Wikipedia:Advanced footnote formatting: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:48, 18 April 2009

Revision as of 16:46, 29 April 2009

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{{essay}}

{{nutshell|[[#Remote footnotes|Remote footnotes]] can be added for pronunciations or examples. Footnotes can be [[#Indenting and line-splitting|indented, line-split]] and& shortened by [[#Deferring details|deferring details]] into the References or External links. Due to a WP quirk, the first footnote on a page cannot be indented.}}

The topic of '''advanced footnote formatting'''^{[<font/>[[#Notes|essay]]]} involves techniques for coding remote footnotes of pronunciations or examples, plus indentation and line-splitting,. suchMany asarticles forcould longuse URLremote webpage namesfootnotes, whensuch codingas footnotesshowing inhow an article.to Forpronounce examplewords:

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

::<div style="font-size:89%">'''Notes'''<br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[pron.]</small> - The word ''dilation'' is pronounced "DY-lay-shun" and is the preferred term.

The superscript <small>"pron."</small> can be coded by just a half-line of text: <nowiki>^{[<font/>[[#Notes|pron.]]]}</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". See more below: [[#Remote footnotes|Remote footnotes]].

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

<code><!--use code-style font-->

Line 14 ⟶ 19:

There are numerous styles for displaying [[footnotes]] (or endnotes) in a Wikipedia article. There are also many predefined [[Wikipedia:Citation templates|footnote templates]], but with limitations, so (as of April 2009), footnotes also can be hand-formatted to best fit each article.

==Remote footnotes==

Many terms could use a remote footnote, such as for explaining pronunciations or showing some detailed examples:

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

::<div style="font-size:89%">'''Notes'''<br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[pron.]</small> - ''Dilation'' is pronounced "DY-lay-shun".

Note that in the pronunciation footnote, 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 as well.

The note's superscript <small>"pron."</small> can be coded by just a half-line: <nowiki>^{[<font/>[[#Notes|pron.]]]}</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:

<pre>

<nowiki>==Notes==

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

: <small>[pron.]</small> - ''Dilation'' is pronounced "DY-lay-shun".

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

</div></nowiki>

</pre>

Since the actual footnote text (of a remote footnote) is written at the bottom of the artcle, 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; ^{[<font/>[[#Notes|a]]] [<font/>[[#Notes|b]]] [<font/>[[#Notes|example]]]}. The full coding of the 3 superscripts would be as:

: <nowiki>^{[<font/>[[#Notes|a]]] [<font/>[[#Notes|b]]] [<font/>[[#Notes|example]]]}</nowiki>

Perhaps 20 remote footnotes could be coded in a similar manner, all linked to the section title named "Notes". For logical placement, the remote footnotes should be defined above the "&lt;references/>" tag which displays the other, numbered ref-tag footnotes.

Although there are other methods to link named-footnotes, the use of the remote footnotes is a very simple method to allow dozens of special footnotes, without depending on complex wiki-features which might change next week. In this case, the term "advanced footnotes" also means: ''sophisticated enough to still work when Wikipedia is changed'' (as typically happens every month). Also, the coding of remote footnotes should work on ''any'' other wiki website.

==Indenting and line-splitting==

Line 88 ⟶ 116:

* [[abstraction]] - the concept of removing, or hiding, details.

* [[Harvard referencing]]

==Notes==

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

:<small>[essay]</small> - Again, this page is an ''essay'' and not an official Wikipedia policy.

:<small>[pron.]</small> - The word ''dilation'' is pronounced "DY-lay-shun" and is the preferred term.

<references/></div>

[[Category:Wikipedia essays|Advanced footnote formatting]]