How can I have BibLaTeX's shorthand displayed without square brackets?

Question

I'd like to reference sources “in the flow in the text”, for example:

As described in the User Manual, ...

Now, if I use the default BibLaTeX style (whichever it is), I get

As described in the [User Manual], ...

or, using \citetitle

As described in the User Manual, ...

How can I cite without either brackets or italics but with a prenote and the hyperlink? Or maybe it's possible with shorttitle?

I would prefer a solution “out of the box”: using BibLaTeX's options or just switching the style, rather than writing some custom code for citations.

---

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage[
backend = biber
]{biblatex}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{filecontents}[overwrite]{biblio.bib}
@Online{key,
    author       = {author},
    title        = {title},
    shorthand    = {User Manual},
    shorttitle   = {User Manual}
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{biblio.bib}
\begin{document}
\cite[in the first half of the][]{key} % brackets
\textcite[in the first half of the][]{key} % not needed author
\citetitle[in the first half of the][]{key} % % no hyperlink, italic
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Answer 1

There are many possible solutions here. What is easiest depends on the context and on what else you would like to achieve.

If you don't select a style, biblatex defaults to style=numeric,. That explains the brackets you see everywhere: Numeric citations are usually given in brackets. And the shorthand is just treated as a replacement for the numeric label.

If you don't need numeric citations, you can choose a different style like authortitle, that does not come with brackets. \printbibliography will not print any labels/shorthands in that style, though, but if you want to see the shorthand in the bibliography section at the end you can use \printshorthands.

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  style=authortitle,
]{biblatex}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@Online{key,
    author       = {author},
    title        = {title},
    shorthand    = {User Manual},
    shorttitle   = {User Manual},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}
\cite[in the first half of the][]{key}
\textcite[in the first half of the][]{key}
\citetitle[in the first half of the][]{key}
\printshorthands
\end{document}

---

An alternative solution if you stick with style=numeric, would be to tell \cite to lose the brackets.

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  style=numeric,
]{biblatex}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\DeclareCiteCommand{\cite}
  {\usebibmacro{prenote}}
  {\usebibmacro{citeindex}%
   \usebibmacro{cite}}
  {\multicitedelim}
  {\usebibmacro{postnote}}
\DeclareFieldFormat{labelnumberwidth}{#1}
\DeclareFieldFormat{shorthandwidth}{#1}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@Online{key,
    author       = {author},
    title        = {title},
    shorthand    = {User Manual},
    shorttitle   = {User Manual},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}
\cite[in the first half of the][]{key}
\textcite[in the first half of the][]{key}
\citetitle[in the first half of the][]{key}
\printbibliography
\end{document}