Combining Elements in One Component

If you want to place multiple elements between parentheses, it's best to combine these elements in one component. It can also make sense to combine two components if you need certain punctuation to appear before an element if the element before it is empty. For example, a colon might usually appear between a place of publication and the publisher. Instead of a colon you might want a comma to appear if the publisher is missing.

1 On the Component menu, click New.

2 Drag each element to the main editing pane.

3 Define the formatting for each element. In this example, not all publishers should appear in the bibliography.

4 Since elements in a component no longer have their own Punctuation before and Punctuation after fields, text elements should be used instead for punctuation such as colons and spaces. Use "Apply when" to make sure these text elements only appear when these fields actually have entries.

5 To make changes to the properties of the component as a whole, double-click a blank area of the main editing pane (highlighted here in yellow).

6 Give the component a new name. Use the name placeholders: {0} is used for the first element, {1} for the second, etc.
Text ­elements do not have a name placeholder.

7 Drag the new component where you want it to appear. Change the Punctuation before field if you want.