Wikipedia:Advanced footnote formatting: Difference between revisions
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clarified the uses of remote footnotes; added section to emphasize advantages as "Recap of multi-level footnotes" to repeat ability to have footnotes-within-footnotes that explain minor details; etc. |
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{{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. Beware websites violating copyrights, but LyricsTime.com is proper.}}
The topic of '''advanced footnote formatting'''<sup>[<font/>[[#Notes|essay]]]</sup> involves techniques for coding remote footnotes of pronunciations or examples, plus indentation and line-splitting. Many articles could use remote footnotes, such as
::The term "time dilation"<sup>[<font/>[[#Notes|pron.]]]</sup> refers to a slowing of elapsed duration.
::<div style="font-size:89%">'''Notes'''<br> <small>[pron.]</small> – The word ''dilation'' is pronounced "dy-LAY-shun" and is the preferred term.
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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 "<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 is likely to work on ''any'' other wiki website, as well.
===Footnotes within footnotes===
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Nested footnotes can be used to address several common issues that would tend to clutter the top-text of an article:
:* Dates differ: some sources give one date while others give another date, and a remote footnote could explain the reasons.
:* The fact is not so simple: September 11th is the 12th in some specific later time zone,
:* 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]] as ''"[[Nawlins]]"'' or ''"New Orluns"'' or ''"New Orleens"''
There is no limit to the nesting of remote footnotes within other footnotes.
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: "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 2 years), it should be considered an acceptable, linkable source for text that describes or analyzes song lyrics.
==Recap of multi-level footnotes==
As explained above, footnotes can be structured as either indented text, or remote footnotes (with contents under "Notes"), or simple deferred references (such as "<ref name=MD/>"). There is no longer any logical reason to have article text cluttered with large blobs of footnotes that clog sentences. Beyond the clarified structure, the use of remote footnotes also allows "[[#Footnotes within footnotes|footnotes within footnotes]]" (''above'') to, step by step, explain detailed reasoning within footnotes that can defer to still other footnotes for sub-reasons, or for further sources about each point presented.
==Advancement shock==
Even though the basic ideas of advanced footnote-formatting are simple, there are many people who will fight against indenting the footnote coding (yet readily accept infoboxes with indented parameters coded down the page). There are also other people who might insist that the first footnote reference be a typical 9-line blob with full URL details, cluttering the text. They will reject a top footnote such as "<ref name=MD/>" which defers details to be defined in a subsequent use of the same-named footnote.
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
==See also==
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