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This page in a nutshell:   Here, we build outlines! To supplement searches, for when the search box isn't enough.

Outlines are hierarchically structured topics lists.

If you like one or more of the following:

• to organize subjects' topics into a tree structure
• to make site maps
• structured lists
• tables of contents
• classified indexes

Then, you've come to the right place! For, Wikipedia's outlines are all of the above.

Wikipedia's goal is to provide knowledge. But knowledge is only useful if you can find it and make sense of it. The main limitation of a search box is that it can only look for what you already know exists: it is not a map. Like with a map, the function of an outline, and the mission of this WikiProject, is to show readers what exists and help them get to where it is — except that, in this case, the destinations are Wikipedia articles rather than physical locations. Outlines serve as site maps of Wikipedia, by subject. And while maps help navigate the landscape, outlines show the knowledgescape of a subject.

More metaphors

An outline is also like a table of contents or a menu, except that, instead of listing chapter titles in a book or food dishes in a restaurant, outlines present the topics in a subject.

Another useful metaphor is that each page in Wikipedia is a teleportation chamber. To use the search box for teleporting, you specify your destination subject. An outline is a teleportation chamber with its own destination registry. Each outline lists the available target topics, and clicking on one instantly takes you there. You don't need to know where you are going in advance — the list helps you choose.

Outlines are tree structures

Outlines present the topics belonging to a subject as a tree structure, using sections, subsections, and indented item entries to signify branching of the tree. As tree structures, outlines provide the following benefits:

1. They can help the user see how a particular topic fits into the whole subject.
2. They also show how topics are related to each other: what belongs to what, and what topics fall into the same sections.
3. Having a subject laid out on one page saves time. Split up as categories, a 76-section subject would require visiting 76 different category pages to see all the subject's topics, which entails a lot of back-tracking. Scrolling down an outline page is much more convenient and faster.
4. The bird's eye view provided by outlines allows users to see patterns in the information in a relatively painless way.
5. Through how they are organized, outlines help users find individual pages, even when they don't know precisely what they are looking for, or exactly what it is called.
6. Outlines reveal gaps in their subjects' coverage that need to be filled in with new articles.

Examples of well-developed outlines

• Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines
• Category:Wikipedia outlines
• Outlines listed on All pages with prefix (this only shows the outlines with titles that start with "Outline of ")

Each outline article is a list of a subject's topics arranged hierarchically to show the relationships between them: those that are the most important, general entries and those that give more specialist detail. Outlines show the structure of articles about a subject, opening another way besides searching, for navigating it. They could be considered Wikipedia's equivalent to Brittanica's Propædia.

Each outline is intended to help the reader become familiar with the subject it presents, and also serves as a table of contents or site map to that subject's coverage on Wikipedia. Outlines are different from portals or indexes. While a portal focuses solely on well-developed featured content, an outline's main purpose is to direct readers through a subject's related articles. Indexes are intended to be comprehensive alphabetical lists of articles related to subject, but finding something in an alphabetical index can be difficult if one does not know the article title (and if one does, one hardly needs the index). Outlines might not list every article in a subject, and often their links lead to lists or other outlines to provide further detail. For an example, compare Portal:Japan, Index of Japan-related articles, and Outline of Japan.

Latest additions

• Outline of classical music

The outline drafts have been restored

Upon request at DRV, most of the outline drafts have been restored.

For the current list of outline drafts in the Drafts: namespace, see #Work on drafts, below.

Keep in mind that drafts that sit too long without edits eventually get deleted. Let's keep them improving, so that they eventually become real outlines.

There's now an outline that is a featured list

Congratulations, MeegsC! The list you nominated, Outline of lichens, has been promoted to featured status, recognizing it as one of the best lists on Wikipedia. The nomination discussion has been archived.

This is a rare accomplishment and you should be proud. If you would like, you may nominate it to appear on the Main page as Today's featured list. Keep up the great work! Cheers, Giants2008 (talk) via FACBot (talk) 00:25, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Outline of the week!

The outline of the week is:

Outline of black holes

Please help improve it.

