Style with sentence case + footnote option

AliaksandrKazakou
I tried to search the answer to my question in previous posts here and I also tried to search the web but to no avail.

I'm working on a book and my needs sound pretty simple. I need a style in Zotero that will give me a footnote option and will enter titles exactly as I've put them, that is sentence case except for proper nouns. Is my dream going to come true? (I know about the option to choose sentence case with every single title manually, this is not for me both because of lots of proper nouns in the titles and that I already have around 150 items in my Zotero).

Thanks in advance!
  • adamsmith
    You can look through the options here: https://www.zotero.org/styles?format=note&dependent=0

    All metadata for the previews, except the "The Alot is Better Than...." blogpost, has titles in sentence case, so you can quickly see which styles keep them that way and which convert to title. Going from the top, Acta Philosophica and Agora use sentence case and likely about 100 more, so you can look for one you otherwise like.
  • dstillman
    (We've updated the blog post item to use sentence case as well.)
  • AliaksandrKazakou
    adamsmith, thank you! This is helpful. But still, is there a style that doesn't do sentence case but just leaves it right as you enter it?
  • dstillman
    That's how sentence case works in Zotero.

    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/sentence_casing
  • AliaksandrKazakou
    It says "You can automate part of the conversion into sentence case by right-clicking on the unselected title in the Info pane and choosing “Sentence case”. You will then need to manually capitalize any proper nouns. You only need to do this once, and then Zotero will always use the correct case for that item, no matter what citation style you're using."

    I've just tried to do exactly as it says that is I chose sentence case, capitalised proper names and created a footnote in a word document using Chicago 18 (shortened notes and bibliography). I got the title all capitalised.
  • adamsmith
    You should _store_ titles in sentence case. You say you already do that, so those instructions are irrelevant. You now need to find a style that keeps them in sentence case. Chicago Manual doesn't. I tell you above how to find notes styles that do -- if that doesn't work, you'd have to say why
  • dstillman
    Yes, to be clear, this was the relevant section of the linked page:
    The solution is to store titles in sentence case in your Zotero library and let Zotero automate the conversion to title case if necessary. For example, when using Chicago Manual of Style, Zotero will automatically convert titles to title case, whereas when using APA it won't try to enforce sentence casing and will simply print titles as they appear in your library.
  • AliaksandrKazakou
    "I tell you above how to find notes styles that do -- if that doesn't work, you'd have to say why" - yes, I need to go through it manually and then actually try those styles that have sentence case to see if they also have footnotes (preferrably, short ones). Pretty time consuming but doable, of course. I found one style so far that does both but it offers some really awkward looking and too extensive note. Not usable.

    Another option I have a question about - I noticed that Chicago 18 does does short footnotes in other languages than English right how I need them. I start to think just to indicate a different language with all items that are actually in English. Are there any potential problems I might encounter in the future? Thank you!
  • adamsmith
    I need to go through it manually and then actually try those styles that have sentence case to see if they also have footnotes (preferrably, short ones)
    No, not really. The link I gave you only lists footnote styles and the page has previews of notes, so you can tell what a style will look like.
    I start to think just to indicate a different language with all items that are actually in English. Are there any potential problems I might encounter in the future? Thank you!
    I think that's a bad idea. You'd a) have to do this for every single item and b) revert it if you ever want title case (e.g., proper Chicago style) again. Indicating their language for non-English items is of course a good idea and works by design.
  • AliaksandrKazakou
    Ok, now I get it. Thank you both for the help and I appreciate your swift replies. Things are much clearer now for me
  • bwiernik
    The APA note style has titles in sentence case
  • AliaksandrKazakou
    I've just tried APA - no footnotes
  • adamsmith
    The note one isn't on the repository. It's here: https://github.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/blob/master/apa-note.csl

    (But there really are lots of options with the parameters you have described so far)
  • AliaksandrKazakou
    Well, it seems I need to educate myself first to make any use of that github link...
  • bwiernik
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/refs/heads/master/apa-note.csl
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