The Biblioscape Options window lets you change settings for the display, formatting manuscripts, the database, reference types, import and export, and others. To access the Options window, please go to the menu command "Tools | Options".
General Display
Window font: Biblioscape is set to use the font "Verdana" with size 8 by default. You can change this by going to the "Windows Font" section and selecting the font name and size. The text used by Biblioscape will be changed accordingly. All record editor windows opened subsequently will use the new font settings.
References module preview: Changes the font and size used in the Formatted Preview pane of the References module.
Enter new reference in Live Preview panel: If checked, when the New Reference command is clicked, the reference editor window will not be displayed. Instead, the user can add new records in the reference list window.
Show grid line for reference live preview: If checked, grid lines will be displayed in the reference live preview.
Show formatted citation in formatted preview: In the References module formatted preview pane, the formatted bibliography is always shown. If the box is checked, the formatted citation part will be shown as well. For most styles, the formatted citations will display an author-year or a number. For footnote styles like those starting with "*" in the style name, you may want to have this box checked, so formatted citations in footnotes can be shown in the preview pane.
Live spell check in rich text editor: If checked, a squiggly line will be displayed under misspelled words in rich text editors, such as notes in the Notes module and the document field in the References module.
Enable AutoComplete in reference editor: In Biblioscape's reference editor, for certain fields -- "Authors", "Journal", and "Keywords" -- the program will look up and display the closest match while you type. If the suggested match is what you want to type, you can just press Ctrl+K to auto complete the word or phrase. Some people may find this feature annoying, so AutoComplete can be turned off by unchecking this box.
Home page URL: When you use Biblioscape's integrated browser, the URL entered here will be the first page opened.
Ruler unit: The ruler unit used in the rich text editors. The default is set to Inch for US users.
Default word processor: When a RTF file needs to be opened outside Biblioscape, the word processor entered here will be used.
Default Web browser: When clicking a URL in Biblioscape, the web browser entered here will be used.
List favorite styles only: If checked, only output styles that are marked "Favorite" will be displayed in the styles pick list in the main toolbar and the Format Manuscript window.
List favorite import filters only: If checked, only import filters that are marked "Favorite" will be displayed in the import filters pick list in the Import References window.
References module data grid: In order to boost performance, Biblioscape only retrieves a partial list of available fields in the reference table. If the data fields you want to display in the reference list are not available by default, you can add them by checking the box before their names in the Fields to be included list. When you close a reference editor, the changes made are reflected only after the list is refreshed. To boost performance, the list is not refreshed if the number of references in the list is more than the number you set here under Refresh reference list. The default number is 2400.
Format Manuscript
Citation tag: This section specifies symbols used in temporary citations. Normally, you don't need to change them unless you have "[...#...]" text inside your document. This text will cause Biblioscape to misinterpret temporary citations unless you change the citation tag here.
Start Symbol: The start symbol is used to enclose temporary citations.
End Symbol: The end symbol is used to enclose temporary citations.
ID Symbol: The ID symbol is used before a Reference ID inside a temporary citation.
Citation options: When you insert a temporary citation into a manuscript, you may want to tag the reference at the same time so you can easily see which references are cited in a given manuscript. To do this, please have the box "Tag records with selected category when copying temporary citations" checked. Before opening "Tools | Options", create a new category name for your manuscript. Now go to "Tools | Options", click on the "Format Manuscript" tab and select the category you have just created in the combo box under "Tag records with selected category when copying temporary citations". References will be stamped with the selected category when you insert them as temporary citations or copy them as temporary citations. For LaTeX users, Biblioscape can generate temporary citations for LaTeX. Go to the menu command "Tools | Customize". Click the "Commands" tab, and select "Edit" as the category. Drag and drop the command "Cite for LaTeX" to the toolbar or menu system. On the Options window, enter the text to appear before the LaTeX temporary citation. The default is "\cite" as Cite for LaTeX prefix, so when you click the command "Cite for LaTeX", the temporary citation in the Clipboard will be, for example, "\cite{MCCLEARY:1986:ID78}". You can then paste it to your LaTeX editor. You can export references as LaTeX reference files by going to "File | Export". On the "Tagged" tab, select "BibTeX -- LaTeX" as the export type.
