Wikipedia:Advanced footnote formatting: Difference between revisions

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{{Historical|brief=yes|comment=[[H:PREGROUP|Predefined grouping]], such as {{tl|efn}} and {{tl|notelist}}, is the currently preferred and recommended way of adding footnotes.}}

{{mfd|help=off}}

{{essay}}

{{nutshell|[[#Remote footnotes|Remote footnotes]] can be added for pronunciations or examples. Footnotes can be [[#Indenting and line-splitting|indented, line-split]] & shortened by [[#Deferring details|deferring details]] into References or External links. Due to a WP quirk, the 1st footnote on a page might not indent properly. BewareNote websiteseach violatingwebsite copyrights,and butbeware LyricsTime.com[[wp:BLACKLIST]] is propersites.}}

The topic of '''advanced footnote formatting'''<sup>[[#Notes|^{[essay] ]]}]] involves techniques for coding remote footnotes of pronunciations or examples, plus indentation and line-splitting. Many articles could use remote footnotes, such as explaining various ways some words are pronounced:

::The term "time dilation"<sup>[[#Notes|^{[p] ]]}]] refers to a slowing of elapsed duration.

::'''Notes'''<br><span style="font-size:89%">&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[p]</small> – The word ''dilation'' is pronounced "dy-LAY-shun" and is the preferred term.</span>

The superscript <small>"[p]"</small> can be coded by just the short wikilink: <nowiki><sup>[[#Notes|^[p]&nbsp;]]]]</nowiki>. The full, detailed content of that footnote text is not in the upper text of the article but, instead, is coded within the section named "Notes" (or "References"). See below: [[#Remote footnotes|Remote footnotes]] & [[#Footnotes within footnotes|Footnotes within footnotes]].

__TOC__

Also, indentation and line-splitting can be used, such as for long URL webpage names, when coding footnotes in an article. For example:

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="moinwikitext">

In [[digital imaging]], a pixel<ref>

Rudolf F. Graf, ''Modern Dictionary of Electronics'',

1999, Newnes, Oxford, page 569, ISBN 0-7506-43315,

Google Books (''see below:'' References).</ref>

(or picture element) is the smallest part of an image.

</syntaxhighlight>

</source>

In the above example, each part of the ref-tag footnote is indented (3 spaces) from the left margin. Due to a Wikipedia quirk, the first footnote on a page cannot be indented, because it is treated as a quotebox.

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==Remote footnotes==

Many terms could use a remote footnote, not cluttering the upper text of page, such as for explaining pronunciations or showing some detailed examples:

::The term "time dilation"<sup>[[#Notes|^[p]&nbsp;]]]] refers to a slowing of elapsed duration.

::<div style="font-size:89%">'''Notes'''<br />&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[p]</small> – ''Dilation'' is pronounced "dy-LAY-shun".</div>

Note that in the pronunciation footnote [p], the word "time" is considered obvious, and the syllables for "dy-LAY-shun" are shown with capital letters for emphasis, but there is also ample space to show the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]-format within the same footnote as well.

The footnote's superscript <small>"[p]"</small> can be coded by just a short wikilink: <nowiki><sup>[[#Notes|^[p]&nbsp;]]]]</nowiki>. The full, detailed content of that footnote text is not at the top of the article but, instead, is coded within the section named "Notes", thus shifting all that text into the Notes section, and deferring details away from the main text of an article. The ''Notes'' section could be coded as:

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="htmlwikitext">

==Notes==

<div style="font-size:89%">

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</div>

<references/><!--Show numbered footnotes from <ref> tags. -->

</syntaxhighlight>

</source>

Since the actual footnote text (of a remote footnote) is written at the bottom of an article page, there is ample space to also compare formal versus local pronunciations of town names, without cluttering an article's top text.

Notice how several footnotes can all be linked to the section title "Notes" because that link goes to the entire ''Notes'' section. Each remote footnote can link "Notes" as in: <nowiki>[[#Notes|[a] ]] or [[#Notes|[b] ]] or [[#Notes|[example] ]]</nowiki>, displaying:&nbsp; ^{[[#Notes|[a] ]] [[#Notes|[b] ]] [[#Notes|[example] ]]}. The full coding of the 3 superscripts could be as:

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An example (of footnotes within footnotes) would be:

::The term "time dilation"<sup>[[#Notes|^{[p] ]]}]] refers to a slowing of elapsed duration.

