Template:Reflist

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For a full overview of this template in use, see Help:Footnotes

This citation template provides formatting and organizational features for footnotes. It encapsulates the <references /> tag used by the Cite.php MediaWiki extension to show the list of references as defined by <ref> tags. It adds support for a reduced font size, columns, groups and List-defined references.

Parameters

• column-count: specifies a fixed number as to how many columns into which the reference list is to be rendered
• column-width: establishes column width for the reference list based on a typographic unit of measurement

If a single unnamed parameter is supplied, it is treated as a column-count if it is a natural number or as a column-width if it is a typographic unit of measurement such as em.

• refs: used with named references (e.g. <ref name=name />); it specifies a list of some or all named references used in the article
• group: identifies by name the subset of references to be rendered; the value should correspond to that used inline, e.g. {{Reflist|group=groupname}} renders all references with groupname as the group name (<ref>)
• liststyle: specifies the style used when the reference list is enumerated; if none is specified, the default is to render a numbered list
• close: forces the reference list to close and render all references defined to that point; see the section on multiple uses for the details.

Usage

Using only footnote-style references

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum.<ref>Source name, access date, etc.</ref> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.<ref>Source name, access date, etc.</ref> ==References== {{Reflist}}	Lorem ipsum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. References

Using only bibliographical style references (no direct references from the text)

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. ==References== {{Refbegin}} * reference 1 * reference 2 {{Refend}}	Lorem ipsum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. References reference 1 reference 2

Using both footnote-style and bibliography-style references

Markup	Renders as
Lorem ipsum.<ref>Source name, access date, etc.</ref> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.<ref>Source name, access date, etc.</ref> ==References== {{Reflist|close}} {{Refbegin}} * reference 1 * reference 2 {{Refend}}	Lorem ipsum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. References reference 1 reference 2

Columns

Using {{Reflist|2}} will create a two-column reference list, and {{Reflist|3}} will create a three-column list, and so on. Choose the number of columns that is appropriate for the average width of the references on the page.

Using {{Reflist|30em}} will create columns with a minimum width of 30 em, allowing the browser to automatically choose the number of columns based on the width of the web browser. Choose a column width that is appropriate for the average width of the references on the page.

Columns are currently supported only by Gecko-based browsers (such as Mozilla Firefox) and WebKit-based browsers (such as Google Chrome and Safari). See below for more information.

The use of columns can result in widows and orphans, where a citation at the bottom of a column may be split to the top of the next column. There are CSS3 selectors that could resolve this, but they are not yet supported by any major browsers.

See also bug combining grouped references and columns.

List styles

Main page: Help:Cite link labels

Reference lists are by default numbered lists. By using the |liststyle= parameter, you can control how the list is rendered. For example, using |liststyle=upper-roman will result in items being prefixed with roman numerals instead of decimal numbers. The parameter accepts any valid CSS value defined for list-style-type as shown below.

The citations in the reference list will show the default decimal styling if:

• The value for |liststyle= does not exactly match one of the predefined values
• The value for |liststyle= is enclosed by quotes
• {{Reflist}} is indented with the : markup

CSS list-style-type values

CSS 2.1 list-style-type values

none
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

disc
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

circle
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

square
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

decimal
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

decimal-leading-zero
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

lower-roman
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

upper-roman
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

lower-alpha
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

upper-alpha
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

lower-greek
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

armenian
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

georgian
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

CSS2 list-style-type values deprecated in CSS 2.1

...but still supported by some browsers.

hebrew
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

cjk-ideographic
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

hiragana
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

katakana
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

hiragana-iroha
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

katakana-iroha
text text text text

Internet Explorer					Firefox			Safari		Chrome				Opera
6	7	8	9	10	3	4	5	4	5	9	10	11	12	10	11	12
No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

Multiple uses

Further information: Help:Footnotes § Multiple reference lists

If {{Reflist}} is used multiple times without a parameter, each instance will include all of the previously defined references. To force the parser to close previous references, each use of {{Reflist}} must be forced as a new instance by the use of any parameter. If no parameter is desired, the convention is to use the undefined parameter {{Reflist|close}}.

List-defined references

Further information: WP:List-defined references

A list of references may be defined within {{Reflist}} using the |refs= parameter, just like including named <ref name=". . ."> elements inside the <references /> container. This has been available since September 2009. There are new error messages associated with this feature, documented at Help:Cite errors, including one for references defined in {{Reflist}} but not used within the body.

Example

Markup	Renders as
This is reference 1.<ref name="refname1" /> This is reference 2.<ref name="refname2" /> ==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="refname1">content1</ref> <ref name="refname2">content2</ref> }}	This is reference 1. This is reference 2. References

Grouped references

As of June 2008, the footnotes system supports the separation of references into groups. This allows groups for explanatory notes, table references and the like. See w:WP:REFGROUP.

