[OS X TeX] BibTeX, BibDesk, EndNote

[Adam Maxwell]

On Monday, January 31, 2005, at 10:22AM, Holger Frauenrath <mail at frauenrath.com> wrote:

>I have a couple of questions concerning BibTeX/Bibdesk:
>
>When I tried to export my Endnote library (actually, a fraction of it 
>containing approximately 300 references) to a .bib file, I first ran 
>into problems with the encoding when I opened it in Bibdesk. By trial 
>and error, I found that changing the default behavior in the 
>preferences from "Read as TeX in ASCII encoding" to "Read as Unicode 
>TeX using above encoding" and the encoding set to "Mac OS Roman" 
>(which, I guess is what is exported by Endnote), Bibdesk would open the 
>bib file without any error messages.
>
>Is this the correct way of doing it? 

This sounds okay, but there are some issues to watch for.  One of the non-BibTeX ref managers exports BibTeX without a cite key, so make sure your articles have cite keys associated with them.  If not, you can use BibDesk to automatically generate them for you, but if you're going to import the same references again at some point in the future, avoid the use of a random character in the cite key specification.

>Are there any drawbacks in terms 
>of BibTeX compatibility? Do I have to do anything with this file (like 
>saving it with a different encoding)? 

If you opened the file as MacOSRoman, you also saved it as MacOSRoman by default.  I think you'll also have to use \usepackage[applemac]{inputenc} if you go this route, and make sure your files are all in MacRoman encoding.  I don't use this myself, so I'm open to correction here.

If you prefer another encoding, use BibDesk's "File->Export->Export BibTeX with encoding" menu option to change the BibTeX file encoding.  BibDesk handles encodings similar to TextEdit; the file is opened with your default encoding unless you specify otherwise, and it is saved with the encoding you opened the file with.  If you export as ASCII, the accented characters that BibDesk recognizes should be automatically converted to TeX commands (e.g. u with umlaut becomes {\"u}).

>When I save a .bib file from 
>Bibdesk, is it necessarily syntactically correct?

If not, file a bug, and send me a sample off-list to look at.  See if you have any warnings when you open the file in BibDesk, as well (Window->Errors).

thanks,
Adam
--------------------- Info ---------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
           & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Post: <mailto:MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>