Notable Example Guides

Quality Content + Conciseness + Good Visual Formatting

- Zeus - by Merlini - Concise + full of short nuggets style - notice item descriptions are extremely concise)
- Beast Master - by Ramomar - (visual clarity + good color coding contrast + unique style of item notes color matching the icon color)
- Comprehensive Dota Gameplay Guide by Niss3 - (style of color coding choice)

Specific Highlights

- Slardar - by EcceLex - extra info chart
- Hookless Tank Pudge - by kalorful - "unique style"
- Ursa - by Elune - nqb's (non-quote boxes) neatness
- Enigma - by Vindicate Has lots of spoiler tags, as close to the limit as you should ever get, but good content
- Viper - by gwho - (anchor usage other than Table of Contents)
- - simply linking to other sources for extra info)

Templates

Ramomar's Guide Template 1

Ramomar's Guide Template 2


Aequinox's Hero Template



For feedback on a guide you are drafting atm, post here for feedback from the Guide Writing Guild
http://www.playdota.com/forums/group...le-easy-acces/

BB Code Tutorials

BB Code Reference Page.
- Upper case / lower case is not discriminated.
-

Useful Codes:


The Not so Well-Known Codes:


Basic Text Related Codes:

Type of Guide

Misc. Guides:

Hero Guides:

• comprehensive
• mini
• concise, full of "short nuggets"

The last is probably the most popular and favored guide style, as it makes it easy on the reader, while being able to learn a lot of good information quickly to put into practical use.

Even comprehensive guides should aim to sift out superfluous wording. The purpose of a comprehensive guide is to touch upon everything in the level detail required, not to fill up X number of words for an essay, or give the reader practice material for speed reading.

Basic Contained info:

Skill Build
Item Build
Strategy
Hero Relationships: good allies, worst enemies
Key Notes/tips/strategy

Going Beyond:

Going beyond

Intro
Strenghts and Weaknesses
Role or the hero
Stats/ Stat gain analysis
Brief mention of history of tweaks and balances
Screenshots
Video clips
Additional relevant information (charts of armor, link to orbwalking, orb stacking, image properties, etc)
Anchors
Replays

To Copy Skill/Stats/Background Info or not to Copy?

Playdota.com has the full information on heroes listed so it is not necessary. But some find it convenient to have on one page and like to comment on each skill for usage.
The best middle-ground solution would be to include it in a spoiler tag.

Arguments for not copying

• Playdota.com has the full information anyways - There is a link on the top right for every guide so you don't even have to link it in the guide itself at all!
• Makes your guide long, and fills it with "fluff" - Make it more "complete" in other respects.
• "It's more convenient to have the basic hero info in another tab"

Arguments for Copying

• If the guide is exported to a different site, the info is available for them as well. (But honestly, you can just provide links to the playdota.com page)
• Makes the guide seem more "complete"
• I want to comment on each skill and would like to keep the format
• "It's more convenient to have the basic hero info on the same page"

( My bias kind of shows on the lists, but, oh well =] )

Visual Formatting

The tools of the trade is BB Code usage. See the next section.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

What REALLY gets ppl loving your guide:

It comes down to Ease of Reading.
This means conciseness, with a lot of good info. Little work in reading, but a lot gained from it. (see zeus, rexxar and puck guides)
screenshots (also concise. use video clips instead of sequences of screenshots if you can't deliver the point in one screenshot)

- Color selection: contrast (bright, dark)
(usu headings, subheadings, interjections, color coding
(theme matching)
- Uniformity - Maintain it throughout the guide in:

• spacing between lines and headings, and after dashes
• Grammar, spelling, person number usage
• Colors selection for headings
• Indentation

How to Format Skill Builds

• Good Way
• Horrible Way
• Don't Do This

The Correct Way:
List out each level and occurrence of the skill, rather than grouping them up (see 3rd example)
- Color code the skills

Level 1 - Poison Attack 1
Level 2 - Nethertoxin 1
Level 3 - Poison Attack 2 / Nethertoxin 2
Level 4 - Nethertoxin 2 / Poison Attack 2
Level 5 - Poison Attack 3
Level 6 - Viper Strike
Level 7 - Nethertoxin 3
Level 8 - Nethertoxin 4
Level 9 - Poison Attack 4 / Corrosive Skin / Stats
Level 10 - Poison Attack 4 / Corrosive Skin / Stats
Level 11 - Viper Strike
Level 12 - Corrosive Skin / Stats
Level 13 - Corrosive Skin / Stats
Level 14 - Corrosive Skin / Stats
Level 15 - Corrosive Skin / Stats
Level 16 - Viper Strike
Level +17 - Stats

