Help talk:Cite link labels

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α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω αα αβ αγ αδ αε αζ αη αθ αι ακ αλ αμ αν αξ αο απ αρ ασ ατ αυ αφ αχ αψ αω βα ββ βγ βδ βε βζ βη βθ βι βκ βλ βμ βν βξ βο βπ βρ βσ βτ βυ βφ βχ βψ βω γα γβ γγ γδ γε γζ γη γθ γι γκ γλ γμ γν γξ γο γπ γρ γσ γτ γυ γφ γχ γψ γω δα δβ δγ δδ δε δζ δη δθ δι δκ δλ δμ δν δξ δο δπ δρ δσ δτ δυ δφ δχ δψ δω εα εβ εγ εδ εε εζ εη εθ ει εκ ελ εμ εν εξ εο επ ερ εσ ετ ευ εφ εχ εψ εω ζα ζβ ζγ ζδ ζε ζζ ζη ζθ ζι ζκ ζλ ζμ ζν ζξ ζο ζπ ζρ ζσ ζτ ζυ ζφ ζχ ζψ ζω ηα ηβ ηγ ηδ ηε ηζ ηη ηθ ηι ηκ ηλ ημ ην ηξ ηο ηπ ηρ ησ ητ ηυ ηφ ηχ ηψ ηω θα θβ θγ θδ θε θζ θη θθ θι θκ θλ θμ θν θξ θο θπ θρ θσ θτ θυ θφ θχ θψ θω ια ιβ ιγ ιδ ιε ιζ ιη ιθ ιι ικ ιλ ιμ ιν ιξ ιο ιπ ιρ ισ ιτ ιυ ιφ ιχ ιψ ιω κα κβ κγ κδ κε κζ κη κθ κι κκ κλ κμ κν κξ κο κπ κρ κσ κτ κυ κφ κχ κψ κω λα λβ λγ λδ λε λζ λη λθ λι λκ λλ λμ λν λξ λο λπ λρ λσ λτ λυ λφ λχ λψ λω μα μβ μγ μδ με μζ μη μθ μι μκ μλ μμ μν μξ μο μπ μρ μσ μτ μυ μφ μχ μψ μω να νβ νγ νδ νε νζ νη νθ νι νκ νλ νμ νν νξ νο νπ νρ νσ ντ νυ νφ νχ νψ νω ξα ξβ ξγ ξδ ξε ξζ ξη ξθ ξι ξκ ξλ ξμ ξν ξξ ξο ξπ ξρ ξσ ξτ ξυ ξφ ξχ ξψ ξω οα οβ ογ οδ οε οζ οη οθ οι οκ ολ ομ ον οξ οο οπ ορ οσ οτ ου οφ οχ οψ οω πα πβ πγ πδ πε πζ πη πθ πι πκ πλ πμ πν πξ πο ππ πρ πσ πτ πυ πφ πχ πψ πω ρα ρβ ργ ρδ ρε ρζ ρη ρθ ρι ρκ ρλ ρμ ρν ρξ ρο ρπ ρρ ρσ ρτ ρυ ρφ ρχ ρψ ρω σα σβ σγ σδ σε σζ ση σθ σι σκ σλ σμ σν σξ σο σπ σρ σσ στ συ σφ σχ σψ σω τα τβ τγ τδ τε τζ τη τθ τι τκ τλ τμ τν τξ το τπ τρ τσ ττ τυ τφ τχ τψ τω υα υβ υγ υδ υε υζ υη υθ υι υκ υλ υμ υν υξ υο υπ υρ υσ υτ υυ υφ υχ υψ υω φα φβ φγ φδ φε φζ φη φθ φι φκ φλ φμ φν φξ φο φπ φρ φσ φτ φυ φφ φχ φψ φω χα χβ χγ χδ χε χζ χη χθ χι χκ χλ χμ χν χξ χο χπ χρ χσ χτ χυ χφ χχ χψ χω ψα ψβ ψγ ψδ ψε ψζ ψη ψθ ψι ψκ ψλ ψμ ψν ψξ ψο ψπ ψρ ψσ ψτ ψυ ψφ ψχ ψψ ψω ωα ωβ ωγ ωδ ωε ωζ ωη ωθ ωι ωκ ωλ ωμ ων ωξ ωο ωπ ωρ ωσ ωτ ωυ ωφ ωχ ωψ ωω ααα ααβ ααγ ααδ ααε ααζ ααη ααθ ααι αακ ααλ ααμ ααν ααξ ααο ααπ ααρ αασ αατ ααυ ααφ ααχ ααψ ααω αβα αββ αβγ αβδ αβε αβζ αβη αβθ αβι αβκ αβλ αβμ αβν αβξ αβο αβπ αβρ αβσ αβτ αβυ αβφ αβχ αβψ αβω αγα αγβ αγγ αγδ αγε αγζ αγη