User:For7thGen/subpage 1
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This is where I park work-in-progress, up-in-the-air for the time being.
This page explains wikipedia's current best practice regarding linked footnotes, implemented with a set of wikipedia templates.
The pairs of templates discussed in this guideline are:
| Link in text area | Link in References area |
|---|---|
| {{ref|<name>}} | #{{note|<name>}} - followed by comment or citation |
| {{ref label|<name>|<footnote number>|<backlink label>}} | {{note label|<name>|<footnote number>|<backlink label>}} (follows on the same line as an existing {{note}}, before the formal citation info) |
| {{ref harvard|<name>|<Harvard reference>|<backlink label>}} | {{note label|<name>|<Harvard reference>|<backlink label>}} |
Not all references are made using the footnote templates described on this page. Please see Wikipedia:Cite sources for guidance on references and alternative markup.
Also, not all footnotes are citations of information sources. They are also used for clarification or other notes about material. Common uses include explaining the meaning of a table header, or an exception regarding a specific entry in a table.
Historical note: This recommendation used to be known as "Footnote3", before it was adopted as the consensus proposal. Feel free to update links and other references to reflect the new name.
Contents |
[edit] Footnote overview
A footnote is a note placed at the bottom of a page of a document that comments on, and may cite a reference for, a part of the main text. The connection between the relevant text and its footnote is often indicated with a number or symbol which is used both after the text fragment and before the footnote.
Footnotes are sometimes useful for relevant text that would distract from the main point if embedded in the main text, yet are helpful in explaining a point in greater detail. Footnotes are also often used to cite references which are relevant to a text. Citation of sources is important in supporting Verifiability, a key aspect of Wikipedia.
[edit] Footnote usage
The ref templates generate automatically-numbered links in text to connect to footnotes in the section named Footnotes or References or..., and footnotes contain matching note templates which generate backlinks back to the referring text.
-
- To avoid an editor having to renumber footnotes due to insertion or deletion, this method uses automatically-generated numbers as much as possible (ref templates, plus a "numbered list" of footnotes to give automatic numbering of footnotes).
- The connection between text and footnote uses appropriately-created names per the template table above, so it is possible to identify the intended footnote even if numbering becomes incorrect.
- The footnote connection is intended to be robust so content can be converted for use with future versions of supporting software.
- To reduce disruption in the flow of text, the style of footnote references is a smallish number.
The automatic numbering via ref templates introduces some changes to the writing of pages where it is used:
(Note that the two "external links" examples in this paragraph are completely fictitious, the links don't lead anywhere):
-
- External links should not be made through numbered links (e.g. [http://example.com] creates an automatically-numbered" link that looks like this: [1]). Instead a text fragment relevant to the link should be included ([http://example.com Example], which creates an external link that looks like this: Example), without generating a number to click on.
- The "text" style is recommended for external links, while the "numbered" variant of external links has some disadvantages, and can not be combined with automatically numbered footnotes in the same text.
This method has the following disadvantages:
-
- When using the "ref" template there can only be one sequence of footnotes from the text -- although using the "ref label" template can circumvent that sequence (usually there's not much of a reason to do that). This is an example [8].
- Every footnote number in the text refers to a separate note at the bottom: if you want to reuse a number so that it refers to the same footnote at the bottom, the "ref label"/"note label" variant must be used and manually numbered.
- WARNING: It is not possible to test footnotes while previewing. Clicking on a footnote ejects the user, perhaps to the previous version of the article (use the back arrow to return). One can test the back link, which should really confirm the forward link as well.
[edit] How to use
- See also help:footnotes for a concise manual and examples
The basic use of the "ref" and "note" templates is just choosing a one word descriptive name for your reference and:
-
- put {{ref|<name>}} where you want the footnote number to be
- put a numbered list at the bottom of your document # {{note|<name>}}, for automatic numbering of your footnotes.
Use a separate note template for each reference template.
There are three examples below: The first is for this basic use of the "ref" and "note" templates. The second example explains how to build identical references, referring to the same footnote, using the "ref label" and "note label" templates for additional references to a "ref"/"note" footnote. The third example is a combination of the two, with the multiple references made only within the footnotes section for easier maintenance by editors and easier navigation by the reader.
