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 Post subject: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 3:41 pm 
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Introduction:
The reason I'm making this is because BattleDawn is a great game with great gameplay but unfortunately the gameplay can be confusing and new players need guides. I noticed some of the current guides are decent with most information included but not written as well thus taking more time to read the entire guide to find something. Hopefully this guide can help new guide writers to make easier to read guides.

Contents:


•Beginning

-Before you Start
-Starting a Guide

•Parts of a Guide

-Writing
-Pictures
-Links

•Developing

-Organization
-Explanations

•Ending

-Conclusion

•Others
-Credits
-Extra Notes


Beginning:

•Before you Start
When you are planning to write a guide, make sure the guide you are writing is needed or other guides of the subject are outdated. You would also need to have an in-depth knowledge and/or experience of the subject you are planning to write. An inaccurate guide is simply a waste of time for both the writer and reader.

•Starting a Guide
To begin your guide, you should write an introduction of your guide and the things you will be explaining in your guide to catch the readers' attention.


Parts of a Guide:
•Writing
In any well written guides, you should ALWAYS use proper grammar and spelling (avoid slangs). Keep in mind that a guide should be like a newspaper (in my opinion). You should to keep everything in order from the beginning to the end with the most important facts to the top of each section and less important details to the bottom of each section.

•Visual Aids
Anything other than text are probably the most eye catching parts of guides since explaining can be hard without visual aids. Pictures/Maps should be used to explain. You can either upload attachments or use another image host and link your images. Personally, I dislike guides using image hosts that only provide a thumbnail version of the original image and you would have to open a new window/tab to view it.

•Links

In your guide, you should provide viewers with further reference to the subject.


Developing:


•Organization

Organizing is key to a good guide so use a table of contents! Use color coded sections if you need to but you should NEVER use hard to read colors such as yellow or pink. Dividing into chapters like a book is also useful (section 1.1-1.9 2.1-2.9 etc). Anther technique is to give each section a special code ([A001]-[F009] etc) if your guide is long so people can just press Ctrl+F and find the section they need.

•Explanations

This is the hardest element of a good guide. You need to throughly explain the subject to avoid questions. You need to be as accurate and detailed as possible. If you left something out and somebody asked about it, you should get it fixed/added immediately. You can also try getting one of your friends to read your guide and see if they can understand it without playing the game.

•Examples
Give examples of the subject your are writing about encourages readers to actually try your guide instead of just read it and forgetting it 5 minutes later. Videos and pictures or yourself or others are very encouraging.


Ending:

•Conclusion
To end your guide, you should write an overall conclusion and maybe an overview of everything (simplified version).


Forum Codes:

You should use the forum codes.At least these ones:
Bold Text
Italic Text
Underline Text
Quote Text
List
Insert Image
Insert URL

•Credits

<Reserved>

Extra Notes

-This is basically a guideline or tips of how to write a good guide.
-Please don't be offended if I listed your guide in the bad guides section.
-Keep your guides updated!
-Use Excle or other organizing programs if you plan to make a big table of data and take a screenshot or two.
-Use the preview button to check for errors before posting. Type it all out on note pad if you have to but don't post up a guide until it's complete.
-Save a backup copy just incase


**Should this guide be sticky? Thank you=D**

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:50 pm 
First Lieutenant
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good guide.

guide to writing a guide.

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:05 pm 
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Actually yellow rocks with a black background.

Colors should be used like levels of informations, the same as Font size.

Something like green, large font for titles; red normal for subtitle.


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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:29 am 
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Good guide, I do suggest replacing the yellow and pink for darkgreen and darkblue/black :-).

I would sticky it, but for some reason my mod powers are failing at these forums ;)

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:08 pm 
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Junior mods can't do a lot of things Jasper :P

I'm going to sticky this, I beleive this is truly important and can help others when they beleive they can write a good guide.

-Shion

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:30 am 
Second Lieutenant
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I agree - certainly helped me create my guide:

ByE4 Guide :geek:

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:04 am 
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good guide of how to create goods guides

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:34 am 
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Nice guide. How long did it take you to write it?

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:42 am 
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His guide on how to make a good guide probably 15 mins.

My guide using his instructions took me an Hour.

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 Post subject: Re: How to create a good guide.
PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 7:56 pm 
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That's a LONG guide and a good one!!! :mrgreen:

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