1 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
3 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="jabref_help.css"/>
8 <h1>The JabRef main window</h1>
10 <p><em>Note:</em> most menu actions
11 referred in the following have keyboard shortcuts, and many are
12 available from the toolbar. The keyboard shortcuts are found in
13 the pull-down menus.</p>
15 <p>This is the main window from where you work with your
16 databases. Below the menubar and the toolbar is a tabbed pane
17 containing a panel for each of your currently open databases.
18 When you select one of these panels, a table appears, listing
19 all the database's entries, as well as a configurable selection
23 <li>You decide which fields are shown in the table by
24 checking the fields you want to see in the
25 <strong>Preferences</strong> dialog.</li>
27 <li>Double-click a line of the table to edit the entry
28 content. You can navigate the table with the arrow
31 <li>The table is sorted according to a set of fields of
32 your choosing. The default sort order can be set up in
33 <strong>Preferences -> Entry table</strong>, but to
34 more quickly change the order, click the header of a column to
35 set it as the primary sort criterion, or reverse the
36 sorting if it is already set. Another click will deselect
37 the column as sorting criterion. Hold down <b>CONTROL</b>
38 and click a column to add, reverse or remove it as a
39 sub-criterion after the primary column. You can add an
40 arbitrary number of sub-criteria, but only three levels
41 will be stored for the next time you start JabRef.</li>
43 <li>Adjust the width of each column by dragging the borders
44 between their headers.</li>
47 Color codes can be toggled in the
48 <strong>Preferences</strong> dialog, and they help you
49 visualize the completeness of your database by coloring
53 <li>A <span style="color: red">red</span> cell in the
54 leftmost column denotes an incomplete entry.</li>
56 <li>A <span style="color: #909000">yellow</span> cell in
57 the leftmost column denotes an entry that doesn't
58 define all required fields by itself, but that
59 contains a cross-reference.</li>
61 <li>A <span style="color: blue">blue</span> cell denotes a
64 <li>A <span style="color: green">green</span> cell denotes
65 an optional field.</li>
67 <li>An uncolored cell denotes a field which is not
68 used by the <em>bibtex</em> program for this type
69 of entry. The field can still be edited in
75 <h2>Adding a new entry</h2>
77 <p>There are several ways to add a new
78 entry. The <strong>New entry</strong> menu action shows a
79 dialog where you can choose the type of the entry from a list.
80 To bypass this dialog, there are also separate menu actions for
81 each entry type, and keyboard shortcuts for the most common
84 <p>When a new entry is added, by default an
85 <a href="EntryEditorHelp.html">entry editor</a> for the entry
86 will be opened. This behaviour can be toggled in the
87 <strong>Preferences</strong> dialog.</p>
89 <p><em>Note:</em> We strongly recommend learning the shortcuts
90 for the entry types you use most often, e.g. CTRL-SHIFT-A for
91 adding an <em>article</em> entry.</p>
93 <h2>Editing an entry</h2>
96 <a href="EntryEditorHelp.html">entry editor</a> for an
97 existing entry, simply double-click anywhere on the appropriate
98 line will open the <a href="EntryEditorHelp.html">entry editor</a>
99 (or select the entry and press ENTER).</p>
101 <h2>Referencing a <em>bibtex</em> string in a field</h2>
103 <p>In JabRef you write the contents of all fields the same way as you
104 would in a text editor, with one exception: to reference a
105 string, enclose the name of the string in a set of #
106 characters, e.g.:<br />
107 '#jan# 1997',<br />
108 which will be interpreted as the string named 'jan' followed by
111 <p>See also: <a href="StringEditorHelp.html">string editor</a>.