AUTHOR(S). TITLE. PAGES In EDITOR(S) (Eds.), SOURCE. DATE PUBLISHER.
-- part contents for background part 121
----- text -----
The reference format cards are arranged as three field columns: a central column which contains the field names in the order that they were selected, a column to the left of the central column that contains text that will come before the field of that name and a column to the right of the central column that contains text that will come after the field of that name. In addition, two other fields are provided (top left and lower right) to contain text that will appear before and after each reference of that reference type, respectively.
To change the reference format, first click the appropriate button for the reference type you wish to edit. When the card opens, click the 'Clear Fields' button to remove all text from the three field columns. Click on the reference field buttons in the order in which you wish them to appear when printed. The names of the fields will appear in the central column in order from top to bottom. Once a field has been chosen, it can be de-selected by clicking on one of the field names in this center column. This will remove the name for that field, and it will be replaced by the name of the next button clicked. You can put leading and/or following text (called text delimiters) in the fields adjacent to each of the central fields that contains a field name (text to the left or right of a blank central field WILL NOT BE PRINTED-use the fields at the upper left and lower right if you need additional text).
When you think that the reference has been formatted correctly, click the 'Display Format' button at the upper right. The selected fields and their associated delimiters will be displayed in the 'Display Format' field above the button. When a reference is written to disk, the fields and delimiters will be written to disk in the format and order shown in the Display Field. The field text and its adjacent delimiters will NOT be included if the field for that reference contains no text (this elimates the need for removing unwanted delimiters when a field is blank).
The field order and delimiter text can be edited at any time. Just click the 'Display Format' button again to see your changes. When you are satisfied with the formats for all four reference types, click either the 'Marked Cards' button to print all of the marked references only, or the 'All Cards' button to print all of the cards in the stack. The 'All Cards' button also asks whether you wish to include the reference numbers, keywords and notes in the output. Of course, if you don't wish to change the format of any of the references, you just click one of these buttons and go on with the job.
A final hint: by leaving the other three reference formats blank (i.e. by clicking the 'Clear Fields' button for the three reference formats you're not interested in) and choosing 'All Cards', you can print individual text files containing all of the references of a single reference type only. This may or may not be useful to you, but at least you know it if you need it!