::<div style="font-size:89%">'''Notes'''<!-- --><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[p]</small> – The word ''dilation'' is pronounced "dy-LAY-shun" [[#Notes|^[a]]] and is the preferred term.[[#Notes|^[b]]]<!-- --><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[a]</small> – Merriam-Webster <!-- -->Dictionary lists "dilation" with pronunciation: <!-- -->\dī-'lā-shən\.^{[<span></span>[[#Notes|c]]]}<!-- --><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[b]</small> – The term <!-- -->''"[[time dilation]]"'' has been used since 1934 but <!-- -->is sometimes called "time dilatation".<!-- -->^{[<span></span>[[#Notes|d]]]}<!-- --><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[c]</small> – ''Merriam-Webster <!-- -->Online Dictionary'', 2009, webpage: [http://www.<!--

::<div style="font-size:89%">'''Notes'''<!--

-->merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dilation MW-dilation].<!-- --><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[pd]</small> – The word ''dilation''Merriam-Webster <!-- is pronounced "dy-LAY-shun" [[#Notes|^[a]]]Online andDict.'', is2009, thewebpage: preferred term.[[#Notes|<sup>[b]<http:/sup>]]/www.merriam-<!--

--><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[a]</small> – Merriam-Webster <!--

-->Dictionary lists "dilation" with pronunciation: <!--

-->\dī-'lā-shən\.^{[<font></font>[[#Notes|c]]]}<!--

--><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[b]</small> – The term <!--

-->''"[[time dilation]]"'' has been used since 1934 but <!--

-->is sometimes called "time dilatation".<!--

-->^{[<font></font>[[#Notes|d]]]}<!--

--><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[c]</small> – ''Merriam-Webster <!--

-->Online Dictionary'', 2009, webpage: [http://www.<!--

-->merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dilation MW-dilation].<!--

--><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[d]</small> – ''Merriam-Webster <!--

-->Online Dict.'', 2009, webpage: [http://www.merriam-<!--

-->webster.com/dictionary/time+dilation MW-time+dilation].</div>

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:* The fact is not so simple: September 11th is often the 12th in some specific later time zone, and could be noted.

:* Opinions differ: perhaps explain how the [[Hatfields and McCoys]] stated different views of events.

:* A pronunciation differs with local residents or slang, such as [[New Orleans|NOLA]] spoken as ''"[[Nawlins]]"'' or ''"New Orluns"'' or ''"New Orleens"'' (etc.), so a foonotefootnote could list them, plus link further footnote sources for each.

There is no limit to the nesting of remote footnotes within other footnotes.

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A very long footnote can be indented and line-split, as in the following example that uses [[Template:Cite_book]], showing a long URL for a webpage from [[Google Books]]:

<div style="width:auto; overflow:scroll">

<source lang="xml+jinja">

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

In [[digital imaging]], a '''pixel'''<ref>{{Cite book

| author=Rudolf Graf | date=1999

| title=Modern Dictionary of Electronics

| publisher=Newnes | ___location=Oxford

| isbn=0-7506-43315 | page= 569

| url=http://books.google.com/books?<!--

-->?id=o2I1JWPpdusCo2I1JWPdusC&pg=PA569&dq=pixel<!--

-->+intitle:%22Modern+Dictionary<!--

-->+of+Electronicsintitle:%2222Modern+inauthor:graf&Dictionary<!--

-->+of+Electronics%22+inauthor:graf&<!--

-->lr=&as_brr=0&ei=5ygASM3qHoSgiwH455ygASM3qHoSgwH45-<!--

-->GIDA&sig=7tg-LuGdu6Njypaawi2bbkeq8pw }}</ref>

(or picture element) is the smallest part of an image.

</source>

</syntaxhighlight></div>

Note the above line-splitting of the 6-line URL (for the webpage in Google Books) uses the [[HTML]] comment tokens "&lt;!--" and "-->". Each part of the footnote coding is placed on a separate line, thereby allowing each part to be indented from the lefthand side. There must be no spaces added to the URL (which is a single string of characters where spaces are coded "%20"). Do not add spaces before "&lt;!--" or after "-->" within the URL. However, when splitting an ''italicized phrase'' or long wikilink ("<nowiki>[[xx xx xx]]</nowiki>"), consider putting a space after "-->" on the 2nd line.

