User talk:Shinkolobwe

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Item descriptions

[edit]

Hi Shinkolobwe. Something that Wikidata does that you may not be familiar with is that, when adding descriptions to items, please do not format them using sentence case. Descriptions start with a lowercase letter unless that beginning word is a proper noun. So, instead of "Aircraft used during World War II", you would write "aircraft used during World War II". If you have any questions, please let me know. Huntster (t @ c) 17:43, 21 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Huntster. Thank you very much for your remark. I am aware, but the reason is that most of the short descriptions in WP pages start with an uppercase (Sentence case). In fact, I am using the Shortdesc helper gadget and when I export data back to Wikidata (i.e., when there exist none, or to improve the item description), it also unfortunately inherits the uppercase. The only solution I see would be to modify the Shortdesc helper script or to proceed in two manual steps: first typing the short description and exporting it starting with a lowercase, and then editing again in the WP page (not in Wikidata) for adding the uppercase there. Best regards, Shinkolobwe (talk) 18:04, 21 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I completely understand! Thanks for the response. :) Huntster (t @ c) 19:12, 21 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Huntster. Thank you for your remark and your answer. I will pay attention in the future to correct Wikidata when exporting back a description to Wikidata from the Shortdesc helper gadget. Shinkolobwe (talk) 20:13, 21 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Huntster. Today, when paying attention not to start the description with an uppercase when using the Shortdesc helper gadget, I discovered an unknown feature of this tool: when the description does not yet exist in Wikidata and you type all the text in lower case, Shortdesc helper sends the description in lower case to Wikidata while simultaneously formatting the short description of the page in Sentence case. Problem solved. Thank you again for your remark. :-) Shinkolobwe (talk) 21:07, 23 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Great to hear that it has an in-built function for that! Perhaps it would be worth adding a mention of that functionality to the description page? I'm not familiar enough with the tool to know what all to write. Huntster (t @ c) 21:24, 23 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Done. I just added a mention of that functionality to the description page (Wikipedia:WikiProject Short descriptions), here: Wikipedia:WPSHORTDESC, then go to the section #Editing_using_Shortdesc_helper_gadget. Shinkolobwe (talk) 23:12, 23 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]