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From: Don Zochert <>
Subject: [GENBOX] Citation formatting
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 12:34:23 -0600
References: <FFEBLNNBNENFDKOPJEBPCEBAEIAA.paulharris@nc.rr.com> <002901c3e862$45abc570$6600a8c0@reillyind.com> <050b01c3e8bd$9b7e3b30$6401a8c0@BILLXP>
In-Reply-To: <050b01c3e8bd$9b7e3b30$6401a8c0@BILLXP>


On a related topic, William T. Flight wrote:

> The Lead Text, Excerpts, Annotation, and Citation Detail are all assumed to
> be "output" text, that should be formatted and presented on reports.


Hi, Bill,

This confused me <g>. The Citation Detail is the same as the "Where in
source" field. But that field CANNOT be formatted in the sense of
applying italics or other text formatting to words within the [CD], can it?

Circumstances in which you might want to italicize part of a [CD] might be:

[ITAL]Samuel Hook[:ITAL0] v. [ITAL]Thomas
James[:ITAL0], Superior Court Records, 1822-
1833, Book (Box) 3: 97, Arkansas History
Commission, Little Rock

or

[ITAL:]Adelle[:ITAL] v. [ITAL]Beauregard[ITAL0],
1 Martin La., 183 (1810).

Those examples are from Mills, and I've added the [ITAL][ITAL0] codes to
set off the italicized part of the [CD].

Another example occurs when a [CD] field *leads off* a citation:

Peter-Michael Pawlik, [ITAL]Von der Weser in die Welt:
Die Geschichte der Segelschiffe von Weser und Lesum
und ihrer Bauwerften 1770 bis 1893[ITAL0], Schriften
des Deutschen Schiffahrtsmuseums, Bd. 33 (Hamburg:
Kabel, ca. 1993), pp. 235-236, no. 245, in Michael P. Palmer,
List of Merchant Vessels (database online at <http://www.
geocities.com/mmpraetorius/>).

In this case, the [CD] is everything up to "in Michael P. Palmer..."
(The material after "no. 245..." is based on a generic source template
for online databases, and the title of the database, "List of Merchant
Vessels," is easily italicized via codes in the template--that's
separate from the point I'm making here.)

Since formatting cannot be applied to text in the [CD] field, output
like the above seems impossible in GB. It's not, however. In addition to
the [CD] or "Where in source" field, the Cited Sources tab also contains
the Lead Text and Annotation fields, and formatting CAN be applied to
text in both of the latter fields. Achieving the results prescribed by
Mills is as simple as leaving the [CD] field blank, entering your
citation detail in the Lead Text or Annotation field, and applying text
formatting via the menu bar option buttons. You have to think of the
"Where in Source," Lead Text, and Annotation fields IN COMBINATION as
the [CD].

I don't know whether this has repercussions elsewhere, but it's one way
to skin the cat. There must be a good reason why the "real" [CD] field
itself is not subject to formatting.

By the way, I love the Annotation field. Couldn't you add one to the
list of source template codes? It would make it easier to discuss the
merits or problems of a source in an "annotated bibliography." A key to
doing this would be the ability to exclude the [ANNOTATION] element for
a short bibliography and to include it for an annotated bibliography.

Don

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