[edit] Example
This is an example of a whole document in wiki format.{{ref|myref-25}}
==Footnotes==
# {{note|myref-25}} and this is a note about the text from page 25
of a book. If known, give full reference including title, author, and ISBN.
All of the footnotes and text references in this article follow this example or the following example.
The {{ref label|<name>|<fixed number>}} template (where the numbers of the text references are fixed and not automatically assigned) can be used instead of the {{ref|<name>}} template, but this should only be used when necessary due to the lack of automatic numbering.
It is encouraged that other, non-numbered references use citation templates such as shown in Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles/Generic citations.
[edit] Example with multiple references to the same footnote
For the same footnote to be used several times, the additional template pairs now also include the footnote number, and a backlink label with which to identify the backlink (usually a letter "a" through "z").
This is an example of a whole document in wiki format.{{ref|myref-25}}
Another reference to the same source can be made.{{ref_label|myref-25|1|a}}
In this case, "1" is the number in the References section and "a" is the backlink label.
==References==
# {{note|myref-25}}{{note_label|myref-25|1|a}} and this is a note about the text from page 25
of a book. If known, give full reference including title, author, and ISBN.
Footnote [2] is referred to multiple times in this article, following this example.
[edit] Example with multiple uses of the same footnote
Another way to get to and use the same footnote is by travelling within the Footnotes section itself. Get to the footnotes section using the auto-numbered "ref/note" template pair, the basic template. Then use the "ref label/note label" template pair, exactly as in the preceding Example with multiple references.., but now entirely within the Footnotes section. Say something like "See above footnote 2c" to help the reader navigate. Future maintenance of footnote numbers and backlink labels is easier, within just the Footnote section, than trying to locate footnote references buried in a long text such as this article is. This alternative may cost the reader two extra clicks, a tradeoff against easier navigation. This approach is shown in this footnote.
Finally, the original footnote could be multiply repeated in the Footnotes section, each time with a new number -- in this article footnote [2] would appear five times, with five different numbers. This alternative is acceptable if done judiciously -- but not in this article.
-
- WARNING: It is not possible to test footnotes while previewing. Clicking on a footnote ejects the user, perhaps to the previous version of the article (use the back arrow to return). One can test the back link, which should really confirm the forward link as well. This repeated warning may save you some time.
[edit] Style recommendations
- Internal links should still be used as normal ([[like this]]).
- External links should be avoided in normal text since they break easily
- External links in external links sections are fine, but should not be needed for the article text to be complete and verifiable.
- External links should always be titled ([http://example.com like this])
- Consider using a separate bibliography section if the same book reference is used in multiple footnotes. In this case, just the page number and book name can be given in each note, following Wikipedia:Cite sources.
- Where possible choose a name for each link which matches the author/page system used by academics - use a single word and a hyphen to connect the page number (hunter-47)
- If you don't know the page number, just use a single word (field)
- With multiple books by the same author, make a difference, e.g. hunterA and hunterB, as in hunterA-22, hunterA-46 & hunterB-35 for page 22 and 46 of hunter's first book and page 35 of her second book.
[edit] Helping editors unfamiliar with footnote templates
As the recommended footnote structure does not appear to be entirely intuitive to all editors, and as notes being placed in the wrong order can affect the order of all following notes, making notes appear as if they do not match up, this short HowTo description can be inserted at the top of the Footnotes section, marked off to hide it from the actual article:
<!-- How to add a footnote:
NOTE: Footnotes in this article use names, not numbers. Please see [[Wikipedia:Footnotes]] for details.
1) Assign your footnote a unique name, for example TheSun_Dec9.
2) Add the macro {{ref|TheSun_Dec9}} to the body of the article, where you want the new footnote.
3) Take note of the name of the footnote that immediately precedes yours in the article body.
4) Add #{{Note|TheSun_Dec9}} to the footnote numbered-list, immediately below the footnote you noted in step 3. No need to re-number anything!
