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Article guidance/How to create an outline

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This page explains what outlines are, how to create or adapt one, what the markup tags mean, where to find existing outlines, and answers common questions. It is written to guide experienced Wikipedia editors who would like to create an outline or learn more about it.

What is an outline?

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An outline is a standard wiki page, written and maintained by the Wikipedia community, that the Article Guidance feature uses to provide guidance when someone creates a specific type of article, such as one about a person, a film, or an animal.

The Article Guidance feature uses outlines throughout the article creation workflow: to assess notability risk, validate sources, surface writing tips, and open the Visual Editor with starter content already in place.

An outline includes:

  • Community-curated tips and advice for writing that type of article, tailored to the practices of the specific Wikipedia
  • Recommended and discouraged sources agreed on by the community for that article type
  • Suggested sections and example starting content

Because outlines are standard wiki pages, any editor with the appropriate permissions can create or improve them just like any other page. What sets outlines apart is their specific markup, which tells the feature how to behave for that article type in that Wikipedia.

How to create an outline

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There are two ways to create an outline: adapting an existing one from another Wikipedia, or starting from scratch.

Adapt an existing outline

This is the recommended starting point. Visit the Simple English Wikipedia outlines page (or any other Wikipedia that has outlines) and choose one that matches the article type you want to support, for example, Wikipedia:Article Guidance/Person.

  1. Open the outline in "Edit source" mode and copy the entire content, including all tags such as ‎<instructions>...‎</instructions>. Do not remove or modify the tags themselves, only edit the text inside them.
  2. Create a new page in your Wikipedia's namespace using the recommended naming format. See existing outlines for the naming conventions used in various Wikipedias.
  3. Paste the copied content into your new page.
  4. Translate and adapt the wording, sources, and section structure to reflect your community's standards, policies, and writing style.
  5. Publish the page.
Until the extension is fully deployed on your wiki, the page may render oddly after publishing. This is expected and does not indicate a problem.

Create an outline from scratch

If no existing outline fits your needs, you can create a new page and add the required markup yourself. You will need to identify the correct Wikidata item for the article type you want to support, this tells the feature when to display your outline. See the guide to markups for the full markup reference.

The video below walks through the process of creating an outline.

This video shows how to create outlines for the Article

Guide to markups

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Each outline uses a specific set of tags. Editors are required to keep the tags unchanged and edit only the text within them. Below are the markups that must be included in an outline:

Quick guide to markups used in outlines
Article type Links the outline to a Wikidata topic. The outline appears when creating articles of that type (or any sub-type). 
<article-guidance article-type="Q23397">
Label Indicates the name to be used when displaying the outline. By default, outlines are named like the Wikidata item they are associated with. The "label" property allows communities to define a different name that is more aligned with their practices. For example, an outline for the Wikidata item Q5 ("Human") can use the "label" property to be displayed as "Biography" instead. 
<article-guidance article-type="Q5" label="Biography">
Category Indicates which Wikipedia category the new articles should be part of when they are created using this outline. 
<article-guidance article-type="Q23397" category="Lakes">
Notability risk Sets rules for which topics can be created. For example, only topics on Wikidata, or only topics available in more than 5 other languages, only sources not discouraged by community. Restrictions are expressed combining the following values, and they can be combined to make them work together:
  • wikidata - Only topics that exist on Wikidata can be created.
  • crosswiki - Only topics that are available in 5 other languages can be created.
  • sources - Only topics for which the user provided sources not discouraged by the community can be created.
  • junior - Restrictions apply to junior editors only (those without previous experience having published a surviving article).
  • draft - Publication allowed only under the draft namespace (where it exists) or the user namespace (as a sub-page of the user page).
<article-guidance article-type="Q5" notability-risk="wikidata crosswiki junior">

In this case, wikidata + crosswiki + junior indicates that this article can be created only if it exists in Wikidata, if it exists in 5 other language wikis and that these two restrictions only apply to junior editors, not experienced editors.

Instructions It summarises the guidance shown to the editor before they start. Keeping it simple and practical is key. Think of it like an advice you would give a new editor sitting close to you in an editathon. You won't just send the person to documentation pages. 
<instructions>
Articles about lakes are appropriate when the lake appears in reliable geographic sources. The article should accurately represent the lake based on those sources.
Quick considerations:
*State the lake's location, country or region, and surface area or size clearly in the lead.
*Use official geographic databases for measurements such as area, depth, and elevation.
</instructions>
Recommended-sources They are a list of community-recommended resources. The info tag is used to provide information, and the source tag is used to include specific URLs representing these recommended sources. The system shows these to the user and checks if their sources match. 
<recommended-sources>
  <info>Official national geographic institutes and surveying agencies</info>
  <source>britannica.com</source>
  <source>geonames.org</source>
</recommended-sources>
Discouraged-sources Same structure as recommended-sources, but for sources the community wants to flag as problematic. The system shows a warning if the user's sources match. 
<discouraged-sources>
  <info>Tourism and travel websites used as a primary geographic source</info>
  <source>tripadvisor.com</source>
  <source>lonelyplanet.com</source>
</discouraged-sources>
The rest of the page This captures starting content for the new article. It illustrates suggested sections and example paragraphs. Keep it minimal; do not try to write the full "featured" article. 
'''[Lake name]''' is a lake located in [region/country]. {{Citation needed}}

== Geography ==
[Lake name] covers an area of approximately [surface area]. {{Citation needed}}

== References ==
<references>
$1
</references>


Existing outlines

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For the master list and the Wikidata items each outline connects to, visit this Wikidata item.

Frequently Asked Questions about outlines

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  • Do I need permission from the team that developed the feature to create or edit an outline? No. Outlines are regular Wiki pages, any contributor with normal permissions to create or edit pages in a Wikipedia project can create or improve an outline.
  • What if there's no article type in the feature that matches what I want to write? You can create a new outline for that type if you have a good understanding of the practices and policies that apply to that type of article in your Wikipedia project. First, find or create the matching Wikidata item, then build the outline following the instructions for creating an outline. Until an outline exists, editors will see a "couldn't find a matching article type" message in the feature and can either pick the closest existing type or exit without guidance.
  • Can I make one outline apply to a very broad topic, so nothing falls through the cracks? Yes. Technically, you can link an outline to a broad Wikidata concept. However, because it covers so much ground, the advice it can give is necessarily generic. It is more useful to keep creating specific outlines over time rather than relying on a single catch-all, as the rules differ across article types.
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