Sonny Software

Hello Jon,

I have a few ideas, how the life of BibTeX users could be facilitated. I have already read that Bookends to BibTex synchronization will not be implemented. This is a pity, but your point is plausible.

As a BibTeX user, I have to export the bibliography over and over. I make all changes (and additions) in the primary Bookends database and export any update into the BibTeX file.

It would speed up this process if there would be an option "Export All references" (e.g. File > Export References > All References > [the current 4 options]), and even better an additional option "Export With Last Setting" (e.g. File > Export References > Export With Last Settings or even quicker File > Export References With Last Settings).

There is also another issue. Although I have enabled the option Preferences > BibTeX > Bibliographies > Conver to TeX (é to {\'e}), there are a at least two characters that still cause problems: & and %. These characters should be exported as \& and \%. There may be even more characters, but these are two I've stumbled across so far.

Thanks a lot for continuously improving this indispensable piece of software!
Chris

I think it's simple enough to press Command-A to select all references before you export.

But I'll take a look at issue with & and %. Reserved characters escaping should occur with BibTeX enabled, regardless of whether you what accented characters escaped or not. Please let me know if you find other examples.

Jon
Sonny Software

Sure, I currently use the Cmd-A option...

Many thanks for looking into the other issue.
Chris

Jon wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 12:43 pm But I'll take a look at issue with & and %.

This has been reported before. I wonder if the op turned on the 'bibtex markup' option? It should work better that way.

It's particularly relevant for those who use biber with biblatex (which is everyone who uses biblatex - not a problem if you use the bibtex backend). Essentially, biber fails if it finds one of those characters in certain fields, the main culprit being the 'title' field, particularly with percentage characters as these don't create problems with bibtex.

Exporting through AppleScript will not escape the characters (which is a pity). The 'bibtex markup' option in the export references menu does a good job, but seems to let percentage characters through in the title (haven't tested it recently though).

It would be great if the bibtex markup option (and other latex options) were part of the actual formats in the format manager window. We could then apply them individually to different formats (one for biblatex, different one for bibtex, slightly different one for exports to other programs), get rid of those options in the export menu, and everything would just work through the gui or through scripting.

Joao

Actually, they are escaped properly in my tests. You have to set the output to BibTeX Markup (instead of the usual Styled Text).

Jon
Sonny Software

Yes, the "BibTeX Markup" option does the job. I have never looked at this option. Fantastic! Many thanks!

joao wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 2:10 pm Exporting through AppleScript will not escape the characters (which is a pity).

If you look in the AppleScript dictionary you'll see the option to format references (for export or not) as BibTeX Markup.

Jon
Sonny Software

File > Export References > Export With Last Settings

This would still be useful even with the new menu, it would basically use the previous settings including the format and file name etc. — because it is in the menu we can assign a shortcut to it so a BibTeX export could be a single keypress.

Jon, you may consider updating Appendix B of the Bookends manual, page 441. The screenshot for the BibTeX export shows the setting "Export as Styled Text" (this is what I did), but it should be "BibTeX Markup".

Chris wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 4:10 am Jon, you may consider updating Appendix B of the Bookends manual, page 441. The screenshot for the BibTeX export shows the setting "Export as Styled Text" (this is what I did), but it should be "BibTeX Markup".

Good pickup. And the destination should be Disk. Done.

Jon
Sonny Software

I found another tiny issue. Institutions are not exported correctly.

For example, an author like "European Commission," (with a comma after the last character) is exported as

author = {European Commission},

It should be exported as

author = {{European Commission}},

Or is this again something that can be tackled with a setting that I haven't found yet?

Chris

You can't do anything about that, but perhaps I can deal with it in code. I'll take a look.

Jon
Sonny Software

This will be implemented in the next update.

Jon
Sonny Software

Many thanks for looking into this issue and addressing it so quickly!

Chris

Jon wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 5:04 pm If you look in the AppleScript dictionary you'll see the option to format references (for export or not) as BibTeX Markup.

That's great news. Must have missed it in the changelogs.