Sort temporary citations in selected records by: When you select select references and copy or insert them as temporary citations, Biblioscape will sort them according to the setting selected here. The options are: Authors Title, Authors Year Title, Years Authors, No Sorting.
Use "File As" instead of "Reference ID" for Temporary Citations: By default, Biblioscape uses the Reference ID to identify each reference during formatting. Since the Reference ID number is only unique in the database in which it resides, the same reference may have a different Reference ID in a different database. You can use text to uniquely identify each reference if you keep more than one database. If this box is checked, Biblioscape will use the text in the field "File As" in temporary citations when you click the menu command "Edit | Temporary Citation".
Do not prompt user when reference type specific sub-style is missing, use Generic instead: In most Biblioscape output styles, not all reference types are included. During formatting, if Biblioscape finds a reference type that is not included in the output style you picked, Biblioscape can prompt you or continue to use the generic one without prompting, depending on this checkbox setting.
Bibliography: This section controls the appearance of formatted bibliographies in a formatted document.
Bibliography Font Size: This is the font size used in the reference section of a formatted document. If you format your manuscript chapter by chapter and want to start with a different number for each chapter, you can enter the number in the Start with number box.
Support unformat manuscript: Biblioscape can convert formatted documents back to their original state with temporary citations. This is achieved by using hidden text. Some simple word processors like Windows WordPad don't support hidden text. If you use such a word processor, uncheck this box so hidden text won't be used. If this box is unchecked, you won't be able to convert a formatted document back to its unformatted state with temporary citations. If so, you should always work on the unformatted document and format the manuscript only when it's ready to be submitted. Normally you don't need to uncheck this box, because almost all word processors support hidden text.
HTML options: This section controls how Biblioscape formats references in HTML format.
Separate each record by: Specify wether to separate each reference in the References section by a paragraph or by a new line. Separating by paragraph will cause a blank line to be displayed between each reference.
Hyperlink citation and bibliography: Check this box to let Biblioscape create a hyperlink between a citation and its corresponding reference, allowing the reader to jump to the reference in the bibliography section by clicking on the in-text citation.
International users: If you use Biblioscape to format manuscripts not written in a western European language, you need to change the Language character set from "0 ANSI (Latin languages)" to another character set. All major languages are supported, including Chinese (traditional or simplified), Japanese, Russian, Arab, Hebrew, Eastern European, Korean, etc. The bibliography generated by Biblioscape uses Times New Roman as the default font. You can change the Font for the selected language using the combo box. You especially need to change this after the language character set is changed because the current font may not support the language character set you selected. If "0 ANSI (Latin languages)" or "1 Default " is selected as "Language character set", the formatted citation will adopt whatever font is used by the preceding text. If another character set is selected, Biblioscape will use the "Font for the selected language" instead of the font of preceding the text for the formatted citation. When formatting documents in east Asian languages, the author's name format shouldn't be changed. You should keep the box "Format double byte languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.)" checked. You have to remember to uncheck it when formatting documents in European languages. Otherwise, the author name format will always stay the same.
Database
Secondary Index: Secondary indexes are used to sort references in the correct order in the "Retrieve All" mode. If you customize the data grid to include other fields, you can add extra secondary indexes for a field by checking the box before the field name. If you don't use "Retrieve All" often, or don't want to sort references under the "Retrieve All" mode, you can remove secondary indexes by checking off the box before the field name so you can save some disk space.
Full Text Indexing: Biblioscape can index each word of a record in References, Notes module, etc. so that you can find what you want quickly even when your database grows large. Rebuild full text indexes: Sometimes, the full text indexes need to be rebuilt. If you get error messages like index buffer corruption, you need to rebuild the full text indexes. Click the button "Start" to rebuild it. Full text live indexing: By default, Biblioscape will update the full text index while you add, delete, or edit a record. In certain circumstances, you may want to disable live indexing. For example, if you are going to import several thousands of records into the Biblioscape References module, you can boost the import speed by temporarily disabling live indexing. Max num. of hits to show: When you search references or notes by using indexed search, you can limit the number of records to display. For example, if more than 1000 records meet your search condition, you may want to refine the search instead of displaying them all.
