View source for Help talk:Index/Formatting/References

== Carry-over from sandbox draft version ==

This looks good so far. A couple of notes:
* It may be easier to start off with a simple example that does not use the cite template. For example: <nowiki><ref>http://forum.citizendium.org/ - Citizendium Forums</ref></nowiki>. Then introduce the idea of the cite template in the next section.
* Personally I would put the "Single insertion of a reference" section before the "Multiple insertion of the same reference", as the former is the simpler case. I find it always best to start with the easiest things, and work up to the more complex things.
* It may be worth mentioning that if there are a lot of references then <nowiki>{{reflist|2}}</nowiki> can be used.
* I'm not sure on this, and it is a matter of personal taste, but we could split the article up into three different articles in order to simplify the process of the user finding exactly what they want. The first section could be an introduction to what references are, the second could be instructions on inserting the embedded inline references, and the third could be about using the cite template.
Of course, all of these are just opinions and you don't have to follow them. --[[User:Chris Key|Chris Key]] 10:45, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

:Chris, thanks for your review. I agree with your first three suggestions and will work them in. As for your last suggestion, I think it is better to keep the article as it is rather than splitting it into three articles. [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 04:10, 2 August 2010 (UTC) (This was my response as best as I remember. History of  discussion of the sandbox version got lost after the article was created in the namespace.)

== Edits and revisions ==

Typo, spelling and grammar edits are welcome. However, it would be greatly appreciated if major or significant additions, deletions or revisions were first thoroughly discussed on this Talk page. [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 03:49, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

== Broken references ==

This is a very informative page, and I found the instructions easy to use, thanks. The only thing not perfect is that at the bottom of the page it says:
*''<nowiki>Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found</nowiki>''
and I am not confident what I should do to fix it. [[User:David Finn|David Finn]] 01:58, 11 May 2011 (CDT)

:Good pick-up, David. I fixed it. The problem was that I repeated the example a second time in the "How to place the reference insertion points" section which meant that another <nowiki>{{reflist</nowiki>}} was needed ... but two <nowiki>{{reflist}}s</nowiki> on one page really causes a mess. So instead of the <nowiki><ref>..</ref></nowiki> references in that second example, I used blue colored superscripts. [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] 11:58, 11 May 2011 (CDT)

==Multiple references with different page numbers==
One may wish to cite a source already cited with different page numbers, for example, upon first appearance:
*{{cite book |title=Axiomatic set theory |author=Patrick Suppes |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sxr4LrgJGeAC&pg=PA14 |pages=pp. 14 ''ff'' |isbn=0486616304 |publisher=Courier-Dover |year=1972 |edition=Reprint of D Van Nostrand 1960 ed}}
and for the second appearance, perhaps: 
*{{cite book |title=Previously cited work |author=Patrick Suppes |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sxr4LrgJGeAC&pg=PA50 |pages=pp. 50 ''ff'' |isbn=0486616304 }}

The idea is to (i) clearly identify that the same work is cited again, and (ii) provide the relevant link and page numbers. The in-line  <nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki>'s are then something like <nowiki><ref name =Suppes1></ref> and <ref name= Suppes2></ref></nowiki>. WP has a "harvard" reference system to do this a bit differently, but I've found that to be too much overhead. Any comments? [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]] 17:42, 11 May 2011 (CDT)