So here is an interesting thing to share today.
What is BibWord and why is it so cool?
Simply put, BibWord is a little extension or plugin of sorts that you can install into the root directory of Microsoft Word, giving that little nifty auto-bibliography list you have all the more functionality.
Above is an example from an assignment that I did last month for BU4061, the debate and rebuttal. The way the document is set out is that all bibliography items are all referenced within the document, clicking a section of the debate (E.g. CERN), "Physicists wanted to replicate the conditions that existed a fraction after the big bang by using a Large Hadron Collider (CERN, 2008) to collide particles at speeds just shy of the speed of light" will take you to the citation in the bibliography, then clicking the citation item in the bibliography will then open a website. Easy enough.
The two windows you see there are Source Manager and Edit Source. Source Manager tracks and records every single source you have ever placed into Microsoft Word, giving you a full reference list that you can look up at any time. The Edit/Add Source allows users to simply fill in the fields and Word will take care of formatting for you.
While Word can format your bibliography to change it to styles APA, sort by name, etc etc, the list is in all honestly... rather small.
And this is where BibWord comes in!
As you can see here, I'm using Microsoft Word 2007 with BibWord. In about the time of 5 minutes, all it takes is a simple download then installing the files to the Word directory. For instructions see here: http://bibword.codeplex.com/releases/view/15852
There are a few areas of BibWord that require a little bit of working out. I noticed that ACM referencing doesn't appreciate web references - whether that is an formatting standard for ACM or a Style limitation I'm not sure, though users can edit/add to the style lists as the developers provide the source code.
Editing on a average user scale though may just be a bit difficult at this stage:
Quick flick through one of the Havard source files revealed some 3100+ lines of code. There was another plugin I'm sure of that allowed users to specify format requirements, OpenSource naturally, though I can't find it. I'll have to go looking again.Lastly. Before people beat me to it...
Another thing to mention as well as a good program is EndNote.
Provided free to staff and students at JCU. http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/libcomp/resources/endnote/index.htm
And download instructions: http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/libcomp/resources/endnote/JCUPRD_021073
Haven't had a full play around with EndNote as of yet, though when I do, I'll post thoughts and feedback on it.
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