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I use BibDesk to organise my library and implement quotations through biblatex in my documents.

BibDesk has this feature of allowing the user to see a BiBTeX-preview (not biblatex!) of the currently selected publication at the bottom or the sidebar. You can choose between different styles (like ieeetr, alpha, abrvnat etc.).

Until now I never thought about using this preview, because (1) I did not find a style I like and (2) it does not render my biblatex commands and types properly.

So, instead I used the following .tex file (which I found somewhere on the net and modified):

% !TEX TS-program = lualatexmk
\documentclass[a4paper, 11pt, DIV=13]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[   Numbers=OldStyle,
            Ligatures=TeX]{Times New Roman}
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[    style=reading,
            abstract=false,
            abbreviate=false,
            backend=biber
                ]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{BibLaTeX.bib}

\usepackage{hyperref}

\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

This .tex file creates a PDF listing all the publications I have in my .bib file. With this PDF I could easily check and see whether references are properly set. However, creating this PDF file takes rather long, as my library is growing... And anyway it is rather a detour, to be honest, given that there actually is a preview feature implemented into BibDesk.

My question now is: Is it possible to preview my biblatex references with BibDesk's preview-feature using the style I used in the .tex file shown above? What do I have to change in the settings of BibDesk in order to generate a biblatex output?

lockstep
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ClintEastwood
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1 Answers1

5

It is possible to use biblatex with Bibdesk to generate the TeX preview.

Go to Preferences --> TeX preview

Then if you want to use XeLaTeX change the executable for pdflatex to xelatex

enter image description here

Then you have to change the TeX template. Based on what you have provided a suitable template is.

\documentclass[a4paper, 11pt, DIV=13]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[   Numbers=OldStyle,
            Ligatures=TeX]{Times New Roman}
\usepackage[british]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[    style=reading,
            abstract=false,
            abbreviate=false,
            backend=bibtex
                ]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{<<File>>}
\pagestyle{empty}
\textwidth = 6.5in
\renewcommand{\refname}{}

% The following command is provided for LaTeX2RTF compatibility with amslatex.
\newif\iflatextortf
\iflatextortf
\providecommand{\bysame}{\_\_\_\_\_}
\fi

\begin{document}
\nocite{<<CiteKeys>>}   
\printbibliography
\end{document}

After that you are ready to generate the preview (I am not been able to use biber as backend). Also I would suggest to use pdflatex instead of xelatex given that the generation with xelatex is slower.

Stefan Müller
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Guido
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    While basic preview can easily be achieved with BibDesk and biblatex/biber there are limits to this combo. Basically, BibDesk doesn't know how to handle any of biblatex's linked entries by the xref or related entries entries. For bibtex traditional crossref fields BibDesk will search for the linked entry and display everything correctly. But if you want to display an entry making use of biblatex's related feature you have to select both entries by hand. Unfortunately, BibDesk's developers are not interested in improving this. – Simifilm Jan 14 '13 at 06:22
  • @Simifilm I also saw your other post on the BibDesk mailing list, and was wondering, in recent years have you come up with any solution/workaround for BibDesk's poor handling of related and xref entries? (I'm having the same issue as you have it seems, using biblatex-chicago) – jan Aug 10 '16 at 09:19
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    @jan Nothing has really happened here. Unfortunately, the BibDesk developers are really not into biblatex. I would love if someone created a biberDesk fork, but this does not seem very likely ATM. – Simifilm Aug 14 '16 at 08:19
  • @Simifilm A biberDesk would indeed be awesome! I use biblatex-chicago and for the accurate rendering of reviews or translated works it's really impossible without using the biblatex related fields. The problem is also that BibDesk doesn't update citekeys in these fields as it does for traditional crossrefs. I wish they would consider adding that as an option but I also have little hope. I might try to politely ask about these features via the list as maybe there are others who would support our case ... and maybe if there is enough interest they'll reconsider. – jan Aug 14 '16 at 16:31