Template:Reflist/doc

This template encapsulates the tag to show the list of references defined by  tags, with some formatting. It reduces the font size and has options for columns and groups. References can be defined within the body of the article or within the reference list.

The  and tags are part of the Cite.php MediaWiki extension.

Usage

 * Using only footnote-style references

Content
Lorem ipsum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

Content
Lorem ipsum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

Columns
Using will create a two-column reference list, and  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 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
Reference lists are by default numbered lists. By using the liststyle parameter, you can control how the list is rendered. For example, using upper-roman will result in items being prefixed with roman numerals instead of decimal numbers. The parameter accepts any valid CSS value defined for  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

Multiple uses
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.

List-defined references
A list of references may be defined within Reflist using the refs parameter, just like including named  elements inside the

One of the following classes is assigned by the template when either column count or column width is set:
 * and  (where   is the number of columns)

The following CSS properties are utilized using the column-count and column-width templates:
 * CSS3 standard
 * CSS3 standard
 * Mozilla CSS extension
 * Mozilla CSS extension
 * Webkit CSS extension
 * Webkit CSS extension

Customizing the view
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 Skin for more help.

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

Change 90% to the desired size.

To disable columns, add:
 * Columns

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

To add dividers (rules) between columns, add:
 * Column dividers

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

Bugs
Note that, whereas works as expected,  (with an extra space) currently does not display in columns.

Perennial suggestions
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 MOS:SCROLL. Links between the inline cite and the reference list do not work when the reference list is enclosed in a collapsed box.
 * Collapsing and scrolling

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.

There have been suggestions to include section header markup such as. This is inadvisable because:
 * Including the section title
 * 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.