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4 <basefont size="4" color="#2F4958" face="arial" />
6 <h1>The entry editor</h1>
8 <p><em>Opened from main window by
9 double-clicking anywhere on the line of the entry, or selecting
10 the entry and pressing ENTER. The panel is closed by pressing
13 <p>In this panel you can specify all relevant information on a
14 single entry. The entry editor checks the type of your entry,
15 and lists all the fields that are required, and the ones that
16 are optional, for referring the entry with <em>bibtex</em>. In
17 addition, there are several fields termed <em>General
18 fields</em>, that are common to all entry types.</p>
20 <p>You can fully customize which fields should be regarded as
21 required and optional for each type of entry, and which fields
22 appear in the General fields tab. See
23 <a href="CustomEntriesHelp.html">Customizing entry types</a>
24 for more information about this.</p>
26 <p>For information about how the fields should be filled out,
27 see <a href="BibtexHelp.html">Bibtex help</a>.</p>
29 <h2>The entry editor's panels</h2>
31 <p>The entry editor contains six
32 panels: <em>Required fields</em>, <em>Optional fields</em>,
33 <em>General</em>, <em>Abstract</em>, <em>Review</em> and
34 <em>BibTeX source</em>, where <em>General</em>,
35 <em>Abstract</em> and <em>Review</em> can be customized (see
36 <a href="GeneralFields.html">Customizing general fields</a> for
37 details). Inside the three first panels, TAB and SHIFT-TAB are
38 used to switch focus between the text fields.</p>
40 <p>Switch panels by clicking on the tabs, or navigate to the
41 panel to the left or right using the following key
42 combinations: CTRL-TAB or CTRL-PLUS switch to the tab to the
43 right, and CTRL-SHIFT-TAB or CTRL-MINUS switch to the tab to
44 the left. You can also switch to the next or previous entry by
45 pressing CTRL-SHIFT-DOWN or CTRL-SHIFT-UP, respectively, or by
46 clicking the appropriate toolbar button.</p>
48 <p>The <em>bibtex source</em> panel shows how the entry will
49 appear when the database is saved in <em>bibtex</em> format. If
50 you wish, you can edit the <em>bibtex</em> source directly in
51 this panel. When you move to a different panel, press CTRL-S or
52 close the entry editor, JabRef will try to parse the contents
53 of the source panel. If there are problems, you will be
54 notified, and given the option to edit your entry further, or
55 to revert to the former contents. If <strong>Show source by
56 default</strong> is checked in the <strong>General
57 options</strong> tab of the <strong>Preferences</strong>
58 dialog, the source panel will be the one shown each time you
59 open the entry editor. If you prefer editing the source rather
60 than using the other four panels, you should check this
63 <p><strong>Tip:</strong> If your database contains fields
64 unknown to JabRef, these will be visible in the source
67 <p><strong>Tip:</strong> the <i>pdf</i> and <i>url</i> fields
68 support Drag and Drop operations. You can drop there an url
69 from your browser. either a link to a pdf file (that JabRef can
70 download for you) or you can keep the link.</p>
72 <h2>Field consistency checking</h2>
74 <p>When the contents of a field
75 is changed, JabRef checks if the new contents are acceptable.
76 For field types that are used by <em>bibtex</em>, the contents
77 are checked with respect to the use of the '#' character. The
78 hash symbol is <em>only</em> to be used in pairs, wrapping the
79 name of a <em>bibtex</em> string that is referenced. Note that
80 JabRef does not check if the referenced string actually exists
81 (this is not trivial, since the <em>bibtex</em> style you use
82 can define an arbitrary set of strings unknown to JabRef).</p>
84 <p>If the contents are not accepted, the field will turn red,
85 indicating an error. In this case the change will not be
88 <!--<h2>Word/name autocompletion</h2>
90 <p>The entry editor offers autocompletion of words. In the Preferences dialog
91 you can enable or disable autocompletion, and choose for which fields
92 autocompletion is active.</p>
94 <p>With autocompletion, JabRef records all words that appear in
95 each of the chosen fields throughout your database. Whenever you write
96 the beginning of one of these words, it will be suggested visually. To
97 ignore the suggestion, simply write on. To accept the suggestion,
98 either press <em>ENTER</em> or use your arrow keys or other keys to
99 remove the selection box around the suggested characters.</p>
101 <p><em>Note:</em> the words considered for suggestion are only the ones
102 appearing in the same field in entries of the same database as the one you
103 are editing. There are many ways to realise this kind of feature, and if you feel
104 it should have been implemented differently, we'd like to hear your suggestions!</p>
106 <h2>Copy <em>bibtex</em> key</h2>
108 <p>Pressing CTRL-K or the 'key' button causes the <em>bibtex</em> key for your entry
109 to be copied to the clipboard.</p>
112 <h2>Autogenerate <em>bibtex</em> key</h2>
114 <p>Press CTRL-G or the
115 'gen key' button (the magic wand) to autogenerate a
116 <em>bibtex</em> key for your entry based on the contents of its
119 <p>For more information on how JabRef generates <em>bibtex</em>
120 keys, see <a href="LabelPatterns.html">Customizing the BibTex
121 key generator</a>.</p>
123 <h2>Word/name autocompletion</h2>
125 <p>JabRef offers autocompletion of words and names. Autocompletion can be
126 set up in <b>Options -> Preferences -> Entry editor</b>, and is by default
127 activated for several of the common fields.</p>
129 <p>When editing a field for which autocompletion is activated, JabRef will
130 try to suggest word completions as you write, based on which words are used
131 for that specific field elsewhere in your database. The suggestion appears
132 as a highlighted block of text completing the word. If there are several
133 possible completions, you can use the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys to cycle
134 through the possible suggestions. To accept a suggestion, press ENTER once.
135 To ignore the suggestion, just keep typing.</p>