Re-use citations with changed page number in visual editor
Problem: In visual editor, there is no simple way how to copy (re-use) existing citation and only change a page number in it. Instead, one is forced to fill the citation form again (with all but one parameters the same) which is annoying.
Who would benefit: All editors using visual editor. Power users will save a lot of time. New users will not be in danger to use the current re-use function in a wrong way (re-using a citation, changing a page number and not knowing that the page number is now changed in the first appearance as well).
Proposed solution: In "Add a citation" dialog, there are three options: Automatic, Manual and Re-use. Within a Re-use option, there is a list of current citations. There should be additional options: re-use without changes and re-use with changes (maybe better wording needed). The first option will copy the citation and close the dialog, the latter will open a dialog with the filled cite template, allowing to change any parameter (the Page(s) cited parameter could be pre-selected) and insert as a new citation.
This is being worked by book referencing design by WMDE on a parallel path (particularly phab:T245299) and is accordingly probably out of scope for CommTech. (And the task you linked should probably be closed or retargeted.) --Izno (talk) 05:12, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This is not relevant just for the special case of changing a page number, which can indeed be addressed by other means in some circumstances. This problem also exists when I want to create any similar reference, e.g. an article cites from several articles in the same online newspaper, but the automatic citation generator is so wrong with this particular source (such as choosing the wrong citation template), that it is much easier for me to copy and modify another existing reference (pointing to another article but in the same source) already present in the same article. --Blahma (talk) 22:05, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I might buy that use case. (If there is a source that is having issues with the auto generator, that should be a bug filed for upstream.) --Izno (talk) 17:26, 20 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Vojtěch Veselý: I think this is just a great idea ! I have also often had this problem. We could stop wasting user time copying by hand all the book details for just adding a different page ! --Jurbop (talk) 16:34, 30 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support this is a good idea, but in VE you can Reuse and scroll down in Template to page number and add e.g. if p102 already referenced, add ',245' but that means all the citations have all the page numbers listed not which applies to it Kaybeesquared (talk) 13:27, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Intention is good, but doesn't solve the underlying problem and I have to oppose it. Duplicating references should be discouraged, per WP:DUPREF. Wikipedia should use more benefits of the www format and store information about book pages, chapter numbers, sections etc. within inline citations. User should never need to scroll down to check a reference, and what's worse, scroll back up (but where?) afterwards. Ponor (talk) 15:30, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Ponor: Thanks for the link. For me, the long term solution is just some template with ID (and perhaps parametr "page number") and the rest of the data store on Wikidata (here is nice presentation on this issue). My proposal is just small update/patch. --Vojtěch Veselý (talk) 11:30, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 18:47, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
Oppose Intention is good, but doesn't solve the underlying problem and I have to oppose it. Duplicating references should be discouraged, per WP:DUPREF. Wikipedia should use more benefits of the www format and store information about book pages, chapter numbers, sections etc. within inline citations. User should never need to scroll down to check a reference, and what's worse, scroll back up (but where?) afterwards. Ponor (talk) 15:30, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
