Editing CSL style

jbreems

I was hoping that someone could provide an explanation of how to edit citation formats for a computer literate, but programming illiterate individual? I am using Chicago Author date format, but have an issue with how the word plug inserts citations. currently any citation with 4 or more authors is entered as follows (Author et al. 2007) However every citation with 3 authors does not follow this format (i.e. (Author, Second, and Third 2007) I need et al. to appear for any citation with 3 or more authors.

I would appreciate any advice, or if this has been covered in a previous discussion a link to it.

Thank you.

Joel

adamsmith

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/3879/stupid-new-user-multiple-author-style-question/#pgbottom

any questions let me know.

jbreems

Thank you,
that was very helpful, but I wanted to clarify the last step. Your instructions are to save the entire code and paste it in a text editor saving it as a .csl. then drag it into mozzilla and it will install automatically.

I have no problems with the edits, but could you suggest an appropriate text editor, sadly I am not too experienced in that area and using notepad didnt seem to cut it. If you could clarify these steps I would really appreciate it.

Thanks again

Joel

adamsmith

notepad (NOT Wordpad) should work - just remember to change the file-ending. I'm sorry I can't test this, running linux.
If I remember correctly you still get some type of an error message, but will be able to use your new style.
Just to make sure we´re on the same page:
you copy (not save!) the entire text from the test pane - then paste that into your notepad, do "Save as..." and change the file ending from .txt to .csl.
You can then either drag that file into FF or use the "Open File" (ctrl-O) option.
If that doesn't work - what exactly happens?

jbreems

Thank you Adam your directions were spot on. The place where I was confused was saving as a .csl once I saved it as a txt file i renamed it and changed the extension to .csl and dragged it into firefox. It was recognized and said that the style was updated. It has worked perfectly ever since. Thanks. would it be a similar exercise to set the bibliography spacing?

adamsmith

cool.
For your question: Generally yes, but you have to parse through the CSL code yourself to find where the bibliography spacing is set - but once you get used to it the code is actually rather intuitive. Sorry, I have not time to look myself.

bdarcus

I would also strongly urge you not to just keep your style to yourself. I presume you're wanting to modify Chicago either b/c it's incorrect, or because you have to correspond to a very similar style with slight differences.

If the first case, then we should fix it. If the second, then you should give it a name so we can add it to the repository.

jkaluza

jbreems: I'm using Notepad++ to work on my CSL style (among other things). If you open your CSL file in it and select XML from the language menu, it even gives you proper syntax highlighting, which is very handy for spot mistakes and generally getting a better overview.

bdarcus

... it even gives you proper syntax highlighting, which is very handy for spot mistakes and generally getting a better overview.

Even better if you use an editor with real-time validation like oXygen or emacs nxml mode. In that case, the editor will tell you when you aren't conforming exactly to the schema, and—even better—will give you auto-complete options of valid choices.

jkaluza

Oooh, more shiny toys! :) Thanks, I'll have to check those out myself.