The general format for the reference tag is:

<ref group="groupname">

And using |group= for the reflist:

{{Reflist|group="groupname"}}

Where groupname would be a group identifier such as "note", "nb" or "label".

There are three pre-defined group names that will automatically cause the link labels and this template to display other characters instead of numbers (see List styles above). These are: "lower-alpha" (a, b, c...), "lower-greek" (α, β, γ...) and "lower-roman" (i, ii, iii...) and must be written without quotes.

See also bug combining grouped references and columns.

Font size

The font size should reduce to 90% for most browsers, but may appear to show at 100% for Internet Explorer and possibly other browsers. As of December 21, 2010, the standard <references /> tag has the same font styling. The smaller font may be disabled through Special:Preferences → Gadgets → Disable smaller font sizes of elements such as Infoboxes, Navboxes and References lists.

Technical details

Browser support for columns

CSS3 multiple column layout
browser support

Internet Explorer	Firefox	Safari	Chrome	Opera
≤ 9	≤ 1.0	≤ 2	N/A	≤ 11.0
10 (2012)	≥ 1.5 (2005)	≥ 3 (2007)	≥ 1 (2008)	≥ 11.1 (2011)

Multiple columns are generated by using CSS3, which is still in development; thus only browsers that properly support the multi-column property will show multiple columns with {{Reflist}}.

These browsers support CSS3 columns:

• Gecko-based browsers such as Mozilla Firefox
• WebKit-based browsers such as Safari and Google Chrome
• Opera from version 11.10 onward
• Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview

These browsers do not support CSS3 columns:

• Microsoft Trident-based browsers including Internet Explorer through to version 9
• Opera through to version 11

Supporting CSS

{{Reflist}} uses a CSS rule in MediaWiki:Common.css to set the font size:

• div.reflist { font-size: 90%; }

One of the following classes is assigned by the template when either column count or column width is set:

• .references-column-count and .references-column-count-n (where n is the number of columns)
• .references-column-width

The following CSS properties are utilized using the {{column-count}} and {{column-width}} templates:

• column-count CSS3 standard
• column-width CSS3 standard
• -moz-column-count Mozilla CSS extension
• -moz-column-width Mozilla CSS extension
• -webkit-column-count Webkit CSS extension
• -webkit-column-width Webkit CSS extension

Customizing the view

Further information: Help:Reference display customization

By editing your CSS, the personal appearance of the reference list can be customized. From Preferences, select the Appearance tab, then on the selected skin select Custom CSS. After editing and saving, follow the instructions at the top of the page to purge. See Wikiversity:Skin#Customisation (advanced users) for more help.

Font size

The font size for all reference lists defaults to 90% of the standard size. To change it, add:

ol.references,
div.reflist,
div.refbegin {
 font-size: 90%;
}

Change 90% to the desired size.

Columns

To disable columns, add:

.references-column-count, .references-column-width {
 column-count: 1 !important;
 column-width: auto !important;
 -moz-column-count: 1 !important;
 -moz-column-width: auto !important;
 -webkit-column-count: 1 !important;
 -webkit-column-width: auto !important;
}

Similarly, to force all reference lists to a number of columns, change the number.

Column dividers

To add dividers (rules) between columns, add:

.references-column-count, .references-column-width {
 column-rule: 1px solid #aaa;
 -moz-column-rule: 1px solid #aaa;
 -webkit-column-rule: 1px solid #aaa;
}

You can alter the appearance of the dividers by changing the values.

Bugs

Do not use spaces around the column/width parameter, e.g. {{Reflist|15em |group="e"}} will fail to display columns.

Perennial suggestions

Collapsing and scrolling

There have been a number of requests to add functionality for a collapsible or scrolling reference list. These requests have not been fulfilled to due to issues with readability, accessibility, and printing. The applicable guidelines are at . Links between the inline cite and the reference list do not work when the reference list is enclosed in a collapsed box.

To display the reference list in a scrollbox or collapsed per user, see Help:Reference display customization.

For discussion on previous attempts to do this with a template, see the discussions for Scrollref and Refbox.

Including the section title

There have been suggestions to include section header markup such as ==References==. This is inadvisable because:

• There is no standard section name; see WP:FNNR.
• When transcluded, the article will have an edit link that will confusingly open the template for editing.

See also

• Wikiversity:Citing sources – style guide for the citation of sources
• Wikiversity:Citation templates – templates for use with references
• {{Refbegin}} and {{Refend}} – format reference lists

Variants

• {{Template reference list}} – version of reflist for use in templates
• {{Reflist-talk}} – for use on talk pages
• {{Notelist}} – for use with explanatory notes; sets |group=lower-alpha

References

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Reflist/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.