Style Tweaking

Eofios
Hi All,

Still acclimatizing to Zotero and just had a look at the info on styles. I'm wondering is it possible to slightly modify a style without going into major CSL under-the-hood stuff. With the Harvard Style I'd like to be able to remove the 'p' sign when referencing a page number with in-text referencing and delete commas in the resulting bibliographies. I'd really appreciate it if anyone had a quick fix for me. Or if is is not possible to do this without difficulty or tech knowledge I don't have and I just correct all the entries manually will this keep changing back on me. Thanks in advance.
  • turkeyphant
    You don't need much tech knowledge. Just read though the citation and bibliography sections of the CSL file and see if you can work it out yourself. if not, check the CSL documentation for help.
  • Eofios
    Ok thanks, I'll be brave!
  • turkeyphant
    The p will be in a prefix option on a page number somewhere and the commas are listed as either suf/prefixes or a group delimiter.
  • Eofios
    Thanks for that, much appreciated
  • adamsmith
    you will most likely want to use the chrome pane to get a start
    chrome://zotero/content/tools/csledit.xul
  • Eofios
    Thanks Adam, just looking at that now. Please excuse my ignorance, but do I just select 'book', remove or add an element and then save it somehow - Then select 'journal' and do the same, or is there a bit more to it?

    For example in Harvard ref format 1, I would like to make just a few simple changes such as: I want to remove the comma that is placed after the authors name and before the year; at the end of the book title I want to change the comma to a period. Finally, I want to remove the 'pp.' that appears before the page numbers in all bibliographic references. Is this easy, or do I need to figure out all of the language symbols and signs to do it?
  • adamsmith
    No - you will have to change the code - which will stay the same.
    Ideally, select one item of each relevant category, and then get to work at the .csl style.
    Changes you make to the style will update automatically in all of the selected citations in the middle of your screen.

    The commas and periods are set either as prefix="." suffix="." or delimiter="." - you'll have to figure out what refers to what - that's what the chrome is for.

    But once again - what is your style for? If this is a common style (e.g. for a University or so) and you have a styleguide someone could also make the changes for you - though really, once you get started with .csl it's not that hard.
  • turkeyphant
    you will most likely want to use the chrome pane to get a start
    chrome://zotero/content/tools/csledit.xul

    God - I wish I'd had the sense to use that a day ago...
  • adamsmith
    One of the things I want to do in the documentation is to add an extra page for simple style tweaks, which would emphasize using chrome - which is essentially how I learned .csl (I didn't look at the documentation until I had modified half a dozen of styles in chrome - and then I found it very easy to follow the documentation because it all related to stuff I had seen in one way or the other).
  • Eofios
    Hi Adam,

    Apologies for cross-posting, it seems two of my queries have ended up in the same place. Here is what I explained in the other post:

    Here's basically what I'm trying to do. This is the way Harvard referencing is used in archaeological circles in Europe at least. Notice in the Book entry below there is no comma after the authors initial. Also the book title is followed by a period not a comma. Additionally the prefix pp. is not used in referencing journal paper pages. I am attempting to figure this out using the 'Chrome' link. If this style was already existing somewhere it would save me a lot of hassle! Thanks much.

    Book:

    CONNERTON, P. 1989. How societies remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter in a book:

    BREUNIG, P. & K. NEUMANN. 2002. From hunters and gatherers to food producers: new archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence from the West African Sahel, in F. Hassan (ed.) Drought, food and culture: ecological change and food security in Africa's later prehistory: 123–55. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

    Journal article:

    SAUNDERS, N.J. 2002. Excavating memories: archaeology and the Great War, 1914–2001. Antiquity 76: 101–8.
  • turkeyphant
    i did it the hard way. I just modified the CSL in a text editor using trial and error and only discovered the documentation when I googled a variable I couldn't understand.
  • adamsmith
    I don't know if the style exists
    you can look through the 160 different styles at
    http://www.zotero.org/styles
    (uncheck the "show dependent styles" box for that purpose.
    They install with one click and have a preview function.
    Otherwise you can continue figuring this out by yourself or post a link to a styleguide and a detailed list of differences
    as outlined here http://www.zotero.org/support/requesting_styles
  • Eofios
    Thanks, great help, appreciated!
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