αγθ αγι αγκ αγλ αγμ αγν αγξ αγο αγπ αγρ αγσ αγτ αγυ αγφ αγχ αγψ αγω αδα αδβ αδγ αδδ αδε αδζ αδη αδθ αδι αδκ αδλ αδμ αδν αδξ αδο αδπ αδρ αδσ αδτ αδυ αδφ αδχ αδψ αδω αεα αεβ αεγ αεδ αεε αεζ αεη αεθ αει αεκ αελ αεμ αεν αεξ αεο αεπ αερ αεσ αετ αευ αεφ αεχ αεψ αεω αζα αζβ αζγ αζδ αζε αζζ αζη αζθ αζι αζκ αζλ αζμ αζν αζξ αζο αζπ αζρ αζσ αζτ αζυ αζφ αζχ αζψ αζω αηα αηβ αηγ αηδ αηε αηζ αηη αηθ αηι αηκ αηλ αημ αην αηξ αηο αηπ αηρ αησ αητ αηυ αηφ αηχ αηψ αηω αθα αθβ αθγ αθδ αθε αθζ αθη αθθ αθι αθκ αθλ αθμ αθν αθξ αθο αθπ αθρ αθσ αθτ αθυ αθφ αθχ αθψ αθω αια αιβ αιγ αιδ αιε αιζ αιη αιθ αιι αικ αιλ αιμ αιν αιξ αιο αιπ αιρ αισ αιτ αιυ αιφ αιχ αιψ αιω ακα ακβ ακγ ακδ ακε ακζ ακη ακθ ακι ακκ ακλ ακμ ακν ακξ ακο ακπ ακρ ακσ ακτ ακυ ακφ ακχ ακψ ακω αλα αλβ αλγ αλδ αλε αλζ αλη αλθ αλι αλκ αλλ αλμ αλν αλξ αλο αλπ αλρ αλσ αλτ αλυ αλφ αλχ αλψ αλω αμα αμβ αμγ αμδ αμε αμζ αμη αμθ αμι αμκ αμλ αμμ αμν αμξ αμο αμπ αμρ αμσ αμτ αμυ αμφ αμχ αμψ αμω ανα ανβ ανγ ανδ ανε ανζ ανη ανθ ανι ανκ ανλ ανμ ανν ανξ ανο ανπ ανρ ανσ αντ ανυ ανφ ανχ ανψ ανω αξα αξβ αξγ αξδ αξε αξζ αξη αξθ αξι αξκ αξλ αξμ αξν αξξ αξο αξπ αξρ αξσ αξτ αξυ αξφ αξχ αξψ αξω αοα αοβ αογ αοδ αοε αοζ αοη αοθ αοι αοκ αολ αομ αον αοξ αοο αοπ αορ αοσ αοτ αου αοφ αοχ αοψ αοω απα απβ απγ απδ απε απζ απη απθ απι απκ απλ απμ απν απξ απο αππ απρ απσ απτ απυ απφ απχ απψ απω αρα αρβ αργ αρδ αρε αρζ αρη αρθ αρι αρκ αρλ αρμ αρν αρξ αρο αρπ αρρ αρσ αρτ αρυ αρφ αρχ αρψ αρω ασα ασβ ασγ ασδ ασε ασζ αση ασθ ασι ασκ ασλ ασμ ασν ασξ ασο ασπ ασρ ασσ αστ ασυ ασφ ασχ ασψ ασω ατα ατβ ατγ ατδ ατε ατζ ατη ατθ ατι ατκ ατλ ατμ ατν ατξ ατο ατπ ατρ ατσ αττ ατυ ατφ ατχ ατψ ατω αυα αυβ αυγ αυδ αυε αυζ αυη αυθ αυι αυκ αυλ αυμ αυν αυξ αυο αυπ αυρ αυσ αυτ αυυ αυφ αυχ αυψ αυω αφα αφβ αφγ αφδ αφε αφζ αφη αφθ αφι αφκ αφλ αφμ αφν αφξ αφο αφπ αφρ αφσ αφτ αφυ αφφ αφχ αφψ αφω αχα αχβ αχγ αχδ αχε αχζ αχη αχθ αχι αχκ αχλ αχμ αχν αχξ αχο αχπ αχρ αχσ αχτ αχυ αχφ αχχ αχψ αχω αψα αψβ αψγ αψδ αψε αψζ αψη αψθ αψι αψκ αψλ αψμ αψν αψξ αψο αψπ αψρ αψσ αψτ αψυ αψφ αψχ αψψ αψω αωα αωβ αωγ αωδ αωε αωζ αωη αωθ αωι αωκ αωλ αωμ αων αωξ αωο αωπ αωρ αωσ αωτ αωυ αωφ αωχ αωψ αωω

