When automated footnotes are used on Wikipedia pages, the default form of the footnote labels is ^[1], ^[2], ^[3], etc. When grouped footnotes are used, the labels are ^{[name 1]}, ^{[name 2]}, etc., where name is the name given to the group. However, by using certain reserved group names, it is possible to make the labels appear in a different form, such as ^[i], ^[ii], etc. or ^[a], ^[b], etc.

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Shortcut H:CL

This help page is mainly of technical interest to those who are creating new label styles. For the use of defined styles, refer to WP:CITELABEL.

Currently existing reserved group names are:

For example, a footnote which is to appear in the i, ii, iii... group can be written as:

• <ref group=lower-roman>...</ref>

To generate the list of the footnotes in that group, use for example

• {{reflist|group=lower-roman}}

Further examples, technical information and instructions for creating new reserved groups can be found below.

Version r66749 of the Cite extension implements the ability to create styles for the cite link labels. Although the ability to create in-text cite label styles is unlimited, the matching reference list label styles are currently limited to those supported by the CSS list-style-type property and to browser support.

The default in-text cite links and reference list backlinks use numeric labels automatically generated by the software. The labels are linked to provide a connection between the in-text cite and the reference list cite.

In this example, the super-scripted, in-text cites use a numeric label that matches the citation in the reference list:

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">The Sun is pretty big,<ref group="test">Miller, E: ''The Sun'', page 23. Academic Press, 2005.</ref>
but the Moon is not so big.<ref group="test">Brown, R: "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 51(78):46</ref>
The Sun is also quite hot.<ref group="test">Miller, E: ''The Sun'', page 34. Academic Press, 2005.</ref>
==References==
<references />
</syntaxhighlight>

Special group names have been defined which give alternative sequences, such as alphabetical and roman numerals, instead of Arabic numerals.

• T24265
  • The error message at MediaWiki:Cite error no link label group gets classed as a reference, so you can't use a wikilink in the message to link to a help page
  • The reference list is an ordered list and uses numbers that don't match the in-text cite labels

The {{Reflist}} uses the |group= parameter to select the list-style-type style, and apply it to the .reflist class:

list-style-type: <!--
 -->{{#switch: {{{group|}}}
 | lower-alpha
 | lower-greek
 | lower-roman = {{{group}}}
 | #default = decimal}};

Note that the decimal style is handled by the default list-style-type.

CSS rules in MediaWiki:Common.css then allow the .references class to inherit the list-style-type:

div.reflist ol.references {
 list-style-type: inherit; /* Enable custom list style types */
}