Support copying references to other languages with the correct format
Problem: The field tags and their order of placement in a citation vary from language to language
Proposed solution: An easily accessible toolbox by which any editor can copy a citation reference into one of two parallel boxes; define the source and target languages; drag and drop the content from first box to the second box, in which the corresponding tags are highlighted/matched and listed in proper order
Who would benefit: everyone translating articles from one language site to another
Thanks for your proposal! Could you clarify the context to Thesaurus? We use Thesaurus to find synonymes of words. I am curious about how this is related to the citations. Also am I assuming correctly that your proposal is related the Translate Extension? @Baekemm:KSiebert (WMF) (talk) 11:43, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps I used the word thesauraus incorrectly. The term "concordance" might be more appropriate. Here is an example (from two articles about Mary Nighy) of the same reference in two different wikipedias. Modifying one (or usually more) "<ref>" for re-use in an imported and translated article always takes time to edit and I wonder whether it could be done more efficiently with some sophisticated tool:
*:en.wikipedia
*:<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/14334 | accessdate=22 May 2009 | title=Breakthrough Brits | date=30 May 2008 | publisher=[[UK Film Council]] | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609204759/http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/14334 | archivedate=9 June 2011 }}</ref>
Here is second example of the different templates for the same literature reference used at different wikipedia sites (article about Betye Saar)
*::en.wikipedia
*::<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |last1=Dallow |first1=Jessica |title=Reclaiming Histories: Betye and Alison Saar, Feminism, and the Representation of Black Womanhood |journal=Feminist Studies |date=2004 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=75–113 |jstor=3178559 }}</ref>
*::
*::de.wikipedia
*::<ref>{{Literatur |Autor=Jessica Dallow |Titel=Reclaiming Histories: Betye and Alison Saar, Feminism, and the Representation of Black Womanhood |Sammelwerk=Feminist Studies |Band=30 |Nummer=1 | Jahr=2004 | Seiten=75–113 |JSTOR=3178559 }}</ref>
*::
Based on the discussion above, I'd propose to rename the proposal to "Support copying references to other languages with the correct format". Feel free to suggest an alternative if you think it is not helping to clarify or does not reflect the purpose of the request.
This proposal seems also related to a more broad proposal about support mapping templates across languages as they are pasted in Visual Editor. In this case, would it solve the original problem if you could copy the English "Cite web" reference and by pasting it to the German article the "Internetquelle" reference was created there with all the information copied to the equivalent parameters?