Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 June 6

= June 6 =

No contents list
Hi. Why is there no contents list in Genie (Disney)? Javiero Fernandez (talk) 01:49, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Javiero Fernandez A table of contents automatically appears when the article has four headings, but you can force one to appear with the magic word  Tera  TIX  02:07, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Making half columns in tables
How would you make a sorta half-column in a table? Clearly you could use "colspan=2" but if I wanted to put two things in a row together without lengthening every other row, how would I do it? exoplanetaryscience (talk) 02:12, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

BTW, the example section is this:

changing to:


 * Sorry,, I don't understand what you're asking for. I presume the second table doesn't appear how you want it, but I don't know how you do want it. --ColinFine (talk) 15:22, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Woops, I don't think I clarified that very well. Basically the lower table is how it should be formatted, except the two BC/ABC things should be effectively formatted as one column. Basically, the rows above and below it are only one column, so if I had this formatted as two, it would totally mess up the formatting of the above/below cells. exoplanetaryscience (talk) 20:02, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * It sounds like you are not just asking for code but for an opinion on the layout of a table. It's hard to give advice without context like a column heading and which information should be conveyed. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:19, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * No no, not like that. Let me try to give a different example format here: exoplanetaryscience (talk) 21:27, 6 June 2018 (UTC)


 * {|class="wikitable"


 * One column (colspan=1) ||colspan="2"| One column || One column || One column
 * rowspan="4"|Gliese 570 ||rowspan="3"|Gliese 570 ABC ||bgcolor=#cccccc| ||Gliese 570 A ||rowspan="4"|$19.184$
 * rowspan="2"|Gliese 570 BC ||Gliese 570 B
 * Gliese 570 C
 * colspan="2" bgcolor=#cccccc| ||Gliese 570 D
 * One column ||colspan="2"| One column || One column || One column
 * }
 * colspan="2" bgcolor=#cccccc| ||Gliese 570 D
 * One column ||colspan="2"| One column || One column || One column
 * }
 * One column ||colspan="2"| One column || One column || One column
 * }


 * How do I format it such that the second and third "columns" in the middle are only taking up the lateral space of one column? Is it even possible? exoplanetaryscience (talk) 21:27, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * That gives no new information. Whether it's "possible" depends on what is considered an acceptable solution. Without context I have no idea which changes to your table may be acceptable. You can make it more narrow by changing  to   but I don't even know whether that is a real string. I don't know the reason for the strange layout but if you do want that layout then you just have to write colspan="2" at that position in all other rows of the table. Such things are common. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:05, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Well to be fair, if you knew what I was talking about, you'd know that the concept is very hard to explain well in text. Thanks for the attempt at understanding it, though. exoplanetaryscience (talk) 23:09, 6 June 2018 (UTC)


 * If I understand correctly the question is how to specify the width of a column (or "half-column") in the table to be different from the others' (in that case half as much). However in all the tables presented here, my rendering (desktop, Chrome on Windows) fits column width to the text it contains; the help says it could depend on browser.  could you post a screenshot please?  Tigraan Click here to contact me 08:44, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that's pretty close. Basically, I want to format it such that two "columns" only take up the effective width of a single column. I kind of jury-rigged it together with just cheating EVERYTHING to be two columns, but I want to have the above and below columns to only take up one span, as well as obviously the focused one. exoplanetaryscience (talk) 19:03, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
 * There is Help:Table but it's usually better to let the browser decide the column widths. Forcing column widths can give a poor result on narrow screens. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:12, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Accessible alternate text for image in sidebar
Is there a way to include accessible alternate text for the image parameter in sidebar? YBG (talk) 04:22, 6 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Since the image parameter accepts the full  syntax, the alt text can be added with its alt parameter. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:58, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks! YBG (talk) 07:08, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Help with sourcing
Hi,

On the Western New England English Wikipedia page, I want to add a source that counters the notion that WNE is part of "unmarked" General American varieties. Since Atlas of North American English is widely used as sources on various Wikipedia accent pages, can someone help me with sourcing?

I want to add: The Atlas of North American English does not consider Western New England English to be of General American varities due to sharing some of the "marked" features of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.

The direct link to this source can be found here on page 144 Here is an image I made where I highlight stuff related to my edit:  I highlighted the WNE part to show that it has some of the marked features of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. The reason I also highlighted The West, the Midland and Canada is because that is what ANAE considers to be General American. It's all on page 144 and all highlighted in that image I uploaded.

Can anyone tell me if I referenced and sourced that properly? I'm bad at source coding and don't know if I included everything I needed. Lai2lex (talk) 12:46, 6 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi, Pls visit WP:HOWCITE on how to cite and the the template (for citing a book) - see here Template:Cite book. Thank you.  CASSIOPEIA(talk) 13:00, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Ref formatting is OK,, although you could include your link as . Say "does not" instead of "doesn't", check spelling of "varieties" Jimfbleak -  talk to me?  13:06, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I did look at that, CASSIOPEDIA. Before editing, I wanted to make sure the code was all properly done. I noticed that someome mentioned that ANAE didn't consider WNE to be GA, so I looked it up. Just checking if everything seems to be alright before I add it. Jimfbleak, I prefer your way of sourcing better. It's nice how it links directly to the website. That'll be nice for people that want to be able to look it up via clicking the link. I should ping as he was kind and thanked me for my previous edit on that page. Maybe he would prefer one way of sourcing over the other? Thanks again, guys. Lai2lex (talk) 13:53, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi, Which ever style you choose to cite the source, the idea is to be consistent and provide all the needed information is made available. If an article already has a consistent citation style with needed inforamtion then you should normally follow it - pls see WP:CITEVAR. Thank you.  CASSIOPEIA(talk) 14:21, 6 June 2018 (UTC)


 * As a separate issue, I had trouble decoding your sentence. "does not consider WNE part of GA because ..." is (sort of) a double negative, and might better be "distinguishes WNE from GA because ..." if that is what you meant. -Arch dude (talk) 17:56, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks. How does this sound to you? "According to the Atlas of North American English, Western New England English is not considered to be of General American varities due to having features of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. Lai2lex (talk) 03:40, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * That's quite clear. Thanks. -Arch dude (talk) 03:53, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Does this still sound good to you? "According to the Atlas of North American English, Western New England English is not considered to be of General American varieties." Lai2lex (talk) 12:21, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Appropriate inline tag
Hi,

What inline tag would I use to mark a reference that only takes me to a general website, rather than to a specific location/source/article where the actual citation can be found (e.g. front page of the bbc rather than an article)? Nosebagbear (talk) 17:20, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * There is a short list of possibly appropriate templates here: Template:Citation needed. None of them is exactly right, but page needed or Incomplete short citation should get the point across. -Arch dude (talk) 17:48, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you - I'd imagine the closest I'll get currently is the latter. Given the wealth of inline tags and the relative frequency this pops up I'm surprised it doesn't have a dedicated tag. Nosebagbear (talk) 15:12, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and created (by copy-pasting some code from ), since no equivalent seem to exist.  Tigraan Click here to contact me 16:06, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I was looking at this earlier but I was intimidated by the way the template code was written. -Arch dude (talk) 18:39, 7 June 2018 (UTC)