Template:Refbegin/doc

{{refbegin}} and its complementary closing template {{refend}} are used to apply any of several optional styles or presentational choices for bibliographies or reference lists—that is, lists of fully-specified references, sources, or works cited, sorted alphabetically by author or contributor—that appear in Wikipedia articles.

These bibliographies or reference lists frequently appear in dedicated sections within an article, variously titled == References ==, == Works cited ==, == Bibliography ==, == Further reading ==, == Published works ==, and so on.

Wikipedia referencing or citation systems that use bibliography-style reference lists include: 'shortened' footnotes and 'general' referencing.[1] The 'full' footnote referencing system does not use those lists. Any articles may contain a "Further reading" section or other sections with bibliography-style listings, that {{refbegin}} formatting could be applied to.

The formatting options provided by this template are:

refbegin template options/parameters
Option How to get it Notes
default display {{refbegin}} no parameters needed, default fontsize is 90% of standard fontsize
display list in multiple columns {{refbegin|30em}} where 30em determines the width of columns based on the browser's screen width. Can be any value generally (e.g. 20em, 50em, etc.).
apply hanging indent {{refbegin|indent=yes}} will apply hanging indent if an individual reference wraps over more than one line in the browser's display window

Each use of {{refbegin}}, with or without parameters, needs an accompanying {{refend}} closing template to 'turn off' the formatting; {{refend}} does not take any parameters.

Font size reduction is applied by default. Multi-columns and hanging indent may be applied separately or combined.

  1. ^ Previously they were also used with inline parenthetical referencing.