Automatic abbreviation of page ranges in citations?

aaron_overby

Hi all,

I am using Zotero Standalone 4.0.28.7 (with Firefox integration) with Microsoft Word 2007. The style sheet I am using is Chicago 16 (full note).

According to Chicago style, page ranges should be shortened when possible, and I have read comments here that suggest this feature is supported in CSL and has been implemented in the Zotero style sheet. However, that is not happening for me when I add a page range (ex. 149-150) to a Zotero citation.

I should note that when I a have page range for an article in my Zotero library, that range will be shortened in my citation of that article (ex. 144-160 becomes 144-60). However, it does not shorten page ranges that I add with the citation insert box.

This problem/feature? is consistent throughout all of my documents. I'm revising a 300 page dissertation, so if possible, I'd rather not have to change each page range manually. Any ideas?

Thanks so much,
Aaron

adamsmith

this isn't currently implemented for what we call locators, i.e. the page (or other) ranges you input in the word processor. Al references you're seeing to implementation refer to full page range for articles and chapters, where this should work correctly and does for you if I understand correctly.

It's been planned for a long time to make that work for locators and there's no real reason not to (there's no real technical hurdle) -- not sure why this has never been put in.

aaron_overby

Thanks for the quick response.

Yes, from your explanation, everything's working properly for me. At least I can stop trying to solve the imaginary "problem" now. Changing the ranges won't be that bad. Might be faster to wait till I remove Zotero codes at the end, though.

I really should have figured this out a couple of weeks ago when I inserted all of the Zotero citations. I was just trying to keep the data entry clean. Oh, well.

Thanks again for the help!

~ Aaron

adamsmith

I was just trying to keep the data entry clean.

not an unreasonably concern at all. We should really get this addressed.

fbennett

not sure why this has never been put in

As far as (citeproc-js) processor is concerned, it's mostly been a matter of time constraints. The code for numbers and number-ish things (like the locator variable) is a mess at the moment, and I have avoided making changes because it is fragile, and changes could break things in unexpected ways.

I have been working on a complete rewrite of the number (and number-label) formatting code lately. If the rewrite comes together as expected, it will support range collapsing of page numbers. It is a little harder than it looks, because we need to (or might as well) support sub-labels, also with proper handling of pluralization. The new code is being prepared for the Juris-M styles, which work a bit differently from official CSL (all number variables must be rendered with cs:number). It could be adapted to work with official CSL, but you would need to do testing to be sure it behaves in the way that you want across the various permutations of content that might be thrown at it.

adamsmith

Thanks for the update. Happy to test this as needed. I think we'd just want the same behavior for locators as specified for pages, so the "what" seems pretty straightforward.

djross3

Any updates on this?

I've just been manually deciding to enter either "11-2" or "11-12" depending on the document, but now that I'm currently working on a long document where some parts were inconsistent I realized how challenging it is to change that afterwards if I change my mind.

If not, that's fine. I think inputting the whole range makes sense for consistency, but I might turn on the abbreviating function if it became available.

bwiernik

@djross3 You should always enter page ranges in their entirety in Zotero. The simple page range abbreviation you are describing (for all number page ranges) has been implemented for years. It’s controlled by the citation style. What style are you using?

djross3

Thank you!

You should always enter page ranges in their entirety in Zotero.

I've been doing that inconsistently, but am switching to that consistently now.

The simple page range abbreviation you are describing (for all number page ranges) has been implemented for years.

Ah! I did a bad job searching for information about this then. This thread looked most relevant. Sorry for not researching it better.

It’s controlled by the citation style. What style are you using?

I'm primarily using a custom style.

Now I see it's the page-range-format parameter in CSL, and the documentation is clear. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

--

Tested and everything works. Sorry for the confusion.