How do I... turn an article into a book?

[bonsainut]

This will sound strange, but what is the purpose of writing articles at all? Why not just write books?

Let me try to explain myself. Books can contain content just like articles. However they also have the added benefit of being able to add chapters to them.

Articles have content like books, but there is no easy way to add chapters(?) or convert them into books(?) If so, what is the benefit of putting content in articles? Am I missing something?

[pegasus]

Well, it really just comes down to how you want your wiki to appear or feel. You can use books for everything, but some users might not want a formatted table of contents for chapters on everything. They might want more of a classic MediaWiki feel. Or their site might only be suited for one or two (or none) - like a user manual - and having any more might make it difficult to keep track of the important ones.

Perhaps that's a good point: books carry a certain level of importance, at least in the eyes of your users. Making everything into books would make all your content equally as important. Again it comes down to what suits you, your content, your site.