how to make tiny changes to punctuation

Robaki
Hi - I'm a total ignoramus in terms of coding, but I have made it as far as the CSL editor. I need some simple tips... The style I'm looking to change slightly is a variant of Harvard adapted for Leeds Met. (Once in the past I managed to alter this slightly to make my own style - it's now called 'Rob's Style'). The changes I want are as follows:

- in-text references: 'et al' to appear in italics
- page numbers both in-text and in the bibliograpy to appear as ':224-229' rather than ', pp.224-229'

I can't see any part of the code which refers to this.

Do you think the set-up for these two details is unalterable, fixed in stone?

If I'm asking the wrong questions here, please help me ask the right ones!
  • adamsmith
    that's certainly doable. Are you working in the CSL editor or with the actual code?
  • Robaki
    At the moment, I've got the CSL editor open. I don't know how to access the actual code.
  • adamsmith
    Page labels:
    In text: Under example citations at the top right corner), click on "Normal Citation" and change it to show the page range. Then click on pp. 244-252 in the actual example citation. This will expand the tree on the left and show a node that says "locator (label)". Select that and press the minus at the top right.

    Bibliography: Click on the page range with label in the example citation, find and delete "page (label)"

    et al: click on the authors in the example citation. On the left select "Names" (the plural, not the singular) and click the plus sign at the top left. Select "et al" from the dialog. Then select the et al node and set it to italics.
  • Robaki
    wow - it seems to be working so far. Thanks very much for taking the trouble.

    One other tiny thing, if you'd be so kind. Between the place of publication and the publisher's name, I currently get a comma (eg 'Oxford, Oxford University Press'). Is there any way of changing that so it turns into a colon ('Oxford: Oxford University Press')?
  • adamsmith
    depending on which style you started out with, this is typically set as a group delimiter (i.e. click on the group around publisher and place and change the delimiter from comma to colon)
  • Robaki
    ok - I'll have a look.

    Also - sorry - just noticed that the page numbers in the in-text references have completely disappeared now. They're there in the bibliography. That'll be my last question - promise.
  • adamsmith
    you may have deleted the locator variable, not the label you can add the variable back in using
    plus sign -- text -- variable -- locator
  • Robaki
    well, that's beyond me. I'll go back to the beginning and try again. Thanks anyway
  • Robaki
    Got everything sorted now. Thanks very much for your superb help.
  • vojtech.dostal
    edited January 9, 2014
    Hello, I have a similar problem. My citation style uses "et al" but places a dot after this ("et al."); I need it without the dot. Does anyone know, please, how to get rid of this? I can work both with Csl code or Csl editor.
  • adamsmith
    edited January 9, 2014
    Can't be done in the editor. In the code, if the style doesn't already have a locale element, add this right after the end of the info section, i.e. below </info>:
    <locale xml:lang="en">
    <terms>
    <term name="et-al">et al</term>
    </terms>
    </locale>

    If it does already have a locale, just include
    <term name="et-al">et al</term>
    somewhere among the terms
  • vojtech.dostal
    Thank you Adam, this was very helpful! :-)
  • vojtech.dostal
    Now I found out that the "et al." dot has disappeared from both citations and bibligraphy :( ... I need it to stay in the citations and only get rid of it in bibligraphy. Is there a way please? Thank you.
  • adamsmith
    what type of rule is that?
    It's possible with a bit of a workaround - I can give you the general idea, but you'll have to work out how to implement that yourself, it'd take me too long to write out every step:
    You'd want to define the term "and others" as "et al" without a period, remove the et al definition without period you put in (so it gets its period back) and then set the et al for authors in the bibliography to term="and others"
    http://citationstyles.org/downloads/specification.html#et-al
Sign In or Register to comment.