Suggestion: Disabling "Autofill from Internet" replacements

[MelissaH]

In its current incarnation, the very useful "Autofill from Internet" command replaces information already associated with a reference. For example, it often replaces full names with last names and initials. This is particularly problematic for common names such as "Wang, Y" or "Park, J."

I suggest the addition of a preference setting (perhaps under Preferences/Internet?) that would disable replacement of existing fields. If this preference were enabled, the "Autofill from Internet" would only affect empty fields.

If there is an alternate work-around for this issue, please let me know. I would love to be able to automatically update all the DOIs in my library, but not at the expense of losing full name information.

With regards,

Melissa

[Jon]

One of the advantages of the Autofill feature is that it updates fields that were incorrect or incomplete (e.g. In Press -> the date of publication). If you want the DOIs, there's a separate function for that: Refs -> Get DOI (you'll need a PMID or ISBN for that to work).

Jon
Sonny Software

[aechallu]

I've actually struggled with a similar issue and agree with the poster. I need autofill typically to add incomplete fields, typically the date in a journal (instead of 1991, September 1991), the issue of a journal or the page range. Initials and capitalization of titles in the internet databases are usually problematic and it's the reason why I don't use this feature more frequently.

My suggestion is to have a contextual menu on the field: right click on the field (or the field title) and have an option to autofill that field (and that field only) from the internet.

[Jon]

My suggestion is to have a contextual menu on the field: right click on the field (or the field title) and have an option to autofill that field (and that field only) from the internet.

Interesting suggestion, I'll think about it.

Jon
Sonny Software

[ozean]

Yes, indeed – I have also largely refrained from using this function so far, because I very frequently need to manually edit the capitalization after import and don’t want to do this once more…