Template:Ran

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Using {{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

S1.

Smith, J. (1999). The Big Book.

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

J.

Jones, B. (May 12, 1868). "Many thanks for the gift". Letter to A. Ames.

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]

(|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:

Repeated usage of a named reference

To the usage of the same number of {{ran}} templates:

1.

The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, (Second Edition). Cambridge University Press; 1999. ISBN 0-521-63722-8

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

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