Template documentationUsing {{Rma}} and {{Ran}} allows editors to control the order in which references are listed (alphabetical, divided into groups, etc.), and to manually assign the reference "tags" (e.g. [S1] in the examples below).
Usage
{{Rma}}
Creates a "reference, manually anchored", with layout matching the output of the usual <ref></ref> machinery. It is typically used in a References or similar section of an article. Its syntax is borrowed to some extent from {{wikicite}}. Example
{{rma |tag=S1 |reference={{cite book |author-last=Smith |author-first=J. |title=The Big Book |date=1999}}}}
outputs
The S1 (for example) is the "manual anchor" – any string (preferably very short) assigned to the referenced work, and by which it will be referred later (typically using {{ran}}). The Smith source can then be referenced from article text using {{ran|S1}} (see below).
Citation templates such as {{cite book}} are not required; the following example uses "free text":
{{rma |tag=J |reference=Jones, B. (May 12, 1868). "Many thanks for the gift". Letter to A. Ames.}}
This outputs
The default width of the tags column is 20px. If some of the tags are bigger than that, the |tw= parameter can be used to set a larger "tag width"; the same |tw= value should be used with all invocations of {{rma}} in the article so that all tags line up evenly.
{{Ran}}
Creates a superscript "callout" (visually similar to the usual callouts generated by <ref></ref>) to a source which is cited elsewhere in the article using {{rma}}. Example:
Smith disagrees.{{ran|S1}}
or
Smith disagrees.{{ran|tag=S1}}
would appear in the article thus:
- Smith disagrees.[S1]
(Click on the superscript [S1] to see how the linking operates.)
Like {{rp}} (and {{r}} for that matter), {{ran}} also accepts a |page= parameter:
Smith disagrees.{{ran|S1|page=22}}
or
Smith disagrees.{{ran|tag=S1|page=22}}
would appear as:
- Smith disagrees.[S1]: 22
(|page= has a shorthand alias |p= parameter. For plural pages |pages= and |pp= can be used instead, and for other in-source-locations use |at= or |loc=. |style=ama and |no-pp=y[es] can be used to switch the display format.)
Also like {{rp}} and {{r}}, {{ran}} supports optional |quote=/|q=, |language=code/name/|l=code/name, |trans-quote=/|tq= and |wrap=n[o]/y[es]/f[orced] parameters. If the quote page are not the same as the pages specified through one of the pages parameters above, |quote-page=/|qp= and |quote-pages=/|qpp= can be used to override those values. The parameters |needed=, |reason= and |date= of the {{Page needed}} template are supported as well.
Back links
Unlike Wikipedia's <ref> tags, {{ran}} does not create a link back from the footnote. If you follow this superscript link,[J] you will not see any links back to the superscript "callout". This is useful in places where backlinks are either not possible or not useful.
For example, a list, glossary, or biography may cite the same source throughout the entire article. Compare the backlinks generated by these named references:
To the usage of the same number of {{ran}} templates:
Error messages
Editors who have installed User:Ucucha/HarvErrors.js (or a similar script) may see errors such as
- Harv error: There is no link pointing to this citation. The anchor is named CITEREFSmith2006
because Citation Style 1 templates like {{cite book}} and {{citation}} generate CITEREF anchors that the script expects to be linked from short citations within the article. There is typically no reason to worry about such messages in References sections; see User:Ucucha/HarvErrors for more details. Only readers logged in, and with the .js just mentioned installed, will see this message, so this isn't as big a deal as it may seem. This can be suppressed by adding |ref=none, as in:
{{rma |tag=L |reference={{citation |ref=none |author-last=Smith |author-first=John |journal=Important things |title=Something important |volume=34 |date=2006}}}}
See also
- Shortened footnotes in Wikipedia:Citing sources, which describes other ways of citing multiple pages of the same source.
- {{sfn}}, a template that implements another way of citing multiple pages of the same source.
- {{rp}}, a template internally used by {{ran}} to provide the superscript link appendices.
- {{r}}, a citation system with similar output than {{rp}} (and {{ran}}), but using MediaWiki's Cite extension internally
- Citation bundling in Wikipedia:Citing sources, a way of combining a list of several consecutive footnotes into a single footnote.
- Wikipedia:Footnotes
- Wikipedia:Citing sources