Hello,
I recently learned about the utility of the LaTex and BibTex systems
during some research into the possibility of automated legal
citation. I am a Mac user, and came across the Bibdesk page at
Wikipedia, and later began using Bibdesk to store my legal references
(cases, statutes, law review articles etc.) because of the ease with
which Bibdesk allowed me to create new categories of references, as
well as the ability to customize the export of these references in XML
documents.
One issue that I have been examining is the development of software
tools that allow users to automatically format legal citations in
their documents using a database-driven system like the BIbTex or
Endnote tools. A complication in this area is that the superior tools
for bibliographic management such as Bibdesk (a terrific tool) is not
apparently compatible with the text editing tool most practicing
lawyers and law professors are effectively required to use, MS Word.
Conversely, a common tool that is compatible with MS Word (Endnote) is
not sufficiently extensible to represent citations according to the
rules legal practitioners must follow. I would be the first to
concede that Word is an inappropriate choice for professional
typesetting, but this reality is not readily changed en masse; lawyers
and law professors are essentially stuck with MS Word. This led me to
try to develop my own barebones system on the Mac that uses
Applescript and XML to correctly format legal citations in the proper
format within MS Word. I found that this tool was very promising, but
I also felt that my crude user interface was not sufficient for any
sort of distribution to other users.
I was therefore curious if it were possible to extend the
functionality of Bibdesk by grafting my Applescript code onto Bibdesk
to have a tool that not only works within the LaTex/BibTex
environment, but also operates within MS Word for the Mac for the
purposes of formatting legal citations. If you have the chance to
respond to me, I would be most appreciative!
cheers,
Conor
-----------------------------------------------
Conor B. McDonough, Ph.D.
J.D. Candidate, 2009
Fordham University School of Law
12310 Winterberry Way
Princeton, NJ 08540
"On the strength of one link in the cable, Dependeth the might of the
chain. Who knows when thou may'st be tested? So live that thou
bearest the strain!"
-ADM R.A. Hopwood, RN, Laws of the Navy
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