Lookup tables live indexing: Biblioscape automatically parses the Authors and Keywords fields, and puts individual authors and keywords in a separate table. This information is used in AutoComplete and lookup operations. In certain circumstances, you may want to disable live indexing. For example, if you are going to import several thousands of records into the Biblioscape References module, you can boost the import speed by temporarily disabling live indexing.
Enable Undo Delete: By default, when you delete a record, Biblioscape puts it into the Recycle Bin. So you can recover it later if you made a mistake. Uncheck this box if you want Biblioscape to delete a record permanently instead of moving it into the Recycle Bin.
Force Buffer Flush: When you add new records or made changes to existing records, the Biblioscape database engine will cache them into your computer's memory instead of writing to the disk immediately. This will boost performance, but in the case of a crash, Biblioscape may not be able to write changes in the cache to the disk. This will result in data loss entered in your last session. If you want Biblioscape to write changes immediately to the disk without caching, have this box checked.
Auto-update "File As" field: In the references module, each record is stamped with the author, the year, and part of the title to be uniquely identified. The File As text can be used to identify a reference instead of a Reference ID in a temporary citation so that when the same reference is exported from one database to another, the temporary citation can still correctly identify the reference in spite of a changed Reference ID. If you want Biblioscape to have this field updated automatically, have this box checked. If you want to manage the "File As" field by yourself, leave this box unchecked.
Update File As field: Click this button to make Biblioscape regenerate the "File As" text for all reference records. All "File As" text will be removed first; Biblioscape will regenerate them according to the current data. This is useful when you switch from the user controlled "File As" field to the Biblioscape generated one.
Register URL, bsl, brl: Biblioscape supports URL in the form "biblioscape://...". From another application such as Word, you can enter something similar to biblioscape://RefID=23. When this URL is clicked, Biblioscape will be automatically started and the reference with ID 23 will be shown in the editor. Biblioscape will try to automatically enable this when you run Biblioscape for the first time, but this action needs Windows admin user privileges. If your Windows account doesn't have that privilege, Biblioscape won't be able to enable this feature. You can have a Windows admin user run Biblioscape and click this button to enable this feature. This action will also register Biblioscape database files *.bsl and *.bsl, as well as the Biblioscape Tag File *.btf so that when those files are double clicked, Biblioscape will start automatically and have the clicked database or file opened.
Adopt categories of the current one for a new record: If you organize records (references, notes, etc.) by categories, you may want to tag a new record with the same set of categories as the current one. This will save you time because you don't have to tag every new record when it is created.
Reference Types
A Reference database contains references from a variety of different sources, such as books, journal articles, and newspaper articles. Each type of reference has its own set of data fields. For example, a "Journal Article" does not have an editor, but a "Book Edited" has editors. Biblioscape has 27 pre-defined reference types. All these can be edited, and you can also add more reference types if needed.
All reference types and definition files are located under the "Reftypes" sub-directory. You should not edit these files with a text editor. To be safe, you should only use the Biblioscape customized tools to edit them. Of the 27 reference types, all but the Generic type can be modified. Changes made to the Reference Types apply to all databases opened on that computer. The Reference types definition determines which data fields are available for that type in the reference editor "User Defined" tab.
Default reference types
If you have messed up your reference types customization or want to start over from a clean reference types installation, first quit Biblioscape and delete all files under the "reftypes" folder. Click here to download the default reference types in a zip file. Then, unzip it to the "reftypes" folder. The next time you start Biblioscape, the default reference types will be used.
Move database to another computer
If you move your database to a different computer, the Reference Types definition may be different from yours. If the reference type definition is not available for a reference, the Generic field labels will be used instead. There is an easy way to move the reference types data along with your database and still not overwrite the reference types definition on the other computer. You can copy the "Reftypes" folder along with your database. If Biblioscape finds a "Reftypes" folder under the database folder, the reference types definition will be loaded from that folder instead of the one under the Biblioscape root directory.
