This page is a how-to guide detailing a practice or process on the English Wikipedia.
This help page is mainly of technical interest to those who are creating new label styles. For the use of defined styles, refer to WP:CITELABEL.
When automated footnotes are used on Wikipedia pages, the default form of the footnote labels is [1], [2], [3], etc. When grouped footnotes are used, the labels are [name 1], [name 2], etc., where name is the name given to the group. However, by using certain reserved group names, it is possible to make the labels appear in a different form, such as [i], [ii], etc. or [a], [b], etc.
Version r66749 of the Cite.php extension implements the ability to create styles for the cite link labels. Although the ability to create in-text cite label styles is unlimited, the matching reference list label styles are currently limited to those supported by the CSS list-style-type property and to browser support.
The default in-text cite links and reference list backlinks use numeric labels automatically generated by the software. The labels are linked to provide a connection between the in-text cite and the reference list cite.
In this example, the super-scripted, in-text cites use a numeric label that matches the citation in the reference list:
Markup
Renders as
The Sun is pretty big,<ref>Miller, E: ''The Sun'', page 23. Academic Press, 2005.</ref>
but the Moon is not so big.<ref>Brown, R: "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 51(78):46</ref>
The Sun is also quite hot.<ref>Miller, E: ''The Sun'', page 34. Academic Press, 2005.</ref>
==References==
<references />
These sequences will only work properly when using the {{Reflist}} template. Although the <references/> tag supports the group= attribute, the footnotes will be displayed with the default Arabic numerals.
Only admins can perform these actions. Non-admins may request additions on the talk page.
Currently, only styles supported by the CSS list-style-type element may be added.[1] Not all styles are supported by all browsers— see the list below.[2]
Decide on a name for the cite label style group name. It should match the associated CSS list-style-type value. Quotes may not be used in values in {{Reflist}} therefore the name must comply with the rules for HTML ids.[3]
Discuss the new style on the talk page and gain consensus.
Create the style list at MediaWiki:cite_link_label_group-groupname. Ensure each label is separated with a space. For example, create MediaWiki:cite link label group-lower-greek and populate it with the Greek alphabet. Then use "lower-greek" as the groupname.
Redirect the talk page to the central discussion page by creating the talk page with #REDIRECT [[Help talk:Cite errors]].
Edit {{Reflist}} and add the list-style-type that styles the reference list.
Add the style to the list above.
If there are browser limitations, document them in the notice at the top of the page.
The in-text link labels will be retrieved from the MediaWiki label page, thus they should show regardless of browser. The reference list labels are styled by the CSS list-style-type property. Not all browsers support all list-style-type values. A browser that does not support the value will revert to the default decimal label in the reference list. See the table above for values and browser support.
