Bibliography

[Markus Raabe]

It would be nice if something like a bibliography could be supported. A list for the literature which items could be cited within topics. For references different options could be provided like numbered references [1], [2] or named references (Author, Year).
MS Word supports a bibliography with citations or Latex supports one too. These could be used as templates for an implementation.

Or it could be extended to general lists which can be referenced using automatic or user defined lables defined with the list.

On some platforms it would be nice if the referenced item could be shown as popup.

Best regards
Markus Raabe

[Tim Green]

Hi Markus,

There isn't currently a dedicated bibliography feature in Help+Manual. For CHM, WebHelp and eWriter it's relatively easy to build one manually: You just set up a chapter or topic for it at the end of the TOC and then link to the entries with anchors. That's a little more problematic in PDF, Word, Kindle and ePub, because in those formats you want a separate section for the bibliography instead of having it be part of the Topics section.

I can't promise anything, but we're definitely going to discuss it as a possible future feature. The problem is that to date, very few customers have ever asked for this -- basically one or two every 2-3 years or so, which is pretty minimal.

[Markus Raabe]

Hi Tim,
thanks for the response. For references like [1], [2] all links would need to be updated manually on reordering. Therefore for manual linking only the named references are an option. A dedicated feature could update all references automatically if there are changes to the bibliography.
But I understand, that there is little motivation to add features with few requests only.

For me this is the last feature I am missing in the software after the formula editor was added which is very helpful.
Best regards
Markus

[Peter Muckle]

I'd find that a very useful feature.

[javier_help]

For me it would be very useful to indicate reference regulations.

Thanks

[Tim Green]

For me this is the last feature I am missing in the software after the formula editor was added which is very helpful.

We're actually already considering this. The first stage would probably be "end notes", which could easily be modified for a Bibliography. Topic or page based footnotes are much more tricky for a multi-format tool like Help+Manual, because you then need to decide how you're going to manage them in things like WebHelp and ePub.

It would be very helpful if you could send me the bibliography features you would find most useful at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) so that I can include that in the developers' meeting on the subject.