Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pons.cis.ohio-state.edu!tj From: tj@pons.cis.ohio-state.edu (Todd R Johnson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: EndNote (or other bibliographic software) questions Message-ID: <85036@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 20 Oct 90 19:19:53 GMT References: <90292.121039PHL100@psuvm.psu.edu> <1990Oct20.130950.5629@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: Todd R Johnson Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 78 In article <1990Oct20.130950.5629@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> sticklen@cps.msu.edu (Jon Sticklen) writes: >>From article <90292.121039PHL100@psuvm.psu.edu>, by PHL100@psuvm.psu.edu: >>... >> >>i would suggest you consider ProCite as well. it comes from a >>company in Ann Arbor MI called Personal Biblographic Software. >>it is *very* full featured, especially when acting as a >>database of bib entries that you may search. >> >> ---jon--- ProCite is better as a database, but harder to use and not as versatile as an automatic bibliography maker. Some comparisons: In EndNote you can look at one reference per line, limited only by screen size. ProCite is limited to three references on screen at one time. EndNote can directly read Word 4, Word 3, WordPerfect, MacWrite, WriteNow, plain text, and RTF files. To add a bibliography to your document, you highlight the reference line in EndNote or the DA (with multifinder I find it easier to use the app) type clover-c, switch to your document, put the insertion point where you want to refer to the entry and type clover-v. This pastes in something like: [Johnson 1989, #17] You can just type the author and date yourself, if you find that easier. The number is optional. When you are ready to add the bibliography, you go to EndNote, and tell it to open your paper. EndNote then reads through the paper to find all the in-text references. These are displayed in a window. Then you tell EndNote to format the paper and it writes out a new copy with the in-text references replaced with appropriate information (names, numbers, keys, etc) and with the references tacked onto the end of the paper. In contrast, ProCite can only read plain text files. To use it, you must save your paper as text, then tell ProCite to scan it. ProCite will select all the references you have refered to and let you write the formatted references out into a file. You must then tack this onto your document. ProCite cannot replace the in-text citations. ProCite does have better search capabilities and I think it can have more reference types than EndNote. EndNote is limited to 15 reference types and these are kept in the system folder, not with your database of entries. EndNote also comes with very few reference styles, but it is fairly easy to make your own. Overall, I'm fairly happy with EndNote. There are a few more things I'd like to see, but 95% of what I need is there and is easy to use. Someone also mentioned WordRef. WordRef comes with a nice stack that reads writes BibTeX files. Unfortunately, WordRef works by using the print merge variables of Word. Since Word is limited to 128 print merge variables, you won't be able to use it for long papers. Furthermore, WordRef can only read word files if fast save is off. Also, there is only one style with WordRef, and it looks like it would be difficult to add new ones. The plus with WordRef is that can give you cross references. Lack of cross referencing is one of Word's biggest limitations. (It's intersting to note that Word 5 and Word for Windows have cross references and auto-numbered series.) Unfortunately, WordRef is harder to use than either ProCite or EndNote. Plus WordRef only works with Word. ---Todd -- Todd R. Johnson tj@cis.ohio-state.edu Laboratory for AI Research The Ohio State University