Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Re: Feature request: native BibTeX support

Hi :)
Base is often quite quirky and has different quirks in different releases with 
confusions and regressions too!  It's not got any devs actively working on it 
right now but hopefully some people will start taking up the challenge and gain 
a lot of respect by moving into this very difficult area!  That said, most of 
Base works fine and it's great where it does work.  

Regards from
Tom :)



________________________________
From: Zak McKracken <zak_mckracken@openoffice.org>
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Sent: Tue, 12 July, 2011 21:44:43
Subject: [libreoffice-users] Re: Re: Feature request: native BibTeX support

Am 12.07.2011, 01:17 Uhr, schrieb planas <jslozier@gmail.com>:
> An alternative is to use Base. I have been thinking on these lines so I
> will look into it more.

I am using base for my literature database, but it has serious drawbacks. You 
can use the built-in LO literature database (which isn't portable), or you can 
set up a new one, which will let you include stuff you think is useful but not 
conetained in the original. You can register that as a data source and start 
using it, but as soon as you want to edit any entry from within writer, it will 
tell you that it can't associate the db entries with the properties the 
literature module expects. So what I did was copy the existing db, add a few 
more fields and work with that, but I still had to re-asiciate all the db 
categories anew. And even though I stored it in the same directory as the 
document I used it for, if I copy that directory elswehere, the game starts 
anew.
If I change one of the entries in the db, I have to remove the citation from the 
document and re-insert it before it updates in the literature index. If you have 
cited it multiple times and you misclick once, be prepared for additional fun.

Ok, so aside from ranting about stuff I haven't done myself and should be 
thankful for instead of criticizing:
What should be doable (I speculate) is to construct something that will import 
bibtex into the OO-database, maybe even link the database to a bitex file (or 
several)? So if you change your bibtex file, the db will update, including 
establishing new categories, properties and the like.
What should also be done is improve the literature workflow. There is certainly 
something to improve there.

I do not use a plugin for citations because I prefer to have all done within one 
program (actually If I restarted my current project right now, I'd probably use 
a plugin, but now most of the stuff is in LO's database, and I won't undo that), 
and would welcome not having to copy/paste bibtex entries into the literature DB 
by hand. I'll also welcome any improvement of LO's bibliography module.


Zak


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