Reference Types & Data Entry
When entering a new reference, the first thing to decide is its reference type. The chosen reference type specifies which fields appear in the "User Defined" tab of reference editor. When you change the reference type, both the number of fields displayed and the field labels may be different.
Customize Reference Types
To customize a reference type's definition, click the menu command "Tools | Options...". Click the "Reference Types" tab. The first column lists the field names used in the database table. The second column lists the field labels for the type "Generic". Neither of these columns can be edited. For the rest of the reference type columns, you can change the field labels. If you leave the field label blank, that data field won't be displayed in the "User Defined" tab of the reference editor.
Add a new reference type
Click the "New" button to add a new reference type. First, give the new reference type a name. After a new column is created, you can change the field labels, or change it to blank if you don't want to show that field. If you want to create a new reference type that is similar to an existing one, click on the "BaseOn" button, then make changes.
Delete a reference type
You should not delete one of the pre-defined reference types. If you want to delete a reference type you just added, select any cell in that column and click the "Delete" button.
Import and Export reference types
You can export the whole reference types definition table as a delimited file. Then, open that file in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. Make changes, and then import it back.
Import / Export
When defining an import filter, you need to map tagged fields from the importing file to each data field in the Biblioscape reference table. In the import filter editor, each data field label of a specific reference type can be customized. You normally don't need to customize the field labels.
Export each record in HTML as
When exporting references in HTML format, you can choose to separate each reference by a paragraph or by a line. If the references are separated by a paragraph, there will be a bigger margin between each reference.
Direct Export support
Some web based citation database providers display a download button to send your search results directly into your bibliographic software. Biblioscape supports such a feature even if Biblioscape is not listed on their web page. Many citation database providers, such as Highwire Press, Ovid, OCLC, ProQuest, the ISI Web of Science and others, provide a direct export of references into bibliographic software. You can click the button "Associate with Biblioscape" to add direct export support in Biblioscape. After this, when you click the "Download to EndNote" button in a web page, those references will be imported into Biblioscape instead of EndNote. You don't need EndNote to be installed for this to work. If you already have EndNote installed, you can click the "Associate with EndNote" button when you want the direct export to be associated with EndNote instead of Biblioscape. You can switch direct export between these two software in case both are installed. If you use Netscape instead of IE, please click the buttons below with the same label.
Others
Fields to check for spelling: Biblioscape has built-in spell check. For records in the References module, you don't need to check the spelling for all fields. Some fields like "Year", "Volume", "Number", etc. don't need to be checked. You can control which fields to check for spelling errors by checking the box before the field name.
"Web post hide" fields: The Biblioscape web server "BiblioWeb" can post your bibliographic database live on the Web. Some users may not want to make all fields available on the Web. For example, a professor may want to hide his or her notes about a reference while posting his or her bibliographic database for his or her students. You can use this list box to control which data fields are to be hidden when posting on the Web. In order to hide certain fields, check the box "Web Post Hide" in the tab "All Fields" of the reference editor. Only references with the "Web Post Hide" value checked will have Web Post Hide rules applied to them. This only applies to the reference record display form, not the edit form.
Default font for the document field and notes module: You can change the default font and font size used in rich text fields in Biblioscape. These include the Document field in the References module and the Notes field in the Notes module. The default font is Verdana, size 10. If you need to enter text in another language most of the time, you may want to select a font that supports the language you use.
Include linked references when copy or shoot notes: If checked, link references will be included as temporary citations at the end of the note when executing the command "Edit | Shoot Note".
Automatically add categories in the "New Categories" folder if they do not exist in the current database: Users are allowed to enter categories directly in the Categories field of references, notes, tasks, and charts. If checked, Biblioscape will check if the directly added categories already exist in the categories table. If not, Biblioscape will add these categories to the categories folder "New Categories".
Automatically check related references when browsing: If checked, Biblioscape will go to the Internet and look for related references as well as freely available full text when browsing references.
Case-insensitive in Advanced Search: If checked, all string searches when using Advanced Search will be case-insensitive. For example, if users search the word "join", both "Join" and "join" will be considered a hit.