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Template:Format footnotes

This article includes inline citations, but they are not properly formatted. Please improve this article by correcting them. (April 2026) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

{{ffnTemplate:Ffn}}

When to use

This template indicates that the article uses many improperly formatted or non-formatted inline citations that require large-scale conversion to an accepted form of inline citation.

How to use

To add this template to an article, copy and paste:

{{Format footnotes|{{subst:DATE}}}}

or

{{Format footnotes|date=April 2026}}

Both options result in the same output.

This template will add the page to Category:Articles needing footnote reformatting and Category:Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify.
A bot will add the date for you at a later time if you forgot.

Examples

In-line reference using ref tags (correct)

A standard, correct way of formatting the following citations (with some acceptable variations as described at Wikipedia:Citing sources) would be:

Correct: Australia has a government.^[1]

References

^ Australian Government Press Agency (25 November 2009). "Australian Government". Retrieved 25 November 2009.

The following are examples of improperly formatted or non-formatted inline citations. This template is appropriate for articles that contain many such citations, therefore requiring large-scale conversion.

Embedded link (incorrect)

Incorrect: Australia has a government Australian Government.

or:

Incorrect: Australia has a government.[1]

Manual number (incorrect)

Incorrect: Australia has a government^{see footnote 1}

Inline parenthetical reference (incorrect)

Inline parenthetical referencing was a previously accepted citation system that is now deprecated per WP:PARREF. The recommendation is to convert inline parenthetical references to shortened footnotes (as depicted below) or regular footnotes (as depicted in the first example above) or footnotes with list-defined references.

Incorrect: Australia has a government (Australian Government Press Agency, 2009).

Correct: Australia has a government.^[1]

References

^ Davidson & Court 2011, p. 1.

Sources

Davidson, Hazel; Court, Dorothy (2011). Australian Government. Chapel Hill, Qld: Sugarbag on Damper. ISBN 9780975759387. OCLC 697121237.

This template indicates that the article uses many improperly formatted or non-formatted inline citations that require large-scale conversion to an accepted form of inline citation.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Affected area	`1`	Text to replace the word "article", usually "section" Example section	Line	optional
Reason	`reason`	A description of the issue, to add to the end of the text in the generated tag. Example Parenthetical citations should be converted to [[Help:Footnotes\|footnotes using reference tags]].	Line	optional
Month and year	`date`	Provides the month and year of the citation request; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13' Auto value `{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}`	String	suggested

See also

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	{{Circular}} {{Dubious}} {{Excessive citations}} {{Further reading cleanup}} {{Independent sources}} {{More citations needed}} {{More citations needed section}} {{More footnotes needed}} {{No footnotes}} {{No reliable sources}} {{No significant coverage}} {{One source}} {{One source section}} {{Only primary sources}} {{NRIS only}} {{Primary sources}} {{Primary sources section}} {{Religious text primary}} {{Self-published}} {{Self-reference cleanup}} {{Self-sourcing examples}} {{Refexample section}} {{Sources exist}} {{Text-source}} {{Unreferenced}} {{Unreferenced section}} {{Unreferenced category}} {{Unreliable sources}} {{Unreliable sources section}} {{User-generated}}
BLP-specific	{{BLP unreferenced}} {{BLP unreferenced section}} {{BLP primary sources}} {{BLP self-published}} {{BLP sources}} {{BLP sources section}} {{BLP no footnotes}} {{BLP more footnotes needed}} {{BLP one source}}
Topic specific	{{Localist}} {{Media IMDb refimprove}} {{More medical citations needed}} {{More science citations needed}} {{Neologism}} {{Science review}} {{Unreferenced law}} {{Unreferenced medical section}}
Dispute-related	{{Cite check}} {{Cite check section}} {{Content}} {{Disputed}} {{Dispute about}} {{Disputed section}} {{Disputed chem}} {{Disputed list}} {{Disputed map}} {{Expert needed}} {{Hoax}} {{Original research}} {{Original research section}} {{Speculation}} {{Speculation section}} {{Synthesis}} {{Verifiability}} {{Verify sources}}
Citation improvements	{{Citation style}} {{Citations broken}} {{Cleanup bare URLs}} {{Format footnotes}} {{Full citations needed}} {{Ibid}} {{Page numbers improve}} {{Page numbers needed}} {{Parenthetical referencing}} {{Shallow references}}
General advice	Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Format footnotes/doc.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.