Help:External links and references

Mini-tutorial on external links and references

Here is a little tutorial I just wrote on how to use external links (like to Google.com or other non-Wikipedia webpages) and reference lists in articles.

External links: To place an external link in an article, you put the link in single brackets like this [URL text you want to show]. For example [http://www.google.com Google] will display as Google. I noticed that the link you were trying to place in the Michelle Tanner article probably shouldn't go in the article itself. Might I suggest placing it in an "External links" section? Before creating an "External links" section in an article, you should check out Wikipedia:External links so you can learn Wikipedia policy on external links.

References: When adding references to articles, most editors use in-text citations. You can check out Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners or Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners with citation templates for more info. Here are some basics:

1. How to format citations: Put all citations inside the tags <ref> and </ref>. This allows them to be automatically included in a reference list. Try to include author, date and title of anything you cite. For books and magazines, you should also include page numbers and ISBNs Here is an example taken off the page Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners: <ref>Plunkett, John. [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html "Sorrell accuses Murdoch of panic buying"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', London, 27 October 2005. Retrieved on 2005-10-27.</ref> It will show up in the article's "References" section as: Plunkett, John. "Sorrell accuses Murdoch of panic buying", The Guardian, London, 27 October 2005. Retrieved on 2005-10-27.
2. Where to place references: for more detailed information on when to include a reference, look at WP:CITE. When you want to cite a source, place the citation right after the information citing. If you're citing a sentence, place the reference after the period. It's prettier that way.
3. Using a reference more than once: If you're gonna use a reference more than once, the first time you use it, type the citation like this: <ref name="name">insert reference here</ref>. Then, when you want to cite that source again, simply type <ref name="name" /> where you want to cite it.
4. Reference lists: You can make sure all references put between <ref> and </ref> are automatically put in the "References" section. This helps a ton, because the section automatically numbers them and everything. To do this, I usually put {{Reflist}} in the "References" section. You can also put there if you want.

I've included some example citations (using the examples I just outlined) and a sample reference list below, except this time, they will display like they would in an article. If you look at the reference list, next to reference 1, it says ^{a b}. Click on one of those letters next to the citation. ^a will take you to the first place reference 1 is cited. Likewise, ^b will take you to the second place reference 1 is cited. Clicking on the ^{^} next to reference 2 will take you to where reference 2 is cited.

Sample cited text

John Smith is forty-three.

John Plunkett said this, that, and then some in an article in the Guardian. John Smith agreed with what John Plunkett said.