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Very short sections and subsections clutter an article with headings and inhibit the flow of the prose. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own subheadings. Headings follow a six-level hierarchy, starting at 1 and ending at 6. The level of the heading is defined by the number of equals signs on each side of the ...
The main headings in the article are second level headings, defined with two equals signs in the wikitext. You never need to use the top-level heading style, defined with one equals sign, as it is reserved for article titles.
"Level 3" gives you a subheading for a Level 2 heading, and so on. To create a heading without using the toolbar, put text between = signs; the number of = signs on each side of the text indicates the level: ==Heading== (Level 2) ===Subheading=== (Level 3) Text can be made bold or italic using the B and I buttons on the toolbar.
The = through ===== markup are headings for the sections with which they are associated. A single = is styled as the article title and should not be used within an article. Headings are styled through CSS and add an [edit] link. See this section for the relevant CSS. Four or more headings cause a table of contents to be generated automatically.
Similarly, when linking to a section, leave an invisible comment at the heading of the target section, naming the linking articles, so that if the heading is later altered these can be easily fixed, or alternatively another anchor can be created if there are many. [j] For (a combined) example:
Headings are hierarchical. The article's title uses a level 1 heading, so you should start with a level 2 heading (==Heading==) and follow it with lower levels: ===Subheading===, ====Subsubheading====, and so forth. Whether extensive subtopics should be kept on one page or moved to individual pages is a matter of personal judgment.
For example, if the term "terrorist" is disputed in a given setting, don't use "Terrorist attacks" as a heading. Content within a section can be used to explain, fairly, the controversy over a word or phrase, but a heading lacks necessary nuance. Don't have two sections or subsections with the same heading.
This appears to be a non-issue now; the heading examples above (with space and without) generate identical HTML and appear the same. I've rewritten the policy on spaces after headings to state that they are completely optional, much like having one or two spaces after periods. -- Wapcaplet 19:07, 25 Jul 2004 (UTC)