This help page is a how-to guide. It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.

Shortcut H:CL

This help page is mainly of technical interest to those who are creating new label styles. For the use of defined styles, refer to WP:CITELABEL.

When automated footnotes are used on Wikipedia pages, the default form of the footnote labels is , , , etc. When grouped footnotes are used, the labels are , , etc., where name is the name given to the group. However, by using certain reserved group names, it is possible to make the labels appear in a different form, such as , , etc. or , , etc.

Currently existing reserved group names are:

For example, a footnote which is to appear in the i, ii, iii... group can be written as:

• <ref group=lower-roman>...</ref>

To generate the list of the footnotes in that group, use for example

• {{reflist|group=lower-roman}}

Further examples, technical information and instructions for creating new reserved groups can be found below.

Version r66749 of the Cite extension implements the ability to create styles for the cite link labels. Although the ability to create in-text cite label styles is unlimited, the matching reference list label styles are currently limited to those supported by the CSS list-style-type property and to browser support.

The default in-text cite links and reference list backlinks use numeric labels automatically generated by the software. The labels are linked to provide a connection between the in-text cite and the reference list cite.

In this example, the super-scripted, in-text cites use a numeric label that matches the citation in the reference list:

The Sun is pretty big,<ref group="test">Miller, E: ''The Sun'', page 23. Academic Press, 2005.</ref>
but the Moon is not so big.<ref group="test">Brown, R: "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 51(78):46</ref>
The Sun is also quite hot.<ref group="test">Miller, E: ''The Sun'', page 34. Academic Press, 2005.</ref>
==References==
<references />

Special group names have been defined which give alternative sequences, such as alphabetical and roman numerals, instead of Arabic numerals.

List of custom link label sequences

The list below is created automatically by Special:PrefixIndex:

Markup restriction

These sequences will only work properly when using the {{Reflist}} template. Although the <references /> tag supports the group= attribute, the footnotes will be displayed with the default Arabic numerals.

Creating cite label sequence styles

Only admins can perform these actions. Non-admins may request additions on the talk page.

Currently, only styles supported by the CSS list-style-type element may be added. Not all styles are supported by all browsers— see the list below.

1. Decide on a name for the cite label style group name. It should match the associated CSS list-style-type value. Quotes may not be used in values in {{Reflist}} therefore the name must comply with the rules for HTML ids.
2. Discuss the new style on the talk page and gain consensus.
3. Create the style list at MediaWiki:cite_link_label_group-groupname. Ensure each label is separated with a space. For example, create MediaWiki:cite link label group-lower-greek and populate it with the Greek alphabet. Then use "lower-greek" as the groupname.
4. Redirect the talk page to the central discussion page by creating the talk page with #REDIRECT Help talk:Cite errors.
5. Edit {{Reflist}} and add the list-style-type that styles the reference list.
6. Add the style to the list above.
7. If there are browser limitations, document them in the notice at the top of the page.