- Denoting the level of the skill is useful when listing alternate options (as in the case of level 3 and 4). When listing alternate options, the occurence of a skill becomes more than 4 and can be confusing.
- If it is a set build with no mid-way options listed, numbering isn't necessary because that will be denoted by the occurence.
- However, notice Corrosive Skin is not labeled with numbers (levels 9-10, 12-15) because there are too many combinations of takes. Even though stats is listed several times, noticed that Corrosive Skin ends at level 15. All this is saying is Corrosive Skin and Poison Attack should be maxed out by level 15, but feel free to take stats ONCE at any time between levels 9-15. But for more fixed, one-track skill builds, skill level denotation works nicely.
Listing Skills once and putting numbers for level after it
Poison Attack - 1,3/4,5,9
Nethertoxin - 2,4/3,7,8,
Corrosive Skin - 10,12,13,14
Viper Strike - 6,11,16
Stats - 15, 17-25

GUIDES ARE NOT SUDOKU PUZZLES! Even on miniguides, this is not acceptable. What is the first thing you did when you saw this formatting? I bet it was tracing 1...2...3.... This should tell you something: most people keep track of skills in order of level growth, not in terms of single skills at such and such level. This may be easier for you writing the guide, but if you were concerned about that, you wouldn't be writing the guide in the first place. Also note how using slashes for optional deviants makes it even more harder to follow.

Don't be a douche. Did you forget the silver rule of guide writing? (the golden rule is quality content, dummy ^^)
Grouping Up Skill Builds.

Level 1 - Poison Attack
Level 2 - Nethertoxin
Level 3-4 - Poison Attack / Nethertoxin
Level 5 - Poison Attack
Level 6 - Viper Strike
Level 7-8 - Nethertoxin
Level 9 - Poison Attack
Level 10 - Corrosive Skin
Level 11 - Viper Strike
Level 12-14 - Corrosive Skin
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Viper Strike
Level 17-25 - Stats

Not as bad as the the previous example.
- Contrary to belief, grouping up makes it harder to read, not easier.
- It is much more convenient for the reader to be able to count the occurences instead of reading if it is a group of 2, 3, or 4.
- The amount of lines saved by grouping is so insignificant. Cut space elsewhere if you're concerned about minimizing guide length.
- Grouping up the stats at the very end is fine, though.



Usage of Spoilers

Good Usage:
- detailed things that aren't necessary, but informative (long big charts, wall of text)
- overly long parts (tons of photos, walls of text)

Bad Usage:
- core info (skill builds, item builds)
- too little info in each spoiler (combine into larger chunks - clicking 1000 times is annoying)

*Important Note: Search function does not work within spoiler tags if it hasn't been openned.

When to Use Anchors

- Table of contents.
- references linking to other sections of the guide

Substance

Content

Don't write a guide that is only for -em (easy mode), or a guide that is basically "noobish" due to the fact that decent players will prevent a lot of the things in your guide from happening, or is dependent upon the abundance of gold that may not be available in non-em modes. You can certainly accomodate the non-competetive players, but people will be looking to your guide to get better, and approach the highest level possible. That is not to say that unless you are perfect in every respect, you should not write the guide.

Fun or unique builds are an exception however. In this case, Unique builds are hardly ever viable for competetive level, but worthy to be tried for fun, and aren't completely unviable. This is different, however from a guide that relies on easy mode and ignores most of the gameflow and realistic limitations in a bit more higher level play, even if that simply means competent pubs.

better to excel at an aspect than tryiing to cover everything to reinvent the wheel. (there are other existing guides, and what you bring to the table for that hero guide should be easy to pick out and not so redundant or fluff.


Development

Collaborate, discuss and ask for help from people to improve the information you present within your guide.

draw upon other guides for that hero/ subject, as well as other guides for other ideas:


Development / Editing
Writing is all about editing and improving. No masterpieces comes in one shot; no first draft becomes a best seller. one person said "i'm not a good writer; i'm just a good re-writer"

Miscellaneous

Don't forget to include a credits and thanks section

^^ people helped you along the way. you didn't come up with everything by yourself. Even if you somehow did, you still learned from others, by reading and discussing, and getting feedback on your guide. Don't be an ungrateful ass xp

Grammar, punctuation, consistent person usage.

Walls of text: how to break up. paragraphs, indentation, colors, pictures in between

Bought to You by:

gwho
&
Lycan
Eumellein
Guide-Writers