Help:Reference display customization

 Warning: You are not logged in. Please create an account or log in to proceed.

You can customize how inline citations and reference lists appear to you when you are logged into your account by adding any of these rules to your CSS. After editing, bypass your cache.

Reference list

Adjust font size

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Set the font size for reference lists */ ol.references, div.reflist, div.refbegin {

 font-size: 90%;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Change 90% to the desired size. See also Special:Preferences → Gadgets → Disable smaller font sizes of elements such as Infoboxes, Navboxes and References lists.

Suppress display

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Suppress display of the reference list */ ol.references {

 display: none;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Highlight clicked reference in blue

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Highlight clicked reference in blue to help navigation */ ol.references li:target, sup.reference:target, span.citation:target {

 background-color: #DEF;

} </syntaxhighlight>

See web colors.

Put in a box with a scrollbar

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Reference list in a box with a scrollbar */ @media screen {

 div.reflist {
   overflow-x: hidden;
   overflow-y: auto;
   padding-right: 0.5em;
   max-height: 320px;
 }

}</syntaxhighlight>To show the reference list in a collapsible box, see User:TheDJ/Folded references.

Disable columns

<syntaxhighlight lang="css">

/* Disable columns for

and

*/

.references-column-count, .references-column-width {

 column-count: 1 !important;
 column-width: auto !important;

} </syntaxhighlight>

To set a fixed number of columns, change 1 to the desired number.

Add dividers (rules) between columns

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Add dividers (rules) between columns */ .references-column-count, .references-column-width {

 column-rule: 1px solid #aaa;

} </syntaxhighlight>

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

In-text cites

Hide in-text footnote markers

Edit your common JavaScript and add: {{subst:lusc|User:Zhaofeng Li/RefToggle.js}}

Don't include citation numbers when selecting text (e.g. to copy and paste)

Edit your CSS to add: <syntaxhighlight lang="css"> sup.reference { user-select: none; } /* Don't copy citation numbers */ </syntaxhighlight>

Keep reference superscript and subscript text from breaking the line-spacing

<syntaxhighlight lang="css">

1. content sup.reference {

 vertical-align: baseline;
 position: relative;
 bottom: 0.33em;

}

1. content sub.reference {

 vertical-align: baseline;
 position: relative;
 bottom: -0.25em;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Prevent wrapping

This fixes a cosmetic issue with Internet Explorer where a wikilink followed immediately by an in-text cite may cause the link and cite to be underlined together; not supported by IE6 and IE7 <syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Add a zero-width space before the in-text citation */ sup.reference:before {

 content: "\200B"; text-decoration: none;

} </syntaxhighlight>

This will join the in-text cite to the preceding text, preventing it from wrapping; it does not add a space; does not work for Internet Explorer <syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Add a zero-width joiner before the in-text citation */ sup.reference:before {

 content: "\200D"; text-decoration: none;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Add a space before the in-text citation

This will join the in-text cite to the preceding text, preventing it from wrapping; a space will show between the text and the in-text cite; not supported by IE6 and IE7 <syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Add a non-breaking space before the in-text citation */ sup.reference:before {

 content: "\A0"; text-decoration: none;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Hide the brackets for the inline cite

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Hide the brackets for the inline cite */ sup.reference a span {

 display: none;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Hide in-text cites

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Hide in-text cites */ .reference {

 display: none;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Larger, bolder in-text citations

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* Larger, bolder in-text citations */ p sup.reference a {

 font-weight: bold;
 font-size: 140% !important;
 color: #55C !important;
 background: #FFF !important;

} hover sup.reference a {

 background: #FFFF00 !important;
 color: #1010FF !important;

} hover sup.reference a:visited {

 color: #5A3696 !important;

} hover sup.reference a:active {

 color: #FAA700 !important;
 background: #0808F8 !important;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Inconspicuous in-text citations

The :before and :after pseudo-elements are not supported by IE6 and IE7 <syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /* inconspicuous in-text citations */ sup.reference {

 white-space: nowrap;

} sup.reference a {

 font-size: 0.85em;
 font-weight: lighter

} sup.reference:after {

 content: ' '; /* non-break space after cites */
 text-decoration: none;

} sup.reference a span {

 display: none; /* hide the brackets */

} p sup.reference a, tr sup.reference a, caption sup.reference a, ol sup.reference a, ul sup.reference a, dl sup.reference a {

 color: black;

} p:hover sup.reference a, tr:hover sup.reference a, caption:hover sup.reference a, ol:hover sup.reference a, ul:hover sup.reference a, dl:hover sup.reference a {

 color: rgb(0, 43, 184);
 text-decoration: underline;

} p:hover sup.reference a:visited, tr:hover sup.reference a:visited, caption:hover sup.reference a:visited, ol:hover sup.reference a:visited, ul:hover sup.reference a:visited, dl:hover sup.reference a:visited {

 color: #5A3696;

} p:hover sup.reference a:hover, tr:hover sup.reference a:hover, caption:hover sup.reference a:hover, ol:hover sup.reference a:hover, ul:hover sup.reference a:hover, dl:hover sup.reference a:hover {

 color: #002BB8;

} p:hover sup.reference a:active, tr:hover sup.reference a:active, caption:hover sup.reference a:active ol:hover sup.reference a:active, ul:hover sup.reference a:active, dl:hover sup.reference a:active {

 color: #FAA700;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Pop-ups

To add pop-ups for the in-text citation that show the full citation, see User:Blue-Haired Lawyer/Footnote popups.

Also, the Gadget at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets->Browsing->Reference Tooltips.

Error messages

Show citation errors in all namespaces

By default error messages only show for article, user, template, category, help and file pages. Errors do not show on talk, Wikipedia, MediaWiki, portal and book unless enabled:

<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> /*show cite errors on all pages*/ .mw-parser-output span.brokenref {

 display: inline;

} </syntaxhighlight>

Show non-fatal errors

Additionally, in the Article namespace citation templates suppress non-fatal errors by default. These messages can be made visible using:<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> .mw-parser-output span.cs1-hidden-error { display: inline; } </syntaxhighlight>