling.

; Don't capitalize words needlessly.
: The term "Pikmin" should always start in uppercase, but everyday terms that aren't proper nouns like "leader" or "cave" shouldn't be capitalized.

; Don't use the terms "NTSC" or "PAL".
: Instead, use "US", "North American", "EU", "European", etc. You can also just refer to the versions by their ID, like <code>GPIP01</code>. The reasoning can be found [https://www.pikminwiki.com/Region#Naming on Pikipedia].

; Don't use the terms "alpha" or "beta".
: Instead, use "early", "prereelase", or "prototype". Again, the reasoning can be found [https://www.pikminwiki.com/Pikipedia:General_content_guidelines#Prerelease on Pikipedia].

[[Category:PikminTKB]]