Article alerts

This project is served by Article alerts, which can be seen in this section directly below, or at Wikipedia:WikiProject Outlines/Article alerts. This lets us to know about any AfDs (Articles for deletion discussions) on outlines, requested moves, or other outline-related discussions without having to rely on manual notifications. To have the alerts show up on your user page or user talk page, include this code on that page: {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Outlines/Article alerts}}

Featured list candidates

• 19 Apr 2024 – Outline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (talk · edit · hist) was FL nominated by Trailblazer101 (t · c); see discussion

Tips

• User:CaroleHenson/Outline tips

Related guidelines

• Wikipedia:Lists ^talk -
• Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists ^talk -
• Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates ^talk -

Related projects

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Contents ^talk -
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Lists ^talk -

Create outline drafts in userspace

It's best to create outline drafts as sub-pages of your user page, such as in your sandbox, and not in the draft namespace. That's because drafts in the draft namespace disappear after a certain period of time with no edit activity.

How to watch over the outlines

The outlines need watchdogs, to keep an eye on them and make sure they are secure and well maintained. Here are some tips for effective monitoring of this valuable resource:

Tip 1: Place article alerts on your talk page

Place this project's articles alerts template on your talk page in such a way that it floats at the bottom, so that you see it every time you read a message there. To do so, copy and paste this code near the top of your talk page:

<ref>{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Outlines/Article alerts}}</ref>

This will allow you to easily keep track of outline deletion discussions at AfD, requested moves, featured list nominations, and other formally tagged outline-related nominations.

Note: Article alerts doesn't catch everything, like page edits and untagged discussions. For those, we have watchlists...

Tip 2: Use this WikiProject's watchlist

There's a comprehensive outline-related watchlist at Wikipedia:WikiProject Outlines/Watchlist using Related changes.

Follow the instructions at the top of that page.

Also feel free to keep that page up to date by adding new outline-related pages to it.

Tip 3: Related changes can also be used on outline lists

In the desktop view of Wikipedia, one tool available to monitor activity on outlines is related changes. To use it on outlines, go to Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines and click on "Related changes" in the tools menu.

In order for this to work on all outlines, Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines must be kept up to date.

Beware: "Related changes" looks a lot like "Recent changes", and it is easy to accidentally use the latter by mistake.

Tip 4: Use the outline categories for monitoring...edit

Related changes works on the various Category:Wikipedia outlines pages, too.

Here are some things you can do to help (listed directly below, and in the subsections that follow):

• Scour the outlines for the best ones, to present them in the example list in the lead section at the top of this page.

• Maintain links to topic outlines: each article of the corresponding topic should have a link to its topic outline in its see also section. Periodically check each see also section, as the links sometimes get removed. Snap Links comes in handy for this.
• Place outlines on your watchlist and check it every time you log on. This link or a FF addon can be used alternatively. This needs to be done in order to prevent against vandalism and possibly AfD's.
• Place a WikiProject banner at the top of the talk pages of all lists of basic topics, leading here. Use {{subst:BLT|topic uncapitalized|topic capitalized}}.
• Place a coverage banner at the top of the talk pages of all articles matching the subjects in the titles of topic outlines, leading to the corresponding list. Use {{Template:Outline of knowledge coverage|Outline of knowledge coverage|subject}}.
  • the coverage banner template needs to be designed

Add entries missing from Wikipedia:Contents/Outlinesedit

Sometimes, when an outline is created, the author forgets to add its title, and a description, to the main list of outlines. You can help by placing them there, in the appropriate section.

Here are the titles missing from Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines:

Outlines needing reformatting and/or renamingedit

Outlines here need to be converted to the standard outline format. Only after a page has been converted to outline format should it be renamed to Outline of ${\displaystyle x}$. Otherwise, others may assume the formatting is correct, and emulate it.

1. List of slapstick comedy topics
2. List of Occupy movement topics

Add picturesedit

Examples of outlines with good picture support include:

Start a new outlineedit

To start a new outline...

See also: Helpful tips (read it!)

• First, decide which topic you'd like to outline. It could be as broad as Outline of mathematics, or as narrow as Outline of chocolate and start the page. The title should be in the format of Outline of ${\displaystyle x}$
• Write a little introduction before outlining to get warmed up, this will also become the introductory paragraph of the outline.
• Start listing articles on your topic. You can find them by using Special:PrefixIndex and a site allintitle Google search.
• Organize links in a way that is accessible so that people can find the articles linked to. You might use an {{Outline generator}} template, like this: {{subst:Outline generator|topic uncapitalized|topic capitalized}} or, if you're outlining a specific country, {{subst:Template:Outline country|country name}}.
• After that, you can add a few pictures to make the outline look nicer. Try using different ones than the ones on the article by searching on Wikimedia Commons.
• Once you've finished, take a look back and see if you were able to outline the subject successfully and then post your work here so that other editors are aware it exists and can review it.

