losing formatted citation

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staypuffinpc
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:25 pm

losing formatted citation

Post by staypuffinpc »

I use Sente as my bibliographic manager. I write using APA 5th and when I insert references, I often use the "edit citation" option in Mellel to make changes to how the in-text citations ought to appear in Mellel. For example, sometimes, I'll cite an author like this Johnson (1987) stated, "XXX." Note that because of the way I referred to the author, his name was not needed in parentheses. I'll also often have to add page #s. It seems that I'm able to use the "edit citation" dialog to do this and can even show the "final citation" while I editing the document, and then scan the document. But this only works ONCE (scanning the document and keeping these settings). When I later come back to the document and add more references, I need to scan the document again, replacing the old bibliography. When I do this, I lose anything I did in an earlier session with a "formatted citation." As you can imagine, this is REALLY annoying, especially on long documents. how in the world can I keep my special formatting for multiple document scans?
Reiner
Knows everything, can prove it
Posts: 475
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:48 am
Location: Germany

Re: losing formatted citation

Post by Reiner »

I don't know if the commands are the same for Sente as they are for Bookends. But I'm sure you can find them in the Guide.

e. g. "@##" adds the page numbers and scanning will format them as it is defined in your citation. There are further commands for surpressing author's name etc.
Reiner
SimoneUe
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:54 am

Re: losing formatted citation

Post by SimoneUe »

I have the exactly same setup, Mellel and Sente and I ofter refere in the same way you do and have no problem.

In the editor I write %REFERENCE@286 whereby % means "suppress the name in the output" and @286 means "add page number", so %REFERENCE@286 will come out as (1980, p. 286).

The format of the pagenumber, by the way, is defined in Sente.

Another cool feature is adding "\vgl. \" in front of the reference, which comes out as "vgl. REFERENCE" in the Text. Of course you can use any Text in between the \.
staypuffinpc
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:25 pm

Re: losing formatted citation

Post by staypuffinpc »

OK, I'm sheepishly saying I've now looked and found this information in the Mellel Guide and it all works out as you two have both mentioned. Thank you so much (I'd checked the forums, but skipped this in the Guide). It's odd to me, though, that there would be an "edit citation" dialog that doesn't preserve the edits. It seems to me that it would be very easy for Mellel to incorporate the most common adjustments (e.g., date only, pp. #s) with some simple check boxes. Thanks, though, for your quick and informative replies.
SimoneUe
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:54 am

Re: losing formatted citation

Post by SimoneUe »

You get actually used to it. I only use keys these days, no mouse. I insert my quote with Apple-y, then press shift an cursor-left. This selects the quote. Press Return and you are within the quote. Press cursor-up to go to the beginning or cursor-down to go to the end. Add whatever you need. Press Return again to exit the quote and you are done. Once you get used to it, is is actually faster than adjusting your own form and you are more consistent.

Oh yes, one more thing: My only problem was adding \cf. \ at the beginning, because the \ is in a awkward position on my keyboard (I have to press three keys at the same time). I now use TextExpander and whenever I type in CF, it gets expanded to \cf. \, which is quite handy and you don't forget any spaces or anything.

Cheers
Simone
staypuffinpc
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:25 pm

Re: losing formatted citation

Post by staypuffinpc »

thanks for sharing your workflow with me. I've been updating a paper today and I am beginning to get used to it. I'm definitely a 'remove hands from keyboard as little as possible' kind of person. My only question is, why does it have to be one way or the other? The most user-friendly programs I use are friendly b/c they allow both the novice and the power-user the same level of comfort in their workflows; they're more dynamic.
SimoneUe
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:54 am

Re: losing formatted citation

Post by SimoneUe »

I guess it has to do with consistency. Mellel keeps you from pretty much from formatting your quote. If you "play by their rules", you keep a format that can be interpreted by Sente and Sente makes sure that APA 5 gets applied correctly. Being a rather chaotic person myself, I'm glad Mellel saves me from myself and makes sure my paper is consistent :oops:.
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