Titles will not italicise

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kurtkel
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Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 7:56 pm

Titles will not italicise

Post by kurtkel »

Hi friends,
I have just started using Mellel and Bookends on a Ph.D thesis and the titles for the books in my footnotes will not italicise. It appears as italics in the format manager, I have set the output to styled text. Any other ideas?
Jon
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by Jon »

Check the Mellel settings for bibliographies. Make sure the font has an italic face.

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kjmatthews
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by kjmatthews »

Jon, your solution seems to have worked for the OP, but I am having a similar problem that seems to originate in Bookends. In the Formats Manager, the MLA 8th Ed. format indicates that titles should be italicized, but nothing shows up as italicized in the "Formatted Reference" pane. Exported references are also unitalicized. What would you recommend for next steps?
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by Jon »

They are italicized here. Did you check the format yourself to make sure that the title is italicized in the Order field (i.e. the f, in the case of Journal Articles)?

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kjmatthews
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by kjmatthews »

Jon wrote:Did you check the format yourself to make sure that the title is italicized in the Order field (i.e. the f, in the case of Journal Articles)?
I did, and it is. I've tampered with built-in formats before (not MLA 8), so it's possible I've messed something up for myself. I'll try a fresh reinstall of the app and built-in formats and report back.
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by Jon »

Make sure to remove the file Installed Version.txt from the Bookends folder when you download Bookends again -- this will cause Bookends to reinstall the default formats (and make sure there is no such format in the Custom Formats folder, which will be used in preference to the factory default format if present).

Jon
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jtangpublic
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by jtangpublic »

I have been having the same problem and am glad to hear that it's not just me. I am on Mac OS 10.9.5 and MS Word 14.7.0 and have the latest version of Bookends.
I've tried everything that Jon had previously suggested to me such as taking away the preferences file, and global search and replace default fonts (which are also acting strangely -- fonts keep on reverting to the "System Font" Lucida Grande (which has no italics) even though I set the default font to Times, Times New Roman, Arial, and Cambria, etc). I also clicked through a whole slew of formats so it's happening not just in APA 6th.

But, to isolate the italics issue from any issues with fonts, I tried to output APA 6th format to html in a bibliography window. Here's what happens; it looks like it's not even trying to italicize the journal title and volume number:

<HTML><BODY><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8"></HEAD>Author, B. (2017). The effect of version on Bookends. Journal of Bookends, 23, 45-67. <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.aulast=Author&rft.aufirst=B.&rft.jtitle=Journal%20of%20Bookends&rft.atitle=The%20effect%20of%20version%20on%20Bookends&rft.pages=45-67&rft.volume=23&rft.date=2017&rft.genre=article"></span><BR>
</BODY></HTML>

Also, if I wanted to start completely fresh, what would you recommend as far as uninstalling, and as far as converting my data to ensure that that's not what's causing any kind of corruption? Bookends does seem to work correctly on my husband's computer, but he's on a newer version of Mac OS and doesn't use Word (though I don't expect that Word is implicated).

I am thinking of switching to Zotero but I don't know if that's going to be any better.

Thanks for any comments -- I've been sitting on this paper I should have submitted months ago (I'll probably just end up sending my .bdb to my husband to process if this doesn't clear up in the next couple of days before my spring break is over).
Jon
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by Jon »

This is some local issue that's affecting the styled output. If your font keeps reverting to Lucida Grande it suggests there's some problem there (have you examined your fonts with Font Book)? I can't guess what the problem is from your description (it is certainly not the OS version or Word). I also very much doubt that reinstalling Bookends will help, this problem is not due to anything intrinsic in Bookends. If you want to follow up you should contact tech support.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2038

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jtangpublic
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by jtangpublic »

Thanks for the reply and I'll follow up further about the font issues through tech support.

The point of my post, though, was that even when I take the font issues into account by looking at the html output, which should be font-independent, the problem remains -- there are no html tags for italicization when I do it on my computer. So fonts wouldn't be the culprit here.

When I do it on my husband's computer, the html tags are correct. So we see that it's not the Bookends software either. We think it is probably something related to a corrupted initialization / style / preference file. I've already cleared the normal preferences file and the relevant Custom Styles files (but it wouldn't be the custom style files, since the lack of italicization happens regardless of what style I choose).

My husband thinks that a "root and branch" un-installation might help. Could you point us to all the resources that Bookends installs? Which directories in /Libraries and ~/Libraries and so on should we look for them in?
Hopefully this will be helpful to not just me but anyone else who wants to do a "root and branch" un-installation and then re-install.

Did the previous posters' italicization issues get resolved?

We'll deal with the font issues separately.
Thank you so much!
Jon
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by Jon »

Almost all the files that Bookends installs and uses are in the username Application Support folder:

~/Library/Application Support/Bookends

Note that this is the default location for your libraries, too, so do not simply throw it out!

Move it to the Desktop and launch a newly downloaded copy of Bookends (if you want that refreshed, too) and the Bookends folder will be recreated. Use your registration code and you're back in business. Then move your libraries (if they were indeed stored in the old Bookends folder) back. You'll also want to move any custom filters/formats/glossaries back from the old folder, too.

Jon
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glattanzi
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by glattanzi »

Also make sure that under Preferences, tab Scan & Bib you have the "Output text as..." selected for Styled text. After you close and reopen Bookends the journal title will be italicized.
jtangpublic
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by jtangpublic »

Thanks for the input. For better or worse, it was already always set that way in the preferences.
I also have done everything else:
Move it to the Desktop and launch a newly downloaded copy of Bookends (if you want that refreshed, too) and the Bookends folder will be recreated. Use your registration code and you're back in business. Then move your libraries (if they were indeed stored in the old Bookends folder) back. You'll also want to move any custom filters/formats/glossaries back from the old folder, too.
Yes.
(have you examined your fonts with Font Book)?
Yes.
isolate the italics issue from any issues with fonts
Yes.
remove the file Installed Version.txt
Yes.
make sure that the title is italicized in the Order field
Yes.

I wonder:
1) if the "almost" in "Almost all the files that Bookends installs and uses are in the username Application Support folder" might mean there's some other relevant file that I should look for somewhere else.
2) whether kjmatthews' problem ever got solved.

I'll be replacing my old computer soon so hopefully the mysterious problem will disappear. I continue to recommend Bookends to my colleagues who are switching to Mac (though I'm thinking of switching back to Unix/Linux, as Mac continues to get dumbed down).
Jon
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by Jon »

The only files that matter in this regard are in Application Support/Bookends. You can send me your library the format, if you want, and I'll rule out any problem with them.

Jon
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spaad
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Re: Titles will not italicise

Post by spaad »

glattanzi wrote: Sun Jul 16, 2017 10:15 am Also make sure that under Preferences, tab Scan & Bib you have the "Output text as..." selected for Styled text. After you close and reopen Bookends the journal title will be italicized.
This solved the issue for me. Not sure how the setting ever got unchanged.
Thanks!
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