5) Multiple footnotes to the same reference: see [[Wikipedia:Footnotes]] for a how-to, if you don't succeed by simply following the pattern.
NOTE: It is important to add footnotes in the right order in the list!
-->
Instead of copy-pasting this text, it is possible to insert the following: {{subst:Footnotestext}} (don't forget the "subst:", only then does the template tag gets replaced by the commentary!).
[edit] Other (obsolete) template names
Originally this proposal used the {{an|<name>}} template and {{anb|<name>}} template; these should be considered obsolete, though they still work in order to allow articles to be converted without anything breaking. The {{endnote|<name>}} template was used in another earlier proposal which was converted to use the same system as is listed here. Just substituting {{an| with {{ref| and {{anb| with {{note| in a text editor or wordprocessor should update your page from the first system. Substituting {{endnote| with {{note| should update pages in the second system.
[edit] Design goals
The design goals behind this system were
- get something working with the current Wikimedia software.
- make a very short easy to use template
- get rid of complex renumbering edits
- avoid disturbing the flow of text too much
- maintain nice features of fn/fnb template (back link from footnote to text, & simplicity, for example)
- remain reasonably accessible
- provide semantic markup to help future enhancements by labeling information about source materials.
[edit] Migration strategy
There is a perl script numlink2note.pl available which automatically converts numbered URL links in a page into footnotes with this system. The references should still be hand checked, but at least part of the work is done.
Migration from old footnote systems should be reasonably easy to automate. As an intermediate measure, the embedded footnote numbers can be used as temporary footnote names until better ones are generated manually.
The {{fn|<name>}} template and {{fnb|<name>}} template can be simply changed to match an and note templates. The following substitution (untested perl code).
m/\{\{fnb/ && /s/^\*/\#/ ;
will provide automatic numbering of footnote comments.
The following code will warn about pages which use links without text.
m,\[[a-z]://\W*\],i && warn "unprotected url in text";
[edit] How does it work?
This section describes the technical implementation based upon characteristics of the current software.
The {{ref|<name>}} template uses tricks listed in m:Help:Variable to create an external wiki link back to a section in the same page (like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Page.html#footnote]). This external link is then automatically numbered by the normal numbering system for external links without link text. The link is surrounded in a sup tag which makes it look like a footnote and gives a reference that the footnote can link back to.
{{ref|Jefferson}}
becomes
<span class="reference"><sup id="ref_Jefferson" class="plainlinksneverexpand"> [http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/a/g/Page_name.html.html#endnote_only]</sup></span>
The {{note|<name>}} template is a bit simpler, and is basically a copy of the older {{fnb|<name>}} template. This just creates a section link back to the location of the footnote.
# {{note|Jefferson}}
becomes
# <cite id="endnote_Jefferson" style="font-style: normal;">[[#ref_only|'''^''']]</cite>
Normal link and list numbering then produces automatic numbering of the footnotes.
[edit] Script support
There are a couple of scripts available to support this system. These are stored online more for discussion than for download. If you want to use them on your system be very careful to check you get a version which has been uploaded by a trusted person.
Wikipedia:Footnote3/numlink2note.pl is a script which converts numbered links in a page ([http://example.com]) into footnotes with the link in the footnote. It automates a fairly simple repetitive task, but afterwards all of the notes have to be improved with comments and proper names. See the talk page for more info.
Wikipedia:Footnote3/order-footnote.pl is a script which fixes the order of the notes at the bottom of the page to match the order of the references in the page. It inserts additional notes wherever they are missing and moves notes which are not referenced to the end of the notes list. Again, see the talk page for more info.
User:SEWilcoBot can run a tool which converts references and inline links to Footnote3 format. The tool is still under development and can not yet handle all article and citation formats. If you want to convert an article to Footnote3 style you can request its operator try the bot on the article.
[edit] Disadvantages and future improvements
- Editors must make sure to keep the numbered list at the bottom of the page in the same order as the references in the article text, or else the numbers may not match up. (Though this is better than relying on manual numbering at both ends.)
- We would like to see Mediawiki software support for automatically generating and/or numbering footnotes. Reportedly, Magnus Manske added code for this to Nupedia.
