Unable to select prefix box when editing citation with multiple authors

seans_potato_biz
When I create a citation in MS Word 2010 with two authors, I can add a prefix. If however, I click OK and then click EDIT CITATION, I am unable to select the prefix box. Is that a bug?
  • adamsmith
    you have made sure that one of the citations is selected? Because affixes can be applied to individual citations in a multi-citation you need to have one of the citations selected to add a prefix/suffix.
  • seans_potato_biz
    I see. That was the problem.

    What sort of thing is it envisioned that a person would want to prefix? I know what things I prefix but I wonder if it's not what the feature was designed for?

    If I say, for example "blah blah blah primordial germ cells (PGCs; Smith et al. 2011), you see that I'm at a point where two separate things need to be put in brackets; one is the abbreviation of a term I've used for the first time and the second is the reference. I believe the appropriate thing to do is separate them with a semicolon. However, the system as it is, requires me to first ascertain which will be the first reference before I can do add my prefix and this becomes wrong if I add another reference which was published earlier. You know what I mean?
  • fbennett
    Yep. The field normally takes things like the "cf. " in "cf. Smith 2000". They're different use cases, so for the present, at least, you just need to take care.
  • adamsmith
    and we really want this to be flexible, to allow things like
    (cf. Smith 1776; see also Marx & Engels 1848)
    so the ability to attach prefixes to a reference is quite important.
  • seans_potato_biz
    You could, if wanted, have a separate prefix/suffix box that always prefixes or suffixes the first or last reference respectively?
  • adamsmith
    that's very costly gui-wise, though, I'm not crazy about the idea.
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