Sonny Software

Hi,

I'm having a very simple "ibid." problem - it seems to have stopped working altogether. I click on "for repeated citations use" and enter "ibid" in the field. I then close the window, but when I scan a document full citations appear whether or not they are the same document as the previous citation. And if I re-open the formats manager window, I see that though the "for repeated citations use" checkbox is still clicked, the text field is now empty. I have tried making new formats, altering old ones, hitting return after entering "ibid.", but nothing seems to change this.

I also have a request, which I see has been made before, but I'm not sure if the grounds for the request were made clear. I'm not sure what the rationale is for making "for repeated citations use" a sub-category of the custom citation format checkbox. It seems much more common sensical to make it a choice that can be combined with any of the citation options. 99.9% of people who use ibid. will be using standard author-date citation formats, so why not allow them to do this as easily as if they didn't want to use ibid? At the moment they have to create a custom format, which as you know involves separately typing in "a, d" for every single document type. (In a previous post you suggested using Chicago B, but this is far more than many people want in a citation.) Though this is not exactly brain surgery, it is fairly tedious, and seemingly pointless (what is the point in making them even have to select a format from a list, if the ability not to already exists?). By placing it one level higher, and making it an option with any citation format, you have made things simpler, more logical, and easier for the techno-illiterate.

Sorry for writing so much, thought I'd try and make it clear.

Hi,

This sounds like a problem I have run across before with converted formats (from earlier versions of Bookends) in which an extra record was inserted and prevents Bookends from finding the "real" setting. Try making a new one (based upon a *different format*) and see if the problem goes away.

As for the request, I don't recall anyone asking for this before (I could have forgotten, of course). I thought Ibid. is used only in footnotes, and author-date is usually used for in-text citations. It appears I was mistaken. Please enlighten me.

Jon
Sonny Software

I'll give your suggestion a try and let you know if it doesn't work. Thanks a lot!

The other request is here:
http://www.sonnysoftware.com/phpBB2/vie ... light=ibid


I've always used "ibid" in in-text citations in the past, and it seems that at least some others do. See
http://infoskills.port.ac.uk/refcite/ibid.htm

But judging from the quick google I just did, it is far more common in footnotes. So clearly not a high-priority update.

Am trying to figure out this ibid thing!

Just to make sure I understand. I'm trying to use ibid for in-text citations. It seems that I can't switch ibid on without specifying a custom citation format? And when I use a custom citation format, the in-text citations seem to be formatted as per the bibliography options rather than the in-text options. Is this correct?

So this means that I need to create a new format, change the bibliography format options to reflect what I want to see in-text, then specify this as my custom citation format?

I'm not sure whether I'm being clear, or I've got this confused, but seems like a bit of a strange way to use in-text ibids!

Best, Taman

I'm not sure it's strange, but I think you've got it.

Bookends provides basic formats for numbered citations and author-date citations. If you want more flexibility, as for footnotes, you can design a citation to be anything you want ( a custom citation) just like you'd design a bibliography reference. Then you tell the "bibliography" (master) format to use the custom citation for, well, citations. This way you have all the power of formatting available for citations. You can also then turn on Ibid.

Jon
Sonny Software

Hi Jon

thanks for your quick reply. Thinking about it, I suppose it's nice to have the flexibility to be able to specify exactly how I'd like my in-text citations to look. Only thing is that it would be nice if I didn't have to specify this just to use ibid. Anyway, no big deal, will just setup a style that formats in-text citations with standard author, year.

Best, Taman