You may reduce this if you like as it it somewhat large. – Allen4names 22:52, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

✅ Thanks! We have the other labels up to three digits or characters, so this fits nicely. I an going to redirect this talk page to a central page soon as I am probably the only one watching. Remember that the in-text label doesn't match the reference list label which is still numeric— this might be rather confusing. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 22:58, 2 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Your welcome and thank you for the edit. – Allen4names 23:12, 2 March 2011 (UTC)


 * The original labels go up to azz, which is about a thousend. This list reaches into 10,000(!) That really isn't needed, and quite hard on Mediawiki. I've limited it to αωω.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 14:23, 3 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Which should still be more than enough. Just curious— how is this hard? ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:38, 3 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I imagine Mediawiki has to parse the entire file to get a value.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 15:12, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

@numeric
I still believe the @numeric is very useful if you want to use numeric labels as a refgroup in a table. There are many articles that still use ref because refgroup cite labels were too large. Examples: Big Brother Sweden, 2009 Russian Premier League. When I deprecated and updated fn a year ago, my efforts to replace it with refgroups was rejected in many cases due to label size and it was replaced with ref. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 18:10, 3 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I see; it adds the groupname in the label. I did not expect that. I'll restore that page. (I do think "@decimal" would be a better name for numericals.)  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 18:20, 3 March 2011 (UTC)


 * And to illustrate the issues with ref/note, check the and . I didn't even pick those as examples of validation issues, just the use of numerics used by ref/note. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 18:23, 3 March 2011 (UTC)


 * And I was going to suggest moving it to @decimal to maintain the list-style-type format. Need to update the docs as well, as we will be limited to those names and can't use the bugzilla Klingon example (not that we should). ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 18:23, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I'll move it right now.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 18:26, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Feature name
I had been referring to this as "custom cite link labels", but since we are limited to list-style-type, it really isn't open to a lot of customization. I think "cite link label styles" would be better, but I am open. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 19:14, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. Although the label styling itself is theoretically limitless, the list styling in reflist is limited to the available CSS styles. And until there is a mechanism to pass the list style directly to, reflist needs to be updated with each addition.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 19:45, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
 * And now documented. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 20:06, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

@greek
IE7 and previous do not support the Greek styles and have 17% of our traffic. Should we support this? ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 06:09, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Since the only drawback for these IE users is that they see numbers instead of Greek letters in the reference list, and current versions of IE and all other major browsers do support the style, I'd say we should go ahead. Although a caution "IE7 users will see numbers instead of Greek letters in the reference list" wouldn't be out of place. Anomie⚔ 12:00, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me, and done. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 17:53, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

CSS list-style-type values
I made a major update here and created a template. If this looks good, I will update the tables at Cref2 and Cnote2 Begin that I started this from. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 17:58, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Is it still worth it to list IE5.5?  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 19:38, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
 * At less than 1%, no. Updating. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 19:49, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Any ideas what category CSS list-style-type values should be placed into? ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 15:46, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Category:Wikipedia help templates.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 16:02, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