Work on an existing outlineedit

Most outlines are incomplete, because subjects change over time, and so does Wikipedia's coverage of them.

See Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines, and choose a subject that interests you, and start adding links.

Create draftsedit

The outlines that have been deleted over the years need to be developed from the ground up in draftspace.

1. Draft:Outline of Akrotiri and Dhekelia
2. Draft:Outline of Big Science
3. Draft:Outline of Florence
4. Draft:Outline of cricket
5. Draft:Outline of formal science
6. Draft:Outline of nutrition
7. Draft:Outline of Roget's Thesaurus
8. Draft:Outline of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
9. Draft:Outline of transhumanism

Work on draftsedit

Note: If a draft goes six months without an edit, it is subject to routine deletion. To learn when each draft was last edited, see this WikiProject's draft tracker.

Priority one outline draftsedit

1. Draft:Outline of the arts (major branch of knowledge lacking an outline!)

Outline drafts very near completionedit

Please see if you can finish these up:

1. Draft:Outline of Delhi
2. Draft:Outline of George Washington

Outline drafts over half-way doneedit

1. Draft:Outline of advertising
2. Draft:Outline of Chicago
3. Draft:Outline of bodybuilding
4. Draft:Outline of dogs
5. Draft:Outline of God
6. Draft:Outline of JavaScript

Outline drafts well underwayedit

Mostly bare-bones outline draft startsedit

1. Draft:Outline of beans
2. Draft:Outline of bread
3. Draft:Outline of biomedical engineering
4. Draft:Outline of Canadian football
5. Draft:Outline of computer networking
6. Draft:Outline of constitutional law
7. Draft:Outline of crime
8. Draft:Outline of crime fiction
9. Draft:Outline of criminal law
10. Draft:Outline of dairy farming
11. Draft:Outline of dairy products
12. Draft:Outline of DC Comics
13. Draft:Outline of disease
14. Draft:Outline of Doctor Who
15. Draft:Outline of dyslexia
16. Draft:Outline of earthquakes
17. Draft:Outline of entrepreneurship
18. Draft:Outline of extinction
19. Draft:Outline of felines
20. Draft:Outline of fire safety
21. Draft:Outline of freight transport
22. Draft:Outline of fruits
23. Draft:Outline of geoengineering
24. Draft:Outline of grains
25. Draft:Outline of hills
26. Draft:Outline of hockey
27. Draft:Outline of humans
28. Draft:Outline of hydropower
29. Draft:Outline of ice hockey
30. Draft:Outline of juggling
31. Draft:Outline of Julius Caesar
32. Draft:Outline of lacrosse
33. Draft:Outline of legumes
34. Draft:Outline of magic (illusion)
35. Draft:Outline of Mahatma Ghandi
36. Draft:Outline of maritime transport
37. Draft:Outline of mass communication
38. Draft:Outline of money
39. Draft:Outline of morality
40. Draft:Outline of mountains
41. Draft:Outline of outer space
42. Draft:Outline of prostitution
43. Draft:Outline of reference works
44. Draft:Outline of research
45. Draft:Outline of road transport
46. Draft:Outline of role-playing games
47. Draft:Outline of romance fiction
48. Draft:Outline of safety
49. Draft:Outline of secondary education
50. Draft:Outline of ships
51. Draft:Outline of sleep
52. Draft:Outline of stars
53. Draft:Outline of street art
54. Draft:Outline of supernovas
55. Draft:Outline of the American Indian Wars
56. Draft:Outline of the food industry
57. Draft:Outline of the universe
58. Draft:Outline of typography
59. Draft:Outline of wave power
60. Draft:Outline of welfare
61. Draft:Outline of Western fiction
62. Draft:Outline of world history

• {{Outline footer}} - placed at bottom of all Outlines

For talkpages

• {{WikiProject Outlines}} - placed on the talk page of all Outlines

For building outlines

• {{Outline generator}} - for outline creation
  • {{Outline country}} - for outline creation
  • {{Outline U.S. State}} - for outline creation

• {{Annotated link}} - for automatically annotating a link with its short description

Userboxes

• See Wikipedia:WikiProject Outlines/userboxes

• /Directory
  • /List of discussions concerning outlines

If you'd like to get involved, and help with outline-related tasks, please add your username below: