Amend existing or create new style

annie.berry
I have moved to using Zotero so that we can use a footnote style system. I was helped to amend an error in our old style and the new style is: https://csl.mendeley.com/styles/682885091/ofsted-house-style-2

However I need to add a full stop to the end of each item in the bibliography and can't work out a few things:

How to add the full stop
How to save the updated style so it can be shared with others (as URL rather than a file)

It also doesn't seem to be showing as a 'numeric' style so doesn't seem to be a numbered citation/footnote bibliography style?

Or, is it easier to work from an existing official style and create a new one? The closest would be Nature or American Medical Association 11th edition, but then I need help to work out:

How to change the initial to go in front of the last name?
And as above - how to save the updated style to share with others (as URL)

Can anyone please advise? Many thanks
  • damnation
    Full stop:
    Just set that on bibliography >> layout in line 465 like so:
    <layout suffix=".">

    "Releasing" the style:
    what's this style for? Something with official guidelines? Then it could be included in the repository.
    Something for yourself? Make a GitHub repository and share that with your colleagues.

    The code you shared is certainly a footnote style and shouldn't be mixed with "numeric styles".
    In the former the citations are added in Word footnotes, where the numbering is managed by Word. In the latter, Zotero cites in text (and note in notes) and the numbers are generated by Zotero.
  • annie.berry
    Thank you that's great!
    It is for a team of us and we have internal guidelines to follow for our style - so would that be possible to include in the repository? I will look into it.

    Ideally there would be a URL to share and a style that we can amend - because we are not all collaborating on it a people will just need to use it without understanding the coding

    I have tried out GitHub and this is all new to me - I have created a code file to give it a try but I'm not clear how I could share it as a URL. It feels like this would be too complex for the majority of colleagues who wont know CSL and just want to use the style
  • annie.berry
    And sorry to add a question - if it were possible to add to the repository and we find further amendments, how are they actioned?
    In Zotero I can see how to amend a style and save it locally to a CSL file but those changes would presumably only work in my own version?
  • adamsmith
    We wouldn't add a style for a group to the repository. Once you have the style anywhere on github, you can just give people the "Raw" link (at the top right) and Zotero -- assuming they have the connector installed and Zotero open -- will prompt them to install/update the style if they click the link. They can also just download from the raw link and install using double-click.
  • annie.berry
    Thanks for explaining - I've given that a try and see what you mean.
    My concern is that it would sit with me which isn't great - but I guess others can just take the code from that site to amend/share if necessary in future?

    The style is for an organisation, but a group of around 20 within it using the style for now - though if it is successful we hope it would grow to many more in the organisation.

    We do already have a mendeley style, but have moved to Zotero as being a footnote style it no longer works!
  • damnation
    Anyone could just copy your Git repository and make amendments themselves or suggest a style edit on your repository. Other organisations/individuals do it just like that.

    Let us know if you need more guidance how to get the URL to your code. You can share your reposity here if you want and we'll tell you what to do.
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