How can I modify what is exported to the clipboard?

Mad Scientist 212 · February 22, 2012

I'd like to export citations to a specific format using Markdown syntax and copy them to clipboard. I can copy a plaintext version of a bibliography to the clipboard, but I'd like to add some markdown formatting and a hyperlink to it.

There is certainly a way to modify the formatting of the bibliography entries that are copied to the clipboard, but I just can't find it. I don't want to change the citation style itself, just add some formatting to it.

How would I modify how the bibliography is exported to the clipboard?

mronkko · February 22, 2012

You can adjust which translator is used as the default for exporting in the Zotero preferences. If the existing translators do not provide a format that you like, the only option is to code a new translator.

adamsmith · February 22, 2012

Zotero makes a distinction between exporting - which is usually for data formats like RIS or Bibtex and is handled by translators written in javascript - and creating bibliographies, which is handled by styles, which are written in CSL, an XML languages.
I'm not sure what you're trying to do exactly - I'd need so see an example - but yes, you'd have to modify one of the two. Depending on what you want to do, it may not be possible with CSL - if it is, though, it's easier to do.

Mad Scientist 212 · February 23, 2012

@adamsmith Thanks for that explanation. What I'm trying to do is to modify the output I get when I use Quick Copy (Ctrl-Alt-C).

If I don't check the "copy as HTML" option and use the Nature citation style, the plain text output is the following, which is reasonably close to what I need:

1.Weber, B. et al. Ohm’s Law Survives to the Atomic Scale. Science 335, 64 -67 (2012).

I'd like to add some formatting commands and a hyperlink to it, like

<sup>[1. Weber, B. et al. Ohm’s Law Survives to the Atomic Scale. *Science* **335**, 64-67 (2012).]({insert DOI link})</sup>

I was unable to find the script that outputs this plaintext version of the Nature style, or is the style itself completely responsible for that? Because there is an option to format it as HTML I assumed that there is some later part that formats whatever the output of the style is.

adamsmith · February 23, 2012

I think that should be doable by modifying the csl style for nature:
http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step which has links to advanced documentation. Remember that you will have to escape a lot of the mark-up symbols in xml.

Theoretically, I guess, you could modify citeproc.js - which generates the citations - but that's a rather complex >10k lines of code, so I'd say that option isn't really one.