RefToolbar refers to a series of JavaScript/jQuery scripts that help editors add citation templates to articles. It works in conjunction with the MediaWiki extension WikiEditor. The Reftoolbar implementation is scattered across several scripts (see, for example, this, thisorthis prefix search). The newest version, RefToolbar 2.0 is turned on by default for new users.
Originally an opt-in Wikipedia Gadget, Reftoolbar was moved to a site-wide script on February 25, 2011, and to an opt-out gadget in April 2014.[1][2] It comes in two versions, depending on the settings at Preferences → Editing → Editor.
Note that RefToolbar is not used in VisualEditor. If you are logged in and your toolbar looks like this:
then you are using the rich-text VisualEditor.
VisualEditor also has a similar Cite button, but this is NOT RefToolbar. It instead uses an autofilling citoid service. If you want to learn how to use that Cite menu, please refer to the VisualEditor user guide.
You can switch between visual editing and source editing (where RefToolbar is used) using the pencil icon.
The default for all users, logged in or not, is WikiEditor or Wikitext Editor, that includes refToolbar 2.0.
Click on the version number for more information about each refToolbar implementation (Cite item on right in all them):
| Enable enhanced... | RefToolbar version |
RefToolbar style | Script |
|---|---|---|---|
| Off | RefToolbar 1.0 |  Cite icon on right |
MediaWiki:RefToolbarLegacy.js |
| On | RefToolbar 2.0 |  Cite menu item on right |
MediaWiki:RefToolbar.js |
In 2.0, clicking in the Cite menu, you can choose: the template ( {{cite web}}, {{cite news}}, {{cite book}}or{{cite journal}}, they are not automatically filled, so you must fill them ), named references and error check.
Table headings are abbreviations of the names seen at Preferences → Editing:
The RefToolbar style column indicates the widget that activates the cite mechanism.
Before 2017, there were three versions of Refoolbar: 1.0, 2.0a and 2.0b. Version 2.0a was removed on June 14, 2017, since it was no longer needed.
You can also do a "subpages with prefix searches" to find other related pages, in particular MediaWiki and Wikipedia namespace searches are useful.
This image file is found at commons:File:Wikipedia reftoolbar dependency graph.svg.
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