Re: [Bibdesk-users] macros

[Adam M. <ama...@ma...>]

 
On Monday, July 31, 2006, at 07:40AM, Ricardo Azevedo <rb...@sb...> wrote:

>>> I think if this was the old days of entering references by hand,
>>> macros were the perfect solution.  However it isn't practical to edit
>>> hundreds of journal fields in existing libraries plus every time you
>>> download another bunch of references from ISI or PubMed.
>>
>> The point of macros (at least partially) is that you don't have to
>> edit them by hand; you can have several sets of definitions in a
>> separate file, and include the abbreviated/full names as needed.
>>
>> You will initially have to edit the journal fields, but this is
>> straightforward using BibDesk's find & replace feature; search the
>> field "Journal" for "Journal of Fluid Mechanics" and replace with
>> "jfm" as macro.  Then define in a separate file @string{ jfm = "J.
>> Fluid Mech." }, and in yet another file @string{ jfm = "Journal of
>> Fluid Mechanics" }.  Include whichever file is appropriate.
>
>Thanks for the link and for your explanation.  I think I now  
>understand how this works.  However, I still think it requires a lot  
>of editing because I would keep having to do search/replace or  
>manually edit references.  Is there a way to save a series of  
>searches that could then be activated automatically on a library?

No, you do a search/replace only for initial setup; after than, when you add a reference, you have to enter the macro for the journal name.  After that, the only change is made when you want to write a document, and that is made in the .tex file.  Something like this (I think...I only use one set of definitions, included in the .bib file):

% for abbreviated journal names
\bibliography{/path/to/my/abbreviated_definitions.bib,/path/to/my/main_bib_file.bib}

% for full journal names
\bibliography{/path/to/my/full_definitions.bib,/path/to/my/main_bib_file.bib}