List style names
If list names "should match the associated CSS list-style-type value", then perhaps we should rename the current lists from alpha to lower-alpha and such, and loose the "@" in the process, as the chance of a conflicting group name would diminish. This would also enable me to simplify the logic in reflist, as I could directly pass the group parameter as the style parameter, eliminating the need to upate it with each addition.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 20:37, 4 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I thought about that at one point. One of the objections to replacing ref/note with footnotes has been the increased markup. Only saving five characters though, so if it reduces overhead and eliminates the need for update then lets do it. I am off to work in a few. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 20:55, 4 March 2011 (UTC)


 * See User:Gadget850/Comparison of Footnote3 and Cite.php Footnote. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 20:56, 4 March 2011 (UTC)


 * If we eliminate #switch in reflist, won't that allow list-style-type to be set to any group name, rendering invalid HTML? I don't have time to check this right now. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 23:39, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I struck that; As it turns out I can't distinguish between a normal group name and a list-style group name. So the need to update remains for now. I did add a liststyle parameter, for those wishing to customize or override the list style.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 00:21, 5 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Can we stop changing things arbitrarily? You just broke every article that was using the "old" names. Anomie⚔ 00:01, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh look, you didn't even bother to update reflist. Please fix that ASAP. Anomie⚔ 00:04, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * . For a feature that has not even been officially annouced yet, I find it hard to beleive I "broke" anything. This is still in experimental phase.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 00:21, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks. WP:VPT seems like an announcement to me. Anomie⚔ 03:06, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * That is more of an announcment of an added feature for MediaWiki. It's implementation is not set yet, so there may be more unexpected changes, which will always be noted here. So please tone it down a bit instead of stating I "broke everything" and demanding immediate fixes; that's not very constructive.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 14:35, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Please— let's be civil here. I thought the notice on the project page would make it clear that this is still under discussion. We have a neat feature here that will resolve a lot of issues, but we need to work out the technical issues then the MoS issues. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:51, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Documentation
We need to add a section to Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (footnotes). I don't think we should try to fold in this entire project page, as it goes beyond the simple use of the feature.


 * Start of documentation

The in-text cite links and the reference list cites use matching labels that default to decimals. These labels can be styled with predefined group names. Styled labels are generally used in tables, infoboxes and navboxes to separate them from regular footnotes.

For example, using the group name of "lower-alpha", the cite labels will use lower case alpha characters.

{

Using a group name of "lower-greek":

Using a group name of "lower-roman":

The "decimal" style duplicates the format of unstyled footnotes, but is useful when a numeric group is desired separate from standard footnotes.


 * End of documentation


 * Added to main project page. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:24, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Error not shown?
The group error-test only contains "a b c", so the other five should display an error, but I don't see any. I just see empty labels.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 16:19, 5 March 2011 (UTC)


 * The MediaWiki interface page uses broken ref which uses namespace detection. After the last update to error message started showing on talk pages and confusing everyone. After discussion, errors were suppressed on talk pages. On my todo is to add a class so folks who desire to see these errors can do so. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 18:13, 5 March 2011 (UTC)


 * See the help page at Help:Cite errors/Cite error no link label group for an error example. The test style was a good idea. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 18:22, 5 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I added a class "brokenref" to Broken ref/sandbox. If it is defined in common.css as  then it can be overridden in user CSS. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:32, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Capital styles
Are there any plans to support corresponding capital letter versions of the three new styles? Maybe upper-alpha, upper-greek and upper-roman as well? Just curious, but thank you for this feature!  Imzadi 1979  →   03:02, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * If there is sufficieant demand and consensus for such styles, then it would be no problem. Beware that upper-greek has very poor support in most older browsers.  — Edokter  ( talk ) — 12:29, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

“Cite link” naming
Does anyone else have a problem with the term cite link labels? Every time I look at this page it seems incomprehensible to me until I slowly realise that a cite link is more or less the footnote marker described by Help:Footnotes. Would people know what was meant if we used footnote labels or even footnote markers instead? (See the second half of Help talk:Footnotes for a discussion about terminology that thoroughly confused me.) Vadmium (talk, contribs) 13:10, 15 October 2011 (UTC).


