View source for Help:Section headings

[[File:Table of Contents.png|300px|thumbnail|right|Screenshot of an article's Table of Contents]]
{{Help Infobox - collapsed}}

A page can and should be divided into '''sections heading''', also referred to in [[Visual editor]] as just '''Headings'''. For each page with more than three section headings, a table of contents (TOC) is automatically generated. 

Section headings allow you to:
* directly link to that section of the article, both the full [[URL]] or when creating an [[Internal link]]
* allows [[Table of Contents]] to be automatically created and updated, aiding [[Web usability|usability]] of the page, once there are at least 4 sections
* improve the [[Saintapedia:Accessibility#Section headings|Accessibility]] of articles for those with disabilities as [[Screen readers]] will allow an individual to jump to a portion of the page if a section is defined
* directly edit only that section of the article when using [[Help:Enhanced editor|Enhanced editor]]; [[Saintapedia:Visual editor|Visual editor]] only focuses on the section, but the entire page is editable
* also allows content to be shown on other articles using [[Labeled Section Transclusion]]

Section titles should follow the same [[Saintapedia:Naming convention#Capitalization|capitalization naming convention]] as article titles.  They should use '''sentence case''', capitalize the first word of the title and words that are normally capitalized.

==Creation and numbering of sections==
=== Creating section headings with VisualEditor ===
''<small>The information below is from [[Help:Visual editor#Headings]]</small>''.
{{#lsth:Help:Visual editor|Headings}}

=== Creating section headings with Enhanced editor ===
Sections can be created using the [[Help:Editing toolbar#Advanced Tools|Editing toolbar]] or manually using the wiki text listed below.  We ask that you only create section headings two (<nowiki>== Section ==</nowiki>) through five (<nowiki>===== Heading text =====</nowiki>).

<pre>
== Section ==
=== Subsection ===
==== Sub-subsection ====
</pre>
Please ''do not'' use only one equals sign on a side {{xt|<nowiki>=Heading=</nowiki>}}. This would cause a section heading to be as large as the page's name (title). The maximum number of equals signs is six.

Heading names of sections (including subsections) should be unique on a page. Using the same heading more than once on a page causes problems:
* An [[Internal links#Internal links|internal link]] to a section, in the form {{xt|<nowiki>[[Article name#Section heading]]</nowiki>}}, will only link to the first section on the page with that name, which may not be the intended target of the link. See also [[#Section linking|Linking to sections of articles]].
* When a section with a duplicate name is edited, the edit history and summary will be ambiguous as to which section was edited.
* When saving the page after a section edit, the editor's browser may navigate to the wrong section.

==Section editing==
Sections can be separately edited by clicking special edit links labeled "[edit]" by the heading.  Subsections are included in the part of the section that is edited.

==Section linking==
You can directly link to section headings of a page. These section anchors are automatically used by MediaWiki when it generates a table of contents for the page, and therefore when a section heading in the Table of Contents is clicked, it will jump to the section. 

The section anchors can be manually linked directly to one section within a page.

=== VisualEditor ===
The easiest way to add a section link to a Saintapedia page, using VisualEditor, is to:
* Go to the intended destination page of the section link
* Click on the intended destination section in the [[Help:Table of contents|Table of contents]]
* Copy the URL from the broswer
* Go to the Saintapedia page in which you want to add the link
* Open the [[Help:Visual editor#Links|link tool]] and paste in the URL
* VisualEditor will format the link into a section link
* Click on the "Done" button
* Adjust the link label as needed
* Save the page

=== Enhanced editor ===
A link to this section ([[Help:Section#Section linking|Section linking]]) looks like this:
:<tt><nowiki>[[Help:Section#Section linking|Section linking]]</nowiki></tt>

To link to a section in the same page you can use <tt><nowiki>[[#section name|displayed text]]</nowiki></tt>, and to link to a section in another page <tt><nowiki>[[page name#section name|displayed text]]</nowiki></tt>.

