Batch edit and text formatting removal

[iljajj]

Hi all,

I couldn't find an answer to a few questions I had, so I'm putting it to you. Although I don't know wheter it's convenient to ask two questions in one post, I thought it even more strange to post two questions separately. So here goes.

There's two things I'd like to do on Bookends:
1. Batch edit a number of references to give them all the same author. This is because I'm working with press reports. Many of these have no author, but I would prefer to replace these empty fields by "Anon.". Doing this one by one takes up a huge amount of time because every time I change it, I have to scroll up again to the records without author fields, select them, etc.
2. Remove ALL text formatting from the database except italics. I've noticed that quite a lot of references have formatting included, which is hardly ever useful - to me at least. The italics are, for a number of reasons.

If anyone here can help me with either of these issues, it would be very much appreciated.

[nicka]

For 1, what about:
Refs>Global change>Change Field...
"Put 'Anon' into field Authors for each reference in the selected references [or Hits List]"

I'd like to know how to do 2. Actually, I'd like a mode that permanently turns off all formatting in references except italics.

[Jon]

You can't remove all styles except italics. Global Change -> Restore Default Font and Style removes all styled text (you can also just remove the font info, leaving styles). You can also remove styled text from individual fields by right-clicking on one in the reference edit pane.

However, you can easily avoid entering styled data with copy/paste if you don't want it. Use Edit -> Paste And Match Style. And in Bookends preferences, tell Bookends to use this when you press Command-V.

Jon
Sonny Software

[nicka]

Thanks for these tips, Jon. I didn't know about the right-click method: it's very convenient.

Restore Default Font and Style removes all styled text (you can also just remove the font info, leaving styles).

I wonder whether it would be possible to add the option to remove font and size info, leaving just styles.

[Jon]

I suppose, but I have doubts that it would be useful. The vast majority of the time you apply the italics yourself (you're not relying on copy/paste from, say, a browser). I frankly don't think it would be used.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

BTW, I recommend for everyone that they read the release notes for each update. There are lots of features, tips, etc. mentioned there. I'm sure everyone would pick up lots of useful information (such as the right-click remove styles) just by periodically glancing through the "What's New" sections of the update history (ignore the bug fix sections).

http://www.sonnysoftware.com/new/new.html

Jon
Sonny Software

[iljajj]

Hi Jon (and others). No. 1 was something of an RTFM moment for me, I guess - I simply didn't find the option. As for no. 2, of course I now always match the style. As I'm finding out now that the moment of scanning and printing my dissertation is upon me, I wasn't always so careful in the past...