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Because of a Wikipedia formatting quirk, the first footnote on a page might be treated as a quotebox when indented (as during May 2009). However, the indentation can be simulated, by line-splitting with HTML comments, between all lines within &lt;ref>....&lt;/ref>:

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" style="text-size:70;">

<source lang="xml">

In [[digital imaging]], a pixel<ref><!--

-->RudolfR. Graf, ''Modern Dictionary of<!--

--> Electronics'', 1999, Newnes.<!--

-->page 569, ISBN 0-7506-43315.<!--

-->Google Books (''see:'' References).</ref>

(or picture element) is the smallest part of an image.

</syntaxhighlight>

</source>

The above line-splitting of the entire footnote text, into 34 lines, allows it to be coded as the first footnote of a page. Note that the first footnote might be in an infobox, appearing at the top of a page.

==Page numbers==

Although the issue of citing page numbers might not seem very advanced, many Wikipedia footnotes to books or journals have omitted the page numbers. Without specific page numbers, the verification of text can be extremely tedious for large books or magazines, like finding a [[wikt:needle in a haystack|needle in a haystack]]. In the [[wp:CS1]] cite templates, there is often confusion between the parameters "page=15" and "pages=750":

:* <code>page=15</code> &nbsp; or &nbsp; <code>pages=79–81</code> &nbsp; – the specific page(s) in the book/journal/etc.

:* <code>page=page 15</code> &nbsp; – show "page 15" in the footnote.

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==Deferring details==

Another major technique for clarifying text, containing many footnotes, is to defer the footnote details to later parts of the article, such as using named ref-tags and putting "see: External links" for URLs. For example, listing 3 footnotes:

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="xmlwikitext">

In digital imaging, a pixel<ref name=MD/><ref name=AD/><ref name=DE/>

(or picture element) is the smallest part of an image. The word

Line 132 ⟶ 121:

Disco Dave Citizen, ''Disco Electronics Dictionary'',

1978, page 340 (''see below:'' External links).</ref>

</syntaxhighlight>

</source>

In the above example, the 3 footnotes are reduced to just short ref-name tags at first, then later expanded to show more details. However, they defer the extreme details for publisher, ISBN, and webpage-URL links to be contained as entries under "External links". Using that advanced method, no publisher names, ISBN numbers or long URL names appear in the upper article text for those 3 footnotes.

Each full footnote is coded within 3 lines of text, even though indented and pinpointing the page numbers. The tedious details are all deferred into the section "External links" (or else "References") at the bottom of the article. That separation is possible by repeating the author name and title in each entry when listed in the bottom sections. So, full footnotes can become a 3-line indentation, rather than the typical 6 or 9-line blobs that clutter many articles.

==List website and beware wp:BLACKLIST sites==

==Beware linking websites that violate copyrights==

''13May March 20122018:'' A cite should show the website for an online source, such as with cite parameters "website=" or "via=" in the [[wp:CS1]] cite templates. In accordance with Wikipedia policy "[[WP:LINKVIO]]", an article should not have links to websites that post content violating any copyrights, such as listinga webpage which lists song lyrics without proper notice. However,For therebanned isspam awebsites, legal[[wp:BLACKLIST]] sourceexplains forother song lyricsrestrictions, LyricsTime.com,with whichspecific (forproblem 5websites years)coded hason hadwebpage no slow, pop[[MediaWiki:Spam-up advertsblacklist]], butwhich mightlists notover have7,000 somebanned particular songssites. See example:

:* http://www.lyricstime.com/michael-jackson-billie-jean-lyrics.html

That webpage, for the Michael Jackson song ''"[[Billie Jean]]"'', has a bottom [[disclaimer]]:

: "DISCLAIMER: You must agree to the following statement or leave this website. All '''Michael Jackson - Billie Jean''' lyrics, artist names and images are copyrighted to their respective owners. All ''Michael Jackson - Billie Jean'' song lyrics are restricted for educational and personal use only." [bold type from original]

That [[disclaimer]] seems to sufficiently cover the copyright concerns, and plus having no sluggish pop-up ads (for over 5 years), it should be considered an acceptable, linkable source for text that describes or analyzes song lyrics.

==Recap of multi-level footnotes==

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It might be possible to get those people to read and study this essay, but if not, don't try to fight people with severe mindsets. Just move on to one of the other thousands of Wikipedia articles that need footnote clarification.

== See also ==

* [[Wikipedia:Citation templates]] – about [[Template:Cite_web]],{{tl|cite web}} etc.

* [[WikipediaHelp:Footnotes]] – Wikipedia policyhelp page about footnotes.

* [[WPWikipedia:GuideManual toof layoutStyle/Layout]] – the guideline for article format.

{| width=570px

|- bgcolor="#fafeff"