== Accessibility ==
{{Main|Saintapedia:Accessibility}}

A [[Saintapedia:Accessibility#Article structure|standardized structure of articles]] improves [[accessibility]], including section headings, because it enables users to expect contents to be in a specific part of the page. Section headings allow a visually impaired reader to jump the contents of the page that most interests him or her, rather than having their [[Screen reader]] dictate the entire contents of the page.  For example, if a blind user is searching for [[disambiguation]] links and doesn't find any at the top of the page, he/she will know that there aren't any and they doesn't have to read the whole page to find that out.

==Examples==

=== Enhanced editor ===
Use headings to split articles into sections. Put a heading on
a separate line. A level-two heading ("<code>==</code>") is the highest level editors use in an article.

{| class="wikitable"
! style="width: 50%" | What you type
! style="width: 50%" | What it looks like
|- valign="top"
| 
{{code|<nowiki>==Section headings==</nowiki>}}

{{code|<nowiki>''Headings'' organize your writing into sections. The wiki software can automatically generate a [[Help:Table of contents|table of contents]] from them. Start with 2 'equals' ("==") characters.</nowiki>}}
|
{{Heading|Section headings|2}}

''Headings'' organize your writing into sections. The wiki software can automatically generate a [[Help:Table of contents|table of contents]] from them. Start with 2 'equals' ("==") characters.
|- valign="top"
|
{{code|<nowiki>===Subsection===</nowiki>}}

{{code|<nowiki>Using more 'equals' characters creates a subsection.</nowiki>}}
|
{{Heading|Subsection|3}}

Using more 'equals' characters creates a subsection.
|- valign="top"
|
{{code|<nowiki>====A smaller subsection====</nowiki>}}

{{code|<nowiki>Don't skip levels, like from two ("==") to four ("====") 'equals' characters.</nowiki>}}
|
{{Heading|A smaller subsection|4}}

Don't skip levels, like from two ("==") to four ("====") 'equals' characters.
|- valign="top"
|
{{Code|<nowiki>;A defined term: A semicolon at the start of a line is a way of making a definition where the word being defined appears in bold.</nowiki>}}

{{code|<nowiki>The definition itself follows the colon and is not rendered bold by default. The defined term is not a heading and does not appear in the table of
contents.</nowiki>}}
|
;A defined term: A semicolon at the start of a line is a way of making a definition where the word being defined appears in bold.

The definition itself follows the colon and is not rendered bold by default. The defined term is not a heading and does not appear in the table of
contents.
|}

=== VisualEditor ===
See [[#Creating section headings with VisualEditor|Creating section headings with VisualEditor]] above.

== Lead section ==
[[File:Lead section.jpg|right|500px]]
The '''lead section''' (also known as the '''lead''', '''introduction''', '''summary''' or '''intro''') of a Saintapedia article is the section before the [[Help:Table of contents|table of contents]] and the first heading.   The lead is the first part of the article most people read, and '''many people only read the lead'''. Consideration should be given to creating interest in reading more of the article, but the lead should not "tease" the reader by hinting at content that follows. Instead, to invite reading more the lead should be written in a clear, accessible style. It should contain no more than four paragraphs and be carefully sourced as appropriate. 

The lead serves as an introduction to the article and a summary of its most important aspects.  The lead should be able to stand alone as a concise overview. It should define the topic, establish context, explain why the topic is notable, and summarize the most important points—including any prominent controversies. The emphasis given to material in the lead should roughly reflect its importance to the topic, according to reliable, published sources, and the notability of the article's subject is usually established in the first few sentences. Apart from trivial basic facts, significant information should not appear in the lead if it is not covered in the remainder of the article.

Read more on {{W|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section}}.

Wikipedia recommends the order of elements, listed below,in the lead section.

* [[disambiguation]] links (dablinks)
* maintenance tags
* [[Breadcrumb]]
* [[infoboxes]]
* [[Help:Images|images]]
* introductory text
* [[Help:Table of contents|table of contents]] moving to the heading of the first section.

== Related ==
* [[Help:Visual editor#Headings]]

== External links ==
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Section

==References==
{{reflist}}
<references />{{Saintapedia}}

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