Sonny Software

Hey Jon,

I think it'd be great to have actually two sets of common settings for long and short citations, esp. in terms of cited page punctuation.

To give a typical example: It's typical in a Chicago/SBL format to put a comma before the cited page(s) in a long citation that ends in a paranthesis, but there are many publishers and universities (including Cambridge) that don't want that. I know that this could be solved partly by leaving the comma out of the cited pages common setting and then putting it into the code for short citation. But this creates problems when I insert a short citation without any cited pages (which is not uncommon), as it leaves me with ",." at the end.

Just a thought.

You can change the punctuation before and after a cited page on an individual citation basis by using the \

{temp cite@\: \}

for example will output a semicolon and not the comma set in the format.


Jon
Sonny Software

I know but this would be a more robust and systemic solution.

So you want two places to set punctuation before and after cited pages, are are invoked by the primary and secondary citation order field, respectively? Do I get that right? Does anyone else want this? Is that an important enough feature to add more complexity to the UI, especially when you can handle this right now with in Bookends?

Jon
Sonny Software

Yes, you're getting me right. One field for the primary citation and one for the secondary citation. I think it would enhance the flexibility of the programme. The point is from my user perspective at least is that I can set up my styles in such a manner as not to spend any extra time with further editing of citations within my document.

If this is too much of a hassle, then feel free to ignore it, of course.

Anything that changes the UI or adds complexity has to be weighed carefully. That's why I'm asking others to chime in. This is the first request I've ever had for something like this, and even before thinking about how hard it would be to do I'd have to know it was important to enough to make it worth doing (because surely for the vast majority it would be just more stuff to confuse you when making/editing formats).

Jon
Sonny Software

Not entirely sure what is meant by one field each(?) for Primary and Secondary citation?

If this could be clarified, maybe through some examples, I would feel more comfortable adding my 2 cents?

I believe he wants Bookends to have two different entries for what to put before and after cited pages. One would apply the first time the work was cited, the second would be used thereafter. You can do this now, but it's not automatic (e.g. you override the format setting by putting what you want before and after in between backslashes: @\: \12-14).

Jon
Sonny Software