Sonny Software

I'm having some problems with the Bookends export feature to BibTeX. I'm running v8.1.1.

First, I've imported my entire database from EndNote 8 (XML). That worked fine with a few minor errors.

Second, I set my Bookends Preferences for BibTeX with everything checked.

Then, I choose Biblio > Bibliography Formatter... using the format of BibTeX "as BibTeX" going to disk.

Several problems occur. The most simple is that the hash (#) character is not escaped. For example, if you have title = "We are #1", the BibTeX equivalent is title = "We are \#1".

The second problem is that the some latin1 characters are not converted into TeX correctly. For example, ø is converted to \{o} which generates an error.

Also, the output file is encoded as MacOSRoman and not UTF8.

I tried to resolve this by unchecking the "Convert to TeX" option. It works fine, except that the file is MacOSRoman and not UTF8. So, I bring the file up in TextWrangler, switch it to UTF8, and save it. Then, it works.

This leads me to my final question: What is the recommended what to run a Bookends to BibTeX conversion?


Thanks.

drh wrote:Several problems occur. The most simple is that the hash (#) character is not escaped. For example, if you have title = "We are #1", the BibTeX equivalent is title = "We are \#1".

Bookends doesn't escape that. I guess it should.

The second problem is that the some latin1 characters are not converted into TeX correctly. For example, ø is converted to \{o} which generates an error.

OK.

Also, the output file is encoded as MacOSRoman and not UTF8.

I tried to resolve this by unchecking the "Convert to TeX" option. It works fine, except that the file is MacOSRoman and not UTF8. So, I bring the file up in TextWrangler, switch it to UTF8, and save it. Then, it works.

I think Bookends assumes BibTeX is MacRoman. I'd have to check.

This leads me to my final question: What is the recommended what to run a Bookends to BibTeX conversion?

You're doing it correctly. Sounds like a few minor omissions or errors. The MacRoman encoding is the only real issue.

If you find errors that need correction, you should contact us directly at

support@sonnysoftware.com

Jon
Sonny Software

Yes, BibTeX is converted to MacRoman. Is this *not* what people want? Would they rather it was output as UTF-8? It could be easily done (but no one has asked for it thus far)...

Jon
Sonny Software

P.S. # is now escaped, and ø is converted to \'{o} (this looks to be correct based on my references). These fixes will appear in the next update.

Honestly, I don't know what it should be. I was expecting UTF-8 because the database is in UTF-16 (right?).

In LaTeX, you can use inputenc to select your content encoding, so whatever encoding will support your database is probably the right answer:

\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

some doc here.
some LaTeX versions don't support unicode but there's software for it here.

i'm far from a LaTeX expert though...

How the db is stored is irrelevant. We can export in any encoding. If anyone else wants to weigh in I'll listen. But since BibTeX is an ASCII convention, I think MacRoman is appropriate. But as I said, I'll listen...

Jon
Sonny Software

Would it be possible to chose set the export encoding in the prefs? That would be nice.

I don't know, Jon, if you know the "Great, big list of LaTeX symbols". Perhaps you could check back there and see if you're missing something. You can find it here: http://cs.bilgi.edu.tr/pages/CSDN/symbols.pdf

Thanks for the list.

I suppose the default could be UTF-8 *unless* you have checked Convert to TeX in the BibTeX preferences (this would make sense, I think, and avoid another independent preference setting).

Jon
Sonny Software