- Because of the way links are numbered, inline external links cannot be used in combination with auto-numbered footnotes. They must be converted into footnotes, too.
- Superscripts cause an increase in line spacing for the line they are on. Because lines without superscripts are still displayed at the original line spacing, this makes the text unevenly spaced, and this looks bad. This is a general problem with superscripts. It may require CSS changes or even improvements in web browsers or OS font rendering systems. (This should be filed as a bug in Bugzilla if it hasn't already.)
- Some people like the idea of having sidenotes instead of or in addition to footnotes, especially if this is an option one can turn on and off in Mediawiki preferences. (You can turn a table into a sidenote with style="float: right;".)
- Some people like the idea of "hover" or "tooltip" notes, that appear only when "hovering" over the superscript with the mouse point. (See e.g. Template:Hnote.)
- Bug 2745: Have References text edit window on Edit pages
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ There have been several other footnote proposals. See also Wikipedia:Cite sources, and Wikipedia:Footnote2
- ^ a b c d The first two pairs of templates are used in this article. The reader can click on the tab "edit this page", to see the actual coding (or markup) for both pairs. You will see that the first pair is used for all footnotes but for succeeding references to the same footnote, with this system, the second pair must be used - references after the first one have to use {{ref_label}} and {{note_label}} templates. Each footnote shows as many backlinks (^, a,b,...) as there are references to it.
- ^ This involves manual numbering but it occurs only within the footnotes section, in this article. See above footnote 2(a).[2]
- ^ All of the multiple references to [2] are made within the footnotes section. See above footnote 2(b).[2]
- ^ (The reader's eyes can do the travel within this footnotes section, but the travel coding is needed to document this travel for purposes of future maintenance.) See above footnote 2(c).[2]
- ^ If footnotes are too small, then they are difficult for some people to use. See Footnotes (or endnotes) on Web pages, Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, 2003-08-22, retrieved 2005-02-19 from http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www/fn.html
- ^ The present footnote system is described in above footnote 2(d).[2]
- ^ Example of non-continuous numbering of text references, with the {{ref_label}} template. Note that one can choose only the number immediately after the footnote numbers automatically generated in the text. And you must (re)arrange the numbered list of footnotes accordingly, to end up with the expected matching numbers in text and footnote section.
[edit] See also
- More about footnotes and referencing:
- Wikipedia:Cite sources
- Wikipedia:Cite sources/example style, listing also several examples of non-numbered APA style and Harvard referencing techniques
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles for complete list of templates that are available for citations; note that several of these templates can easily be combined with "footnote3" footnotes, see Gymnopédie#Notes and References for an example.
- Wikipedia:Verifiability
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikicite: Proposal for use of database of citations.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check
- Other types of numbered footnotes:
- Wikipedia:Footnote1 (alternate method - very old, manually numbered, don't use)
- Wikipedia:Footnote2 (alternate method - manually numbered, obsolete, replaced by footnote3 system)
- The an/anb footnote system, an alternate version of the ref/note system. The an/anb system is still operational, and presently is completely identical to the ref/note system.
- Wikipedia:Footnote4 (manually numbered system that allowed reuse of the same reference number multiple times in the same text, but has become deprecated after being incorporated in the present footnote system)
For7thGen/subpage 1 For7thGen/subpage 1
from WP:Cite sources :
[edit] Embedded HTML links
The MediaWiki software supports embedding HTML links directly into an article by enclosing a URL with single square brackets — [http://www.google.com] — which appears like this: [1] A full citation must then be given in the References section like this:
*[http://google.com Google's website], which appears as:
Alternatively one can include a space and then a title-to-click-on in the single square brackets, like this: [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html Title] — which looks like this.
Alternatively one can include a space and then a text-fragment to click on in the single square brackets, like this: [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html text fragment]. This appears as text fragment. Everything else remains the same except for one thing: There is no number [2] to click on and the reader clicks on your title or text fragment instead. This non-numbered alternative is used to avoid the conflict with footnote automatic numbering mentioned above in the Technical issues subsection.
- Alternatively
Then in the References section, a full citation is provided:
