BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/BattleTech Style Guide
 | This Policy is still under Construction This page presents an incomplete BTW policy. Until it is completed, it has not become official. Feel free to take part in the talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell: BattleTech has its own specific format and style for many words found within its universe. |
- Note: This style guide details stylistic elements that all editors should incorporate to help present a uniform style for the BattleTechWiki articles. It was borrowed from a similar guide being built by Editor Mbear.
BattleTech-specific names
The following words always appear in the form shown below:
- AeroSpace Fighter
- BattleMech
- BattleTech
- DropPort
- DropShip
- JumpShip
- 'Mech
- MechWarrior
- OmniMech
- OmniFighter
- ProtoMech
- WarShip
These words retain their capitalization wherever within a sentence they are used.
This section is an adaptable part of the guide; as new terms are introduced—in a stylistic way—with new products, they will be added here.
House vs State
In writing about the fates and fortunes of the characters from the various Great Houses, it is to be understood (by the reader) the state and ruling family are separate entities. When referring to a House, the characters that belong to that specific family will be the focus of the statement; the state's name will specifically reference the nation, its government, and its collective people.
- Ex: House Davion refers to Lucien Davion and his progeny; the Federated Suns refers to the Successor State founded by him.
Military Commands
- When military command article titles involve numbers, the text should always be represented as a number.
- When writing about military commands in the body of an article, the numerical portion of the command's title should be spelled out, unless it is higher than one hundred.
- Ex: First Davion Guards, 304th Assault (Clan Ghost Bear)
- The full name of a command should be used rather than an abbreviation, however common.
- Ex: Valexa Capellan March Militia instead of Valexa CMM.
- All Clan commands should have the Clan name after the title in parenthesis.
Tables
Tables are perfect for organizing any information that is best presented in a row-and-column format.
Often a list is best left as a list. Before you format a list in table form, consider whether the information will be more clearly conveyed by virtue of having rows and columns. If so, then a table is probably a good choice. If there is no obvious benefit to having rows and columns, then a table is probably not the best choice.
Tables should not be used simply for layout, either. If the information you are editing is not tabular in nature, it probably does not belong in a table: try not to use tables for putting a caption under a photograph, arranging a group of links, or other strictly visual features. It makes the article harder to edit. Also, when compared with tables, wikimarkup is more flexible, easier to use, and less esoteric when used for desktop publishing, page elements, and page orientation and positioning.
Titles
- In generic use, apply lower case to words such as president, professor, and emperor. Exceptions are made for non-English words and specific titles that incorporate as number into the title, such as "First Prince".
- Ex:
- - Edmund Davion served in the role of president for just over thirteen years. He, however, was never a First Prince.
- - Stefan Amaris envisioned himself a galactic emperor.
- Directly juxtaposed with the person's name, such words begin with a capital letter.
- Ex:
- - Coordinator Yama Von Rohrs served in that role from 2470 to 2508.
- - Professor Emeritus Dietrich Mathers was a professor from the Lyran Alliance.
- Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper names. Royal styles are capitalized; exceptions may apply for particular offices.
- Ex:
- - Daniel Calderon was Protector of the Realm.
- - "His Majesty, the first of his name, Lord of..."