Motivation
When previewing literature database entries in BibDesk, I’d like to have precisely the same format as I’m going to have a dissertation. To do that, I found this.
Installation
You can simply open the TeX Preview preferences of BibDesk, and click on Edit... next to TeX template.
Then standard template is this:
documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
usepackage{url}
pagestyle{empty}
textwidth = 6.5in
voffset = -105pt
hoffset = -120pt
renewcommand{refname}{}
begin{document}
nocite{<<CiteKeys>>}
bibliography{<<File>>}
bibliographystyle{<<Style>>}
end{document}Note that I’ve added usepackage{url} to the standard template so that Bibtex would not balk out when I was using that tag in e.g. a note field.
Replace that content by this:
documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
pagestyle{empty}
textwidth = 6.5in
voffset = -105pt
hoffset = -120pt
renewcommand{refname}{}
% Times-like font
usepackage{mathptmx}
% biblatex-apa specific
usepackage[american]{babel}
usepackage[autostyle]{csquotes}
usepackage[style=<<Style>>,backend=biber]{biblatex}
DeclareLanguageMapping{american}{american-apa}
addbibresource{<<File>>.bib} % you have to add ``.bib'' here because,
% for some reason, it won't find the
% file without it
% The following command is provided for LaTeX2RTF compatibility with amslatex.
newififlatextortf
iflatextortf
providecommand{bysame}{_____}
fi
renewbibmacro*{addinfo2}{%
%printtexte[brackets]{% DELETED
iffieldequalstr{entrysubtype}{nonacademic}
{}
{iffieldbibstring{entrysubtype}
{bibcplstring{thefield{entrysubtype}}}
{printfield{entrysubtype}}}%
setunit*{addsemicolonaddspace}%
ifentrytype{report}{}{printfield{note}}%
%} % DELETED
}
DeclareSourcemap{
maps[datatype=bibtex]{
map{
step[fieldsource=note, final]
step[fieldset=addendum, origfieldval, final]
step[fieldset=note, null]
}
}
}
DeclareFieldFormat{journaltitle}{mkbibemph{#1},} % italic journal title
DeclareFieldFormat[article]{title}{`#1',} % title of journal article is
DeclareFieldFormat[misc]{title}{mkbibemph{#1} }
DeclareFieldFormat[article]{volume}{#1~}
DeclareFieldFormat[article]{pages}{#1}
defbibenvironment{bibliography}
{list
{}
{setlength{leftmargin}{bibhang}%
setlength{itemindent}{-leftmargin}%
setlength{itemsep}{bibitemsep}%
setlength{parsep}{bibparsep}}}
{endlist}
{item}
setlengthbibitemsep{1.7itemsep}
renewbibmacro*{pageref}{%
addperiod% NEW
iflistundef{pageref}
{}
% {printtext[parens]{% DELETED
{newlinefootnotesizeprinttext[parens]{% NEW
ifnumgreater{value{pageref}}{1}
{bibstring{backrefpages}ppspace}
{bibstring{backrefpage}ppspace}%
% printlist[pageref][-value{listtotal}]{pageref}}}}% DELETED
printlist[pageref][-value{listtotal}]{pageref}addperiod}}}% NEW
DeclareCiteCommand{citeauthor}
{boolfalse{citetracker}%
boolfalse{pagetracker}%
usebibmacro{prenote}}
{ifciteindex
{indexnames{labelname}}
{}%
printtext[bibhyperref]{printnames{labelname}}}
{multicitedelim}
{usebibmacro{postnote}}
DeclareCiteCommand{citeyear}
{boolfalse{citetracker}%
boolfalse{pagetracker}%
usebibmacro{prenote}}
{ifciteindex
{indexnames{labelname}}
{}%
printtext[bibhyperref]{printdate}}
{multicitedelim}
{usebibmacro{postnote}}
begin{document}
nocite{<<CiteKeys>>}
printbibliography[heading=none] % I don't want a heading on my previews
end{document}The referenced example is much shorter, but I’ve fixed some other things while doing this; e.g., making sure that Note fields are not wrapped in square brackets.
To use it, back in the BibDesk settings, as a style enter apa and also, for the BibTeX path next to Full path to bibtex:, enter /Library/TeX/texbin/biber.
Observation
While that precisely works, it has a substantial downside: Biber is significantly slower than BibTeX. So I ended up switching back, and keeping both configuration files as a backup in ~/Library/Application Support/BibDesk/. Unfortunately, BibDesk only applies for one template, previewtemplate.tex to exist, which means, I’ve to copy around the template should I need to, and also, change back and forth between Biber and BibTex as BibTeX path.
Anyway, it is not particularly nice, but workable.
Related: [[🧠Ideaverse/LaTeX/- -|LaTeX]]
