Wikipedia:Advanced footnote formatting: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 17:41, 13 March 2012

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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]]]]] 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>[<font/>[[#Notes|^[pron.]]]]] refers to a slowing of elapsed duration.

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

The superscript <small>"[pron.]"</small> can be coded by just athe half-lineshort of textwikilink: <nowiki><sup>[<font/>[[#Notes|^[pron.]]]]]</nowiki>. The full, detailed content of that footnote text is not at the top of the article but, instead, is coded inwithin 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:

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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.

There are numerous styles for displaying [[footnotes]] (or endnotes) in a Wikipedia article. There are also many predefined footnote templates (see [[WikipediaWP:Citation templates|footnote templates]]), but with limitations, so (as of MayMarch 20092012), footnotes also can be hand-formatted to best fit each article.

==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>[<font/>[[#Notes|pron.]]^[p]]] refers to a slowing of elapsed duration.

::<div style="font-size:89%">'''Notes'''<br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[pron.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 notefootnote's superscript <small>"pron.[p]"</small> can be coded by just a half-lineshort wikilink: <nowiki><sup>[<font/>[[#Notes|pron.]]^[p]]]</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.p]</small> - ''Dilation'' is pronounced "dy-LAY-shun".

</div>

<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 an article, 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 could be as:

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

All 3 superscripts "[x]" are combined within the tags "&lt;sup>" & "&lt;/sup>". 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 (or {&#123;Reflist}}&nbsp;) 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.

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An example (of footnotes within footnotes) would be:

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

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

--><br>&nbsp; &nbsp;<small>[pron.p]</small> – The word ''dilation'' is pronounced "dy-LAY-shun" <sup>[<font/>[[#Notes|^[a]]]]] and is the preferred term.<sup>[<font/>[[#Notes|^[b]]]]]<!--

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

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

Line 62 ⟶ 63:

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

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

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

Nested footnotes can be used to address several common issues that would tend to clutter the top-text of an article:

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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.

==Beware linking websites that violate copyrights==

''20-Nov-200913 March 2012:'' In accordance with Wikipedia policy "[[WP:LINKVIO]]", an article should not have links to websites that post content violating any copyrights, such as listing song lyrics without proper notice. However, there is a legal source for song lyrics, LyricsTime.com, which (for 25 years) has had no slow, pop-up adverts, but might not have some particular songs. 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 25 years), it should be considered an acceptable, linkable source for text that describes or analyzes song lyrics.

==Recap of multi-level footnotes==