How do I get Bookends to import a reference (in the Vancouver format) from the clipboard? There are a lot of options for importing what seem to be rather obscure reference formats, but nothing that I can see for importing what I thought was a rather common one.
Also, the whole import process seems rather too complex. I'm clearly missing something really obvious here. Would anyone care to enlighten me?
Help me understand how to import ref from clipboard
Hi,
You cannot import references in Vancouver format (or any other format -- at least without a lot of difficulty). Bookends imports files in which the information is *tagged*. That is, where fields have preceding identifiers. This might be
TY - Journal Article
AU - Smith, JR
etc.
for RIS files.
Or numbers and letters for MARC output.
The Bookends import filters define how the tagged fields are handled and the information distributed in the Bookends reference record.
As far as importing from the clipboard, you simply invoke the Import References menu and in the following dialog box you select "from clipboard".
Jon
Sonny Software
You cannot import references in Vancouver format (or any other format -- at least without a lot of difficulty). Bookends imports files in which the information is *tagged*. That is, where fields have preceding identifiers. This might be
TY - Journal Article
AU - Smith, JR
etc.
for RIS files.
Or numbers and letters for MARC output.
The Bookends import filters define how the tagged fields are handled and the information distributed in the Bookends reference record.
As far as importing from the clipboard, you simply invoke the Import References menu and in the following dialog box you select "from clipboard".
Jon
Sonny Software
Thanks replying so quickly. I knew I must be doing something wrong.
I seem to spend a lot of time inputting new references, where I already have a pre-formatted reference to work with. This seems much harder than it should be.
Thus, I wish to submit a feature request: "Import from formatted reference".
Bookends would present a dialog box where you could paste your formatted reference, and select the format from a pop up menu (of course, you could select a default).
Thus, when I am given a reference to add to my database, I could invoke this command, paste and be done. At present, I have to create a new reference, paste in the formatted reference, and spend ages fiddling with it to make it look right.
And before anyone suggests I should do an internet search instead, not everyone is online all the time!
edit:
An even better idea would be to have this import box appear as one of the tabs in the New Reference dialog box.
I seem to spend a lot of time inputting new references, where I already have a pre-formatted reference to work with. This seems much harder than it should be.
Thus, I wish to submit a feature request: "Import from formatted reference".
Bookends would present a dialog box where you could paste your formatted reference, and select the format from a pop up menu (of course, you could select a default).
Thus, when I am given a reference to add to my database, I could invoke this command, paste and be done. At present, I have to create a new reference, paste in the formatted reference, and spend ages fiddling with it to make it look right.
And before anyone suggests I should do an internet search instead, not everyone is online all the time!
edit:
An even better idea would be to have this import box appear as one of the tabs in the New Reference dialog box.
What is obvious to a person is not to a computer. It can't parse raw text because it has no idea where the title ends and the volume begins.
Now it *is* possible to import formatted text if it follows strict rules. We discuss this in the User Guide -- search for the words "existing bibliographies". But it is fragile, because a misplaced punctuation mark can screw things up.
And I do suggest you do Internet searches whenever possible.
Jon
Sonny Software
Now it *is* possible to import formatted text if it follows strict rules. We discuss this in the User Guide -- search for the words "existing bibliographies". But it is fragile, because a misplaced punctuation mark can screw things up.
And I do suggest you do Internet searches whenever possible.
Jon
Sonny Software