 * Footnote markers is a term with no known origin. Cite link and label are terms used in the documentation and are used on other help pages. Some style guides refer to the cite label as the note reference number, but here it can be numeric or alpha. I abandoned an attempt to reconcile this at Help talk:Footnotes. See User:Gadget850/Footnotes. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 13:23, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I would certainly agree with changing to something like "Custom footnote labels". The use of these is not restricted to "cites", and it's not clear what's meant by "link" (since typical citation footnotes generally contain external links as well). --Kotniski (talk) 13:38, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Here are examples of how in-text cites (AKA in-text citation or inline citation) appear in the content:

And how the label shows in the reference list:


 * In-text cite :The element placed in the text that contains a link to the citation, note or other that supports the preceding content. Formatted as a superscripted alphanumeric character (cite label) enclosed by brackets with a link (cite link) to the citation. Many style guides refer to this as an in-text citation or in-text reference; some Wikipedia documentation may refer to it as an inline cite or inline citation.
 * Cite label :The alphanumeric character or note shown in the in-text cite and in the reference list. Many style guides refer to this as the note reference number.
 * Cite link :An HTML link from the in-text cite to the entry in the reference list.
 * Backlink; :An HTML link from the reference list entry to the in-text cite. Named references used multiple times will show in the reference list entry with separate alpha backlinks.

And yes, footnote, cite, citation, reference and source are sometimes used interchangeably. And the system is just called footnotes which is damn confusing. At least the old system was called Footnote3.

I am not adverse to changing this, as long as we are consistent. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:13, 15 October 2011 (UTC)


 * BTW: This page is mainly for those who want to create custom labels (which we are pretty much at the end of until browsers support more styles). WP:CITELABEL should be for editors who want to use the current groups. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:15, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
 * That sounds quite a good purposing; in that case, can we remove from this page all the information that isn't about creating custom labels (and move it, if necessary - which it usually isn't - to WP:CITELABEL)?--Kotniski (talk) 14:22, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I think this could work, although I think information about the alphabetical, etc, sequences should be moved. Last time I checked, this page explained it better than at Help:Footnotes, which was why I added the “main page” link. Vadmium (talk, contribs) 14:42, 15 October 2011 (UTC).


 * I wonder if cite link has much of an origin outside Wikipedia either, considering that my dictionary and cite both say cite is a verb rather than a noun or adjective. I appreciate it shouldn’t be completely censored out, since that is how the Media wiki extension is named and it’s used in all the MediaWiki:cite_link_label_group page names. How about note reference label for both numeric and other sequences? Vadmium (talk, contribs) 14:19, 15 October 2011 (UTC).
 * I'd say "footnote label" would be better, regardless of whether it's used elsewhere - in "note reference label" both words "note" and (especially in this context) "reference" are ambiguous.--Kotniski (talk) 14:24, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
 * And 'in-text cite'? And how about Help:Referencing glossary so we can references this elsewhere. I will have to look at the cite error messages and maybe do a bit of tweaking. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:43, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
 * "In-text cite" is certainly not the right term in this context, since (a) the footnotes will not necessarily be citations; (b) for most people a "cite" means the text of the citation rather than the number (or whatever) is used to label it.--Kotniski (talk) 15:03, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

CITELABEL
I see the problem here. This page was never intended for a general audience. WP:CITELABEL was a separate section on the original WP:FOOT page that did not get moved to Help:Foot. Frankly, it can go into REFGROUP now that this is well implemented. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 20:03, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Group Specific Formatting
Is it possible to have formatting for specific reference groups? For example, can there be a specific format for references with the group of lower-roman, for example? I want to know for my own wiki. 108.189.160.48 (talk) 16:52, 1 November 2017 (UTC)
 * This is the same request that was posted yesterday at Help talk:Cite messages. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 19:21, 1 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I am interested in that, too. I think it could easily be done by css, but i don't know how.
 * I created two templates for my two groups. Each template uses its own Template.css (with reference and reference number highlighting as descibed at the Help:Cite page), and it works fine, unless both groups are used on the same page.
 * I would like to add a css selector or id, but am not able to solve this on my own.
 * Any ideas would be much appreciated! 77.22.112.1 (talk) 22:34, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Question asked over at Cite messages
Please see Help talk:Cite messages. Thanks CapnZapp (talk) 09:50, 10 June 2020 (UTC)