Provided below, for your delectation and delight, are a series of instructions which will show you how to export references from a Papyrus database in a format that !Citation will be able to understand.
N.B. Papyrus is a bibliographical software package for use on PCs running DOS.
Therefore, any instructions relating to Papyrus refer to DOS and NOT to the Acorn side of things.
FIRST INSTALMENT
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First of all you’ll need to carry out the instructions contained in the accompanying text file ‘Install’. So if you haven’t done that yet, now would, like as not, be an appropriate time have a go.
WHAT NEXT?
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Assuming that everything went well with the installation of the new Formats, you’re now ready to export your references from Papyrus.
Save your references to floppy disc in the usual manner. Here’s a brief resumé of how to do this for novice Papyrus users:
1) At the main Papyrus menu select List
2) Next choose Alphabetic, Numeric, or Group as appropriate.
If you really don’t know what this is all about, choose Alphabetic.
3) Answer the ‘Start with’ and ‘Stop with’ prompts.
If this confuses you, enter A and then Z for Alphabetic.
4) Papyrus will now ask you ‘Is the above Format information correct?’
Answer N
5) At the Format prompt type !OUT CITE
Alternatively, press F2 and select !OUT CITE from the list
If !OUT CITE is not listed then the installation process went awry. Try
following the instructions in the text file ‘Install’ once more.
6) Answer Y to ‘Truncate lengthy Abstracts & Comments?’
Answer Y to ‘Truncate lengthy Keywords?’
7) Select ‘File’ from the Destination menu
8) Select ‘ASCII’ from the File Type menu
9) Enter a Filename of A:\CITE.LST
10) Papyrus will now save the selected references to floppy disc.
And that’s it for Papyrus.
TAG ALONG WITH ME
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Now that you’ve exported your references from Papyrus, it’s time to load them into !Citation (which was the point of the exercise if you’ve lost the plot).
1) Open up a !Citation library. You can create a new one if you like, or use
one that you prepared earlier.
2) Choose ‘File import’ from the main menu.
3) Set the ‘Import type’ to ‘Tagged text file’.
4) Drop the text file generated by Papyrus onto the Load icon.
5) Click on ‘Go’.
6) Celebrate!
[If you’re not familiar with File import, then please consult sections 4 and
4.5 of the !Citation manual.]
IDIOSYNCRASIES
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There are one or two things to bear in mind when importing references generated by Papyrus.
1) Accented characters and symbols are entirely different in the prehistoric
miasma of DOS, and so if you get unexpected characters cropping up then it’s
probably because these were once accents or symbols under DOS.
2) !Citation guesses the reference type from its contents. Every now and then
it gets it wrong. In the words of section 4.5 of the !Citation manual:
!Citation makes a best guess at the reference type from the fields present
within an entry. The default is “Journal Article” but if the Editors (%E)
tag is present, the reference type is set to “Book Section”. If there is no
“Editor” tag but the “Issue/publisher” (%I) tag is present then the type is
set to “Book”.
Consequently, if a Papyrus record with a reference type of ‘Book’ has a series editor, this will be assigned a reference type of ‘Book Section’ by !Citation. Therefore, you may find that it’s necessary to plough through your imported records and reassign their reference types.
Rumour is that, if there is sufficient demand, then this could be fixed. So,
send your signed petitions and plaintive cries to Tim and perhaps he will
smile benevolently in your direction, just don’t tell him that I sent you!
3) If you get an ‘Error 121’ during file import, it’s most likely to be because
one of the fields has exceeded the 256 character limit.
