Help:Cite

The Cite extension allows you to add footnotes to a page. Footnotes are useful for adding references and citations to support a sentence or statement, or for adding explanatory notes that would not fit inside the body of the text but is still of use to the reader.

Overview
When using the system, two elements are displayed on the page:


 * The footnote marker. This is shown as a bracketed, superscripted number, like this: . When clicked, the marker will take you to the full footnote. If JavaScript is enabled, simply moving your cursor over the number will show the footnote as well.
 * The footnote itself. These are usually collectively shown at the bottom of the page in an ordered list.

Each footnote is numbered according to the order they first appear on the page. Thus the first footnote marker would be, the second would be and so on. Custom labels are also incremented:,.

Footnotes are listed at the bottom of the page and will have an upwards-pointing arrow (↑) that links back to the footnote marker. For example:

If a named footnote is used in the text multiple times, then the footnote will have multiple backlinks shown as letters:

Clicking on the backlinks will jump to their respective footnote markers. If you had previously arrived at a footnote by clicking on its marker, you can also return to where you last left off by pressing.

Adding footnotes
Two HTML-style tags are used to add footnotes and the footnote list:  and.

The  tag is used to add footnote markers and the content of the footnotes themselves. The  tag indicates the beginning of a footnote, while a   tag signifies the end of the footnote. Any content placed between the  tags will be shown in the footnote list at the bottom (which will be explained later).

{| style="width:100%;" !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You type !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You get This is text.
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 

, replacing name with a name of your choosing. To use that same footnote elsewhere on the same page, type:, replacing name with the name you gave previously.

The name can be anything of your choosing, but it should be unique (it shouldn't be in use elsewhere on the same page), and it should make sense. For example, if you're citing a source, setting the name to be "Author Year" (e.g. ) is a good option. Names are case sensitive, and names can't just be a number (e.g. ). Names should be surrounded by quotation marks and should, preferably, only use letters and numbers (from   and  ).

{| style="width:100%;" !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You type !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You get This is text. This is more text.
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 

=== The  tag is used to define where the reference list should be placed on the page. The reference list shows all of the footnotes that have been used on the page and orders them in one spot. If there is no  tag on the page, the footnotes will default to being displayed at the very bottom of the page, below all other page content.

{| style="width:100%;" !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You type !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You get This is text. This is more text. And some more text.
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 

Oh look, a new paragraph. And some more text.

Embedding footnotes
Due to technical limitations,  tags cannot be nested. Attempting to use  will result in an error. It is possible to get around this by using the  magic word to invoke the   tag. The syntax is:. The contents of the footnote must come before any parameters. tags can be used within.

{| style="width:100%;" !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You type !scope="col" style="width:50%;"| You get The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 
 * style="width:50%; background:#f9f9f9; border-width:1px;border-style:solid none none solid;border-color:#ddd; padding:9px 5px 5px; vertical-align:top;"| 