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Overview
Zelda Wiki makes ample use of references and notes throughout its articles as a way to maintain a factual database of content that covers The Legend of Zelda series. These come in many forms, but are most commonly done via specific templates that serve different purposes.

How to Add References[]

A reference can be added to a page by placing content within <ref></ref> tags. However, there are two problems that arise from just doing this:

1. The text is not formatted in any way that attributes the source or the speaker(s).
2. There is no area established where the references can be collected and viewed as a group, such as in the footer of the article.

To fix these, we make use of templates. There are various templates that we use to format citations based on medium, such as directly from a game or via supplementary books. We also make use of the Ref template, placed near the foot of the article before any categories, to collect and group references made throughout the article. The templates that we use to create references are:

{{Cite|quote|character|game}}

{{Cite|I AM ERROR.|Error|TAoL}}

{{Cite Book|quote= |book= |publisher= |page= }}

{{Cite Book|quote= |book= E |publisher= |page= 292}}

{{Cite Book|quote= |character= |book= |publisher= |page= }}

{{Cite Book|quote= |character= Marin |book= LA (Cagiva) |publisher= |page= 70}}

{{Cite Guide|quote= |game= |guide= |page= }}

{{Cite Guide|quote= |game= MM |guide= Versus |page= 39}}

{{Cite eGuide|quote= |game= |guide= |section= }}

{{Cite eGuide|quote= {{Big|Piece of Heart #5 (via Mail Sorting)}} |game= TWWHD |guide= Prima |section= {{Small|Islands of the Great Sea}} Dragon Roost Island (F2)}}

{{Cite Episode|quote= |name= |show= |episode= |time= }}

{{Cite Episode|quote= Well excuuuse me, Princess! |name= Link |show= The Legend of Zelda |episode= 6}}

{{Cite Internal|quote= |game= |system= |version= |country= }}

{{Cite Internal|quote= Sarcophagus |game= CoH |system= Nintendo Switch |version= 1.0.0 |country= United States of America}}

{{Cite Magazine|quote= |magazine= |publisher= |date= |volume= |issue= |page= |url= }}

{{Cite Magazine|quote= If you distract its attention and sneak up, you might be able to ride it.|magazine= Nintendo Magazine|publisher= |date= Winter 2021|volume= |issue= |page= 16|url= https://archive.org/details/nintendomagazine-2021winter-english/16.jpg}}

{{Cite Manual|quote= |game= |page= }}

{{Cite Manual|quote= Blue rubies are worth five times more than yellow ones. |game= TLoZ |page= 21}}

{{Cite Track|author= |track= |discography= |publisher= |year= |format= }}

{{Cite Track|author= n.a. |track= Middle Boss Battle #1 |discography= {{Term|TPHD|The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Original Soundtrack|link}} |publisher= Symphony No.5 |year= 2016 |format= CD}}

{{Cite Web|quote= |author= |published= |retrieved= |url= |title= |site= |type= }}

{{Cite Web|quote= Zelda Wiki makes ample use of references and notes throughout its articles as a way to maintain a factual database of content that covers The Legend of Zelda series. |author= Zelda Wiki |published= October 10, 2019 |retrieved= October 10, 2019 |url= https://zelda.gamepedia.com/Guidelines:References |title= Guidelines:References - Zelda Wiki |site= Zelda Wiki |type= }}

Note: the Cite Book template is very versatile as it can be used to cite both regular books and manga. For the former, you do not usually need to include a quote of the book in question. Provided the book is published by Dark Horse Books or a guide publisher, you also do not need to fill in the publisher field. For in-depth details, please visit the template's page.

For optimal usage, citations should include the full block or line of text that you wish you reference, such as a complete paragraph or uninterrupted line of dialogue rather than a single sentence from these. This can cut clutter down significantly in a page's References section, especially when used in tandem with ref names.

Ref Names[]

Sometimes it is necessary to reference the same citation twice or more within an article. Instead of repeating the citation again in the article, you can assign a reference tag its own name. This allows you to use the same reference as before without duplicating it. To create a reference with a name, simply type:

<ref name="NAME">

In doing so, you have assigned a name to a reference. From there, you can cite as normal. You should usually only assign a simple, one-word name for the reference that is relevant to the text that you are citing as this makes it easier to call from this ref note later. In the case of The Goddess Collection^{(Hyrule Historia, Art & Artifacts, Encyclopedia)}, it's preferable to assign the initialism of the book followed by a space and then the page's number (such as "E 292").

To use the same reference again after naming it, simply type:

<ref name="NAME"/>

It is not necessary to add anything else after the ending bracket in the tag when referencing the name after the initial citation. If done correctly, the same reference will appear twice throughout the article, as you can see by the number associated with the reference.

Though not absolutely necessary, it is best to place the ref name with the citation in the first instance it is used rather than calling the ref name earlier and providing the named citation afterwards.

Notes[]

Notes are a special type of reference made to provide further context to a statement without disturbing the flow of the article. They are added by placing content within the Note template. The Note template is useful because while it is not possible to nest a <ref> tag within a pair of <ref></ref> tags, it is possible to add <ref> tags inside notes. Like the <ref> tags, notes require a template to collect and display all notes placed on a page. The corresponding template is the Notes template, which functions very similarly to the Ref template, though it can also display references inside it.

The Note template can also work with names assigned to it, much like the ref name="" system. For information on how to perform this, please refer to the template's documentation.

Where to Add References[]

The general spirit is to cite any possible claim that is made. This typically means something like adding a citation when stating what a character says but can also apply to things like their name or age. Because of this, you should always place references immediately after the punctuation mark(s) that follow the claim, though we realize this is not possible in all circumstances. References should never be placed after the Ref template, as it collects all of the references on the page before it. Additionally, references should be placed in the order that the sentence follows, so references that apply to the information located at the start of a sentence should appear before information located at the end of the sentence.

Notes added via the Note template should generally be applied in the same fashion. Notes should only be applied when the information is only tangentially relevant to the point made, such as for when characters have different reactions to situations or when an official name is also related to the subject but is rendered non-canon by a work that is higher in canon than the source of the name (as commonly seen in cases where conflicting names appear in Encyclopedia and a given guide). Given that references can be stored within notes, the Notes template should always be placed before the Ref template.

Ref Clusters[]

When there are five or more consecutive ref tags after a single sentence, you should place each of them within the Ref Cluster template, which condenses the five or more tags into a single tag which can be subsequently viewed in the References section.

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