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How to make categories

Table of Contents
When to use categories How to put articles into categories How to create categories How to create subcategories How to delete categories Sources

A category is a software characteristic of HEDON. Categories provide automatic indexes that are useful as tables of contents.

[top] [end]When to use categories

Categories offer users the ability to find easily information, if they do not know that it exists in HEDON or what it is called. Every page in the article namespace should belong to at least one category. Categories should be main topics that might be helpful to someone reading the article.

Article: Forestry
Useful category: Category: Leading Issues
Not Useful: Category: Articles with their first word starts from F

Questions to ask to determine whether it is appropriate to add an article to a category:

• If the category does not already exist, is it possible to write a few paragraphs or more on the subject of the category, explaining it?
• If you go to the article from the category, will it be obvious why the article was put in the category? Is the category subject prominently discussed in the article?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, then the category is probably inappropriate. Note that it is always appropriate to add articles to categories that fit into well established taxonomies. For example, every article about LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) is categorized in some Category: Fuels category.

[top] [end]Guidelines

Some general guidelines:

1. Categories are mainly used to browse through similar articles. Make decisions about the structure of categories and subcategories that make it easy for users to browse through similar articles.
2. An article will often be in several categories. Restraint should be used as categories become less effective the more they are on any given article.
3. Articles should not usually be in both a category and a subcategory. For example biodiesel is in [[Category: Fuels]], so it should not also be in [[Category: Biofuels]].
4. Bend the rules above when it makes sense, but only if no other solution can be found.
5. Categories appear without annotations, so be careful of CDM when creating or filling categories. Unless if is self-evident and uncontroversial that something belongs in a category, it should not be put into a category.
6. If you do not know where to put an article, do not worry about it. Instead of adding a category, use the uncategorized tag to bring attention to the article. Editors will categorise it for you.

[top] [end]Categories do not form a tree

Each HEDON article can appear in more than one category, and each category can appear in more than one parent category. Multiple categorization schemes co-exist simultaneously. In other words, categories do not form a strict hierarchy or tree structure, but more a general directed acyclic graph (or close to it).

Example of tree structure



(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_structure)

Example of a directed acyclic graph



(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Directed_acyclic_graph.png)

Nevertheless, parts of the category graph will be tree-like, and it may be convenient to think of parts pf the category graph as being like multiple overlapping trees. When applying the guidelines above, consider each tree to be independent of the overlapping trees.

[top] [end]How to put articles into categories

Adding an article to a category is as simple as editing the article and adding a link to the category. For instance, to add monitoring and evaluation article to the Leading Issues category, you would edit the article and enter [[Category: Leading Issues]] at the bottom of the page. When adding an article to a category, or creating categories, one should be careful to use the correct categories and subcategories.

[top] [end]How to create categories

Creating a category is as simple as adding a link to a category that doesn't yet exist. For instance, to create the Leading Issues category, you would edit an article and enter [[Category: Leading Issues]] the same way as adding it to any other category. The category Leading Issues will automatically be created when the edit is saved. Before creating a category, look to see if one already exists. The best way to do this is to first add the category to your article but preview before saving. Before creating a new category, familiarize yourself with all the guidelines on this page.

[top] [end]How to create subcategories

Subcategories may be created by putting [[Category:parent_category_name]] onto the page that you would like to make into a subcategory. This may seem counterintuitive, because you edit the subcategory page rather than the parent category page.

Let's say that you wanted to make the category called South-African Organisations into a subcategory of the category called African Organisations.

• Step 1 - Go to the page called Category: South-African Organisations, and click edit this page.
• Step 2 - Place the text [[Category: African Organisations]] within the body of the Category: South-African Organisations article, and save.

Finished! South-African Organisations are now a subcategory of African Organisations, and Category: South-African Organisations will be visible on Category: African Organisations.

[top] [end]How to delete categories

Deleting a category is much more simple than creating a category. To delete a category, you just need to go to the article/page that you created your category, click on "edit this page", go at the end of the content page, mark the category you want to delete with your mouse and press delete. In case you want to delete a category and convert it to a new one, do not forget to delete the category from every article in the knowledge base or in the news and announcements list. For example, to delete the "Leading Issues" category, you should go to each article such as Forestry, Climate Change, Monitoring and Evaluation, Health, Market Creation etc, which is under the category of "Leading Issues", and delete it.

[top] [end]Sources

This page is based upon Wikipedia quidelines for creating categories and subcategories and adapted by HEDON Members.

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Page created: 26 March 2007; Last edited: 26 March 2007; Version: 1
Knowledge Bank text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Pagename: MakeCategories @HEDON: MDEA