Upgrade StorageStyle error: Australian Guide to Legal Citation
Hello,
I frequently need to cite legislation in publications using the AGLC style. The style requires that you use an en-dash between spans of numbers, including section numbers.
eg, if I need to refer to sections 6 through 8 of the Privacy Act, say, it needs to look like: <i>Privacy Act 1988</i> (Cth) ss 6—8
I have previously been able to do this the using the zotero plugin for word by typing in the pinpoint field [page] "ss 6+[hyphen]+8". Zotero would then automatically format the hyphen as an en-dash when it generated the citation in word.
Now, the citation in word appears with a hyphen between the numbers. Zotero will only add an en-dash between the numbers if only numbers are added into the pinpoint field.
I need to add "ss" before the numbers to indicate that these are sections being cited, and there appears to be no alternative way of doing this (selecting "section" rather than "page" from the drop down menu next to the pinpoint field appears to make no difference to the way the citation is outputted in word).
I am using zotero version 4.0.29.10 and word 2007.
Any help is much appreciated.
I frequently need to cite legislation in publications using the AGLC style. The style requires that you use an en-dash between spans of numbers, including section numbers.
eg, if I need to refer to sections 6 through 8 of the Privacy Act, say, it needs to look like: <i>Privacy Act 1988</i> (Cth) ss 6—8
I have previously been able to do this the using the zotero plugin for word by typing in the pinpoint field [page] "ss 6+[hyphen]+8". Zotero would then automatically format the hyphen as an en-dash when it generated the citation in word.
Now, the citation in word appears with a hyphen between the numbers. Zotero will only add an en-dash between the numbers if only numbers are added into the pinpoint field.
I need to add "ss" before the numbers to indicate that these are sections being cited, and there appears to be no alternative way of doing this (selecting "section" rather than "page" from the drop down menu next to the pinpoint field appears to make no difference to the way the citation is outputted in word).
I am using zotero version 4.0.29.10 and word 2007.
Any help is much appreciated.
@fbennett -- do you happen to know right away if you changed the hyphenation behavior recently-ish? I feel like I remember something.
To get en-dash and pluralization, try setting "sec." as the label. If that doesn't help, post back and we'll dig into it further.
When I add a span of numbers using the section label, eg "3+hyphen+4", I don't even get an en-dash. It outputs as "3-4" (hyphen, no ss).
When I add a ss plus a span of numbers using the section label, eg, "ss+3+hyphen+4", I also get a hyphen in the output: "ss 3-4".
I tested with just a single number using the section label as well--and it doesn't add an "s" when outputting. It will add the "s" only if you actually type it into the pinpoint field, eg "s+3" will give you "s 3".
Thanks for your help so far.
As currently coded, the style completely ignores the pulldown labels: it just renders the locator field verbatim, without any labels, like this:
<text variable="locator"/>The normal format for a labeled locator in CSL would instead look like this:
<group delimiter=" "><label variable="locator"/>
<text variable="locator"/>
</group>
The processor will parse out label short-codes ("sec.", "p.", "n." etc.), but it renders them through the cs:label node, so if that is not present, the short-codes are swallowed without producing output. That's why you're not having any luck with either the short-codes or the pulldown menu: both are being ignored by the style.
With the code for numeric field handling, the processor discriminates between numeric and non-numeric field content, checking the content at the start of the field, and that following each short-code. Ranges in numeric content should be shown with an en-dash (when a non-numeric element is encountered, it is rendered verbatim, with a hyphen). The following entry evaluates as numeric:
sec. 3-5A bug in the processor was preventing the application of en-dash to content labeled as "Section." I have squashed the bug, and with the revised processor, the AGLC style will now render the content above (incorrectly) like this, with en-dash, but without a label:
3–5The following field content is presumably what AGLC users have been entering to express section numbers, by hard-coding the style's section label into the field:
ss 3-5The "ss" label is not recognized as a short-code, so it is not swallowed; but as an unrecognized string, it forces the content to non-numeric mode, so the hyphen will be rendered literally, just as it appears above. With the current AGLC style, the only way to get en-dash in the output would be to set it explicitly in the field:
ss 3–5That would produce the desired result, although it is hardly ideal since keyboards generally lack an en-dash key.
The problems here originate in the absence of locator label support in the style itself. That can be fixed, but it will cause citations prepared on the assumption that labels will not be added to render incorrectly. I'm not sure what the best way forward there would be, but perhaps it would make sense to fork the style, deprecating the existing one but leaving it in the CSL repository so that existing documents can be processed more-or-less correctly.
Not entirely happy news, but that's the full story on this one.
It seems I can get an en-dash to appear with the ss in the pinpoint field if I use ALT+0150 to produce an en-dash. Not ideal, but at least it's a workaround for now--I don't have the know-how to edit the style to fix this issue.
I don't know either if there is any thought being put into an Australian style for Juris-M--it sounds great, though, and I'll look into it further.
Thanks again.