User:Awtribute/Reference-work

{| class="wikitable" ! nice helpful quote from Fortguy
 * A few suggestions on improving your articles:
 * A few suggestions on improving your articles:


 * When citing a road's highway designation file at TxDOT's website, use the TxDOT template. For instance,""will create the citation as seen in the "References" subsection below. Use I for Interstate, US for U.S. Route, SH for state highway, etc. just like with the Jct template.


 * Use the Jct template for route termini and intersections in the infobox just like the junction list. This will display the route shield the correct size. If you ever have to hard-code the route shield, it should be 20px for all Texas roads and for two-digit U.S. and Interstate routes. Three-digit U.S. and Interstate routes use 25px ensuring they have the same height:"[[Image:US 80.svg|20px]][[Image:US 180.svg|25px]]"


 * Build junction tables using Jcttop, Jctint, and Jctbtm templates. This will ensure that county and city locations will show up in your junction lists or state that the route is only in one county or city. A good way to measure (and allow verification) between junctions is using Google Maps which lets you create a map of the route with green balloons at each intersection:"See reference below."When you've made the junction map at Google Maps, just zoom out until the whole route is displayed and click on the "Link" button above the map on the right to get the url. You can put that url using Google maps in the "length_ref" parameter in Jcttop. Example: FM 170


 * To avoid stub status, all road articles should have a "History" section, a "Route description" section, and a "Major intersections" section which has your junction list. If you are writing about a route in Delta County and the TxDOT highway designation file says the route number was assigned to a former road in Ector County back in the 1950s, say so and cite it in the history section. If the road you are writing about was once much shorter and was lengthened over the years including incorporating former routes, add that too with citations to the designation files of the former routes. If TxDOT hasn't recycled the designation of the former route, you can also create a redirect from the road name of the former route to the history section of the article you are editing. If you have further information about the road from an online source or an offline newspaper or source in a library, use the Citation or Cite web templates to make sure your reference includes all relevant fields (author, publisher, page number, etc.) and displays consistently with other Wikipedia citations. If your road is very old, there are some historic maps available.


 * For the "Route description" and "Major intersections" sections, try to avoid using UT-Austin's county map collection because they're outdated. TxDOT's newest online maps are found here although even they are dated 2006 and don't have more recent roads. The Cite map template is useful for those. A good source for describing physical landforms the road encounters can be found through the U.S. Geological Survey's online topographic maps.


 * After you have created a new road article, create redirect pages at possible alternative names the route may have. These can be found on the state highway project's Completion list.


 * Finally, monitor the discussions going on at the U.S. project's talk page and the state project's talk page and feel free to offer your views.

Happy editing!