Ray, I'm trying to make progress by taking mini-steps. In trying to execute one of your recommendations, I've hit a snag. Recently you said:
"Choose an existing citation in your LyX document, note down its name as seen there. For eg., "Michael1999". In Mendeley look for that specific bibliographic entry, as close as you can remember. Then find the field "Citation Key". The two must match." By "Mendeley" you mean Mendeley Desktop, right? In the LyX document I'm most concerned with I can find, e.g., the citation "[Hanson2006]". And in Mendeley Desktop I can find the exact bibliographic entry to which this citation refers. But I don't see any field called "Citation Key" in Mendeley Desktop. So I'm stuck at this point. But moving on just one more mini-step, you continue the passage quoted above as follows: "If not, simply reselect the item in LyX bib dialogue from the "Available Citations" pane and delete the old citation from the "Selected Citations" pane" But this is what I'm simply unable to do, because I can't find any way to get any file from my Mendeley Desktop into the "Available Citations" pane in LyX. If only I could do that, I'm pretty sure I could solve my original problem, namely, getting all the :"[?]"s in the pdf replaced with real references. Bill On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 9:52 AM, Ray Rashif <[email protected]> wrote: > On 14 June 2012 11:27, William Hanson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Ray, > > > > Thanks for your careful and detailed response. Here are my answers to > your > > 1-4. > > > > 1. Yes, I had gathered as much. > > > > 2. I was not limited in the number of .bib files I could add when > running > > LyX on my old computer. But you're right. This is minor and can wait. > > > > 3. Yes, this is not an issue. > > > > 4. No, I'm not dealing with master-child documents. > > Your main problem therefore are citations that appear with a question > mark (?). Correct? > > 1. The bib file you used on the old computer must be the same on the > new one. Is it? Can you guarantee so? You may want to use a checksum > utility [1] to verify that they both have the same checksums. Chances > are they are not, and if so, proceed to (2). > > > NEW INFORMATION: I now realize that the .bib file I used (on my old > > computer) for the most important of my old papers is in my Mendeley > desktop > > on the new computer but not in my BibTeX folder. Yet I can't figure out > how > > to move it to the BibTeX folder. A Windows Explorer search of all my > > documents does not find it, and the Mendeley Desktop doesn't seem to have > > any way to move it. > > The bottom line is that the keys in the LyX document must match the > keys in the '.bib' file(s). Mendeley here is a third-party, and all it > does is generate the BibTeX file for you when asked. If what you do is > select the bib file directly from the folder Mendeley exports to, > chances are that you're selecting a new version where in turn chances > are high that keys are not the same as before. > > 2. Open up _all_ the bib files with a text editor. Search for a known > author, which you have cited in one of your documents but appears as a > '?'. The key is right next to the first curly brace '{'. This key and > the key LyX shows you for that particular citation must match. > Otherwise, you've run into a mismatch. Proceed to (3). > > If you're curious, you can manually change the key in the bib file to > match the one known to LyX. Then preview the document, the citation > should now be visible. > > 3. Check your Mendeley Desktop settings for where it stores the bib > file. Copy that file into your working directory (where your relevant > LyX files are for this particular document or set of documents). > Update your LyX files now by re-selecting every broken citation. > > It is best to not load in LyX bib files that are generated by a > third-party application with no LyX integration, because it may be > overwritten. Mendeley Desktop, for the record, overwrites exported > (bib) files. That's why there's a big thin warning at the top of the > file. > > Personally, I prefer to do away with any kind of integration even when > my final step involves KBibTeX (which does support LyX). I always keep > my bib files separate from what's generating them, and they reside > standalone among the related LyX/LaTeX documents. When there are > changes I simply replace them and update my documents accordingly. > > > -- > GPG/PGP ID: C0711BF1 >
