Help:Categories
Categories are used in LIMSwiki to link articles under a common topic and are generally found at the bottom of the article page. Clicking the category name displays a list of articles in that category, as well any sub-categories. Categories help readers to navigate, sort, find articles, find related articles, and see how information is organized.
Category tree
All of the categories form a hierarchy, although sub-categories may be a member of more than one category. The following is an example from the English Wikipedia, demonstrating a small part of this hierarchical structure:
The actual relationship can be a little more complex as a category may appear as a subcategory of several other categories.
Examples of categories on article pages
Each page can have one or more categories. If a page is placed in a category or more, you can find which ones by looking at the footer of the article for blue category links. For example, this page has two categories: Category:LIMSwiki categorization and Category:LIMSwiki help documentation. Categories are to be selected appropriately based on the topic of the article, its title, or subject concerned. An article may have as few as one or two categories or as many as 20+. Here are a few examples:
| Name of LIMSwiki article | List of categories for the article |
|---|---|
| Informatics (academic field) | Informatics and Information science |
| Aurora Systems, Inc. | Vendors, LIMS vendor, Life sciences LIMS, and Veterinary LIMS |
And you can even put categories into other categories:
| Name of LIMSwiki category | List of categories for that category |
|---|---|
| Category:LIMSwiki maintenance | LIMSwiki administration |
| Category:Public health software (open source) | Health informatics and Open-source software |
Category editing basics
- For more extensive information, see Help:Category.
Category markup
- To put a category in an article, place a link like the one below anywhere in the article. As with interlanguage links, placing these links at the bottom of the edit box is recommended, preferably with the following text above it:
<!---Place all category tags here-->
| Description | What you type | What will be displayed |
|---|---|---|
| Categorize an article. | [[Category:Vendors]]
|
|
| Link to a category. | [[:Category:Vendors]]
|
Category:Vendors |
How to find appropriate categories for a new article
Often it is difficult to categorise a new article. There is absolutely no need to search out each and every category possible for a new article. Many of these categories are added by people who enjoy categorisation, are refining the category tree, cleaning up categories or have special interests. However, each new article should have at least one category, if not two or three, when newly created.
For example, it is fairly obvious to allot categories such as "Rabbits and hares", "Herbivorous animals" and "Meat" to Rabbit as it is a member of that zoological grouping, eats vegetable matter and is often eaten itself, all of which are matters of common knowledge.
A series of techniques may be used to select appropriate categories for an article.
- Often the article title or the subject with which the article is concerned can help you us choose a category. Often this will be a starting point. Allot this category to the article and then click on it to search for a more appropriate category.
- Search for a sister article and see what categories it has. Some categories are automatically added, such as when a stub template is added to a new article. Similarly, adding WikiProject banner templates to talk pages of articles adds categories to the talk pages which help the WikiProject organise articles under their jurisdiction.
- Categories may also be found by using trial and error using the LIMSwiki search box.
