Generating BibTeX Keys

A BibTeX key is a unique identifier for a reference in a BibTeX file. To cite a reference in a TeX document, you insert the BibTeX key for the reference in the correct place in the document. When the document is converted to its final output format, your TeX editor replaces the BibTeX keys with the correct, formatted citations. Example:

Suppose your BibTeX file contains this entry:

@book{Andretta.2005
author = {Andretta, Susie},
year = {2005},
title = {Information literacy},
publisher = {Chandos},
address = {Oxford},
}

In your TeX document, you could insert the following citation command:

\cite{Andretta.2005}

When the document is converted, the following entry might be made in the bibliography: Andretta, Susie (2005): Information literacy. Oxford: Chandos.

Generating BibTeX Keys in Citavi

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options > General and select the LaTeX support checkbox.
  2. Citavi offers to create a BibTeX key for every reference in your project. You can later manually change the BibTeX key created for each reference.

Customizing BibTeX Key Templates

On the Tools menu, click Options > Citation and then select the LaTeX support checkbox. Click Customize BibTeX keys.

  1. To change the default template for all reference types, click Default.
  2. Make the changes you want. You can change what fields are used to build the key, how they are formatted, the punctuation used, and conditional exceptions. If you want the punctuation between two elements to be hidden if an element is empty, insert the not sign (¬) before the punctuation by typing Alt+0172.
  3. If you need certain reference types to have special citation keys, you can define additional templates for each of them. Click Add template for reference type and then configure the template.
  4. When you are finished making changes, click OK. Citavi asks what you want to do with existing BibTeX keys.

Additional BibTeX Key Options

On the Tools menu, click Options > Citation > LaTeX support > Customize BibTeX keys > Tools. Here you can find some useful options and commands for working with BibTeX keys.