User:Shearonink/ref

For attribution purposes the original of this wonderful template used to be found at User:DBigXray/ref, I merely tweaked some of the spacing and phrases.

Adding references can be easy

Just follow the steps 1, 2 and 3 as shown and fill in the details

Hello! Here's how to add references from reliable sources for the content you add to Wikipedia. This helps maintain the Wikipedia policy of verifiability.

Adding well formatted references is actually quite easy:

1. While editing any article or a wikipage, on the top of the edit window you will see a toolbar which says "Cite". Click on it.
2. Then click on "Templates".
3. Choose the most appropriate template and fill in as many details as you can. This will add a well formatted reference that is helpful in case the web URL (or "website link") becomes inactive in the future.
4. Click on Preview when you're done filling out the 'Cite (web/news/book/journal)' to make sure that the reference is correct.
5. Click on Insert to insert the reference into your editing window content.
6. Click on Show preview to Preview all your editing changes.

• Before clicking on Publish changes, check that a References header   ==References==   is near the end of the article.
• And check that   {{Reflist}}    is directly underneath that header.

7.  Click on Publish changes. ...and you've just added a complete reference to a Wikipedia article.

You can read more about this on Help:Edit toolbar or see this video File:RefTools.ogv.
Hope this helps, --~~

• To use this message, place {{subst:User:Shearonink/ref}} on User:talk pages when needed.