Talk:List of attorneys general of West Virginia/Archive 1

Archive 1

Referencing

Hi, WV. I was randomly browsing through the help desk and found Wikipedia:Help_desk#Help:Cite errors/Cite error references missing key. I may be able to help.

Allow me to present my qualifications: I made the history section of Chief Justice of Fiji; and List of films made by Continental-Kunstfilm, so I admire your work with the dreaded wikitables. What follows is not personal criticism, but the result of hard-won experience.

I have been using {{harv}} and {{sfn}} for some time. If you use {{Cite book}} correctly with the |ref=harv parameter, then with {{sfn}}, {{harv}}, {{harvnb}} and {{refn}} you will be mostly free of the horrible <ref name=> for ever. You all you need is to transcribe the book's title page as correctly as possible without any need to invent stuff. {{Harv}} referencing needs an actual author and date. You can use |ref={{harvid}} for problematical {{cite book}} parameters if they are missing, or screwing things up.

Plus, you don't need to include unused parameters, they tend to clog things up.

You can now use [1] [2] or [3] inline without any pesky ref name=; or if you want it inside a ref...[4] I really like the way that sfn concatenates multiple refs to the same page.[3]. It would be trivial to change all the <ref name=Heavens_to_Betsy!>{{harvnb|Unnecessary duplication|2015|p=123}}</ref> [5] into {{sfn}}s.[6][7]

This is how I would do it: (edit to expand, obviously). HTH, >MinorProphet (talk) 17:40, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ Constitution of West Virginia 1863.
  2. ^ West Virginia Blue Book 2012, p. 123.
  3. ^ a b Holmes 2012, p. 123.
  4. ^ ...you can do it like this (West Virginia Blue Book 2012, p. 123), or like this Holmes 2012, p. 123.
  5. ^ Unnecessary duplication 2015, p. 123
  6. ^ Heavens & Betsy 2015.
  7. ^ That's what happens if you forget the |ref=harv parameter or don't even create the entry in the Bibliography...
Bibliography
  • Constitution of West Virginia. West Virginia Legislature. 1863. OCLC 767921701. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
Or, more succinctly:

Reply

MinorProphet, thank you for your thoughtful suggestion! I believe that I have found a solution to the whole inline citation quandary. Please let me know what you think. Just when I think I've mastered certain templates, I always realize that I have a lot more to learn. Thank you for your guidance! -- West Virginian (talk) 14:45, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

Well, {{note label}} seems to work, so the immediate problem seems to be fixed. The Art of Referencing™ grows all the time, it seems. >MinorProphet (talk) 22:34, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

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