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Importing from Mellel

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:05 pm
by Tony Higgins
(Note: This may be a Mellel issue. I have emailed RedleX about this, too)
Hello.
I am a new Mellel and Bookends user. I am working on a Ph.D. project, and someone has given me a reference list that I need to import into Bookends. I have changed the reference list from a Word doc to a Mellel document; I have placed Citation Delimiters around each reference (in Mellel); and I have tried to synchronize my Mellel database with Bookends. My understanding (from the Mellel manual) is that this should put the references that are in the document, but that are not in my Bookends database, into my BE database. However, when I run the synchronize database function in Mellel (with both programs open) nothing is happening. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Tony

Re: Importing from Mellel

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:44 pm
by Jon
The references must first be put into Bookends (either imported from the Internet or manually entered). The references contain all the pertinent information (authors, title, date, etc.).

When you cite ne in a Mellel document, a temporary citation (a citation object in Mellel) is placed there by Bookends. When you scan the document , the temporary citation is replaced by the final citation. The temporary citation is still there but invisible to you, so you can unscan and/or rescan.

In addition to the final citation, when you scan Bookends also gives Mellel the full reference record (authors, title, date, etc.), and Mellel keeps it, hidden from you. If another person Syncs to the Mellel document, he will receive all the references (if he doesn't already have them). So Sync is intended to be used by collaborators on the same document, each using Bookends.

Jon
Sonny Software

Re: Importing from Mellel

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:09 pm
by Tony Higgins
Jon,
Thanks for getting back to me. I have not yet heard from the Mellel folks. In any case, here is what their manual says (see below). It seems to indicate that I should be able to (in Mellel) convert a purely text reference into a "Citation" that can be read/synchronized with BE. Are you saying that your understanding is that the references that are in Mellel that were converted to citations also already needed to come from a different Bookends database (and, thus, these citations have hidden information)? Or, does it look like (from the Mellel manual) that there is a way of doing getting these references into my BE database from Mellel?

Sorry I have so many questions for you--just eager to learn how to us BE . . .

Tony

FROM THE MELLEL MANUAL, PG. 243
Bibliography menu options
In addition to the options detailed above, there are two additional options that
exist only in the Bibliography menu.
Convert Text to Citations...: allows you to convert citations entered into a
Mellel document into Citation objects.

Synchronise Database: allows you to synchronise the citations in the
document with the citations in the reference manager database. If the
document contains citations that do not exist in the reference manager
database, they will be added to it. If there are ambiguous citations, you’ll
need to solve those ambiguities. [This option is unique to
Mellel<>Bookends collaboration.]


FROM THE MELLEL MANUAL, PG. 256
Synchronise Database
[Note: This option is available now only with Mellel and Bookends]
Synchronise database is an option that allows you to load all the citations in a
document into a reference database, check if they already exist there, and
remove ambiguities. This is useful in cases where you received a document
containing citations that refer to references that do not exist in your reference
database. In such cases, synchronisation will add those missing references to
your reference database. This option can also serve as a handy tool to move
citations and references around with the document, serving as a mobile library
of sorts.
To synchronise the database:
• Open a document with citations and choose Edit > Bibliography > Synchronise
Database.

Re: Importing from Mellel

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:33 pm
by Jon
Tony Higgins wrote:In any case, here is what their manual says (see below). It seems to indicate that I should be able to (in Mellel) convert a purely text reference into a "Citation" that can be read/synchronized with BE. Are you saying that your understanding is that the references that are in Mellel that were converted to citations also already needed to come from a different Bookends database (and, thus, these citations have hidden information)? Or, does it look like (from the Mellel manual) that there is a way of doing getting these references into my BE database from Mellel?
This feature was designed by the Redlers and me. Their user guide entry is correct but not complete. To Sync, the citation must be the final (not the temporary pre-scan citation). It is during the scan that the reference information is sent to Mellel by Bookends and placed in the Mellel document. You can't can type it into Mellel.

The separation of powers, so to speak, is this: the reference manager stores and manipulates the reference data, Mellel handles the text.

Jon
Sonny Software

Re: Importing from Mellel

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:15 pm
by Tony Higgins
Gotcha . . . Thanks. sorry for the confusion on my part.