Citation with authors abbreviated surname

I'm creating a new citation style which is very common the ambit engineering in Germany. In the text I would like to cite p.e. a book with the first three letters (capital letters) of the first author and a number like [WEI 1] for "[1] Weigler, H. ; Karl, S. ; Jaegermann, C.: Leichtzuschlag-Beton mit hohem Gehalt an Mörtelporen. In: Deutscher Ausschuss für Stahlbeton Bd. 321 (1981)"

Now I'm at the point that zotero writes [WEIGLER 1]. I would need a trick to abbreviate now the surname of the author. Is this possible?
  • edited November 12, 2009
    The citation style I mentioned should be simpler than that one which is discussed at http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/5239/first-letter-of-author-as-citation/

    I would like to abbreviate only the surname of the first author. I don't want a complicate combination of abbreviations of different authors' names.

    Probably it has to be a modification of the "short-form" of "author". Would be possible to change "form"?
  • I don't think that will be possible automatically.
    I'm not the expert, but I think the only way to do it will be the method listed at the above discussion - using another field (such as Extra) to store the Author abbreviation.
    The "short-form" is just the name without initials, and I doubt it can easily be hacked to give just the first 2 letters.
    I'm sure in the long run it's theoreticallly possible, but I don't know if it's a common enough requirement to make it into the new CSL processor.

    If you make any breakthroughs, maybe add the info to the KB article above (it's a wiki and you are welcome to contribute)
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