Formatting page numbers in citations

Andrew Mac · Post by **Andrew Mac** » Sat May 07, 2005 1:52 am

Hi there, Bookends gurus

I hope my question is going to make sense! I'd like to know if there's any way to get Bookends to process the formatting for page numbers that I've entered into a citation inserted into the document.

I have been putting page numbers in the reference citation in Mellel using the backslash method "(Reference \pp.xxx-xxx)", but it seems that Bookends doesn't process the page references according to the rules specified in the setup for that format. I'd prefer that it could do that fomatting for me, so that I didn't have to worry about consistency issues, and so that I wouldn't have to edit all my citations if I decided I'd prefer to use another format.

I've look in the Bookends Guide, but couldn't find any mention of whether or not this is possible ... so, does anyone happen to know if there is any way to get it to do that?

If not, could I put in a request for it? It would make things so much easier and more reliable.

My first thought is that a workable approach might be to specify appropriate delimiters for page numbers that could be entered into a citation (maybe something like "Citation <xxx>" or "Citation <xxx-xxx>). In other words, to complement the custom text delimiter that exists at the moment (the backslash character), we could have another one for page references. All Bookends would then need to do would be to look for those delimiters when processing citations, and format the numbers appropriately according to the relevant format's specific rules. It would also help to have a symbol for cited pages in Bookend's Format Editor as well, I think.

I hope this isn't a completely ridiculous hope. Does anyone else have any advice, comments, suggestions or corrections they'd like to make?

Post by **Jon** » Sat May 07, 2005 7:31 am

Hi Andrew Mac,

Please look up "cited pages" in the User Guide. It is designed to provide a lot of flexibility in the way that pages numbers are displayed in footnotes, and I think is what you are looking for.

Jon
Sonny Software

Andrew Mac · Post by **Andrew Mac** » Sat May 07, 2005 8:23 am

Hi Jon

Thanks so much for that, it's just what I was looking for! And I'm really sorry that I wasted your time, although I do appreciate your help.

I feel like a bit of an idiot, in fact. I *did* look in the book, I promise! But it's not the first time I was unable to find what I was after until being directed to it.

Unfortunately, I started looking under the document scanning section, and I found an example (on page 99) that was using the backslash method to put in the page reference, so I guess I just assumed that was how we were supposed to be doing it. There didn't seem to be the correct alternative mentioned in that section of the book.

I'd also searched for "citation", and was completely overwhelmed by the results. I'm afraid I didn't think of trying the term "cited pages".

I think that in this coming semester break, I'll have to sit down and go through the manual quite thoroughly, but I'm just so busy right at the moment!

I don't know why, but I just don't seem to have a great deal of luck finding what I'm looking. I guess my own thoughts must just run in a different direction to the way the manual is organised ... or something!

If you ever get any willing volunteers (maybe a student on a workplace project?), do you think it might be possible to get an index put together for your manual one day? That might help my poor brain find out where it's supposed to go!

But that's all quite secondary. Thanks again for your help, and for giving us an application that's looking better and better all the time!

Post by **Jon** » Sat May 07, 2005 8:32 am

If you ever get any willing volunteers (maybe a student on a workplace project?), do you think it might be possible to get an index put together for your manual one day?

Indexes (indices?) are problematic because they take a lot of work to create and maintain. We update Bookends frequently and amend the documentation as needed. Ensuring an accurate index is a lot of trouble, and to be frank there are more pressing issues I need to deal with. The good news is that the User Guide is searchable (granted, you may not know the best thing to search for). It is also organized by menu structure (there are pluses and minuses for that, but at least it provides a bit of logical form). And you can always get answers to general questions (not tech support) on this forum, usually pretty quickly.

Jon
Sonny Software

Andrew Mac · Post by **Andrew Mac** » Sat May 07, 2005 8:40 am

No problem, I'm quite comfortable with your reasoning.

But I hope you remain willing to put up with lots of questions I shouldn't really be asking ... until I get more familiar with both the program *and* the manual, that is!

Thanks again