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So I have TeXShop for mac, and this comes with BibDesk. Have used BibDesk to create a database with all my references in, and am using this with TeXShop in my LaTeX document. My advisor wants me to use an ampersand instead of "and" in my citations, and also possibly my bibliography. Have found many answers saying to edit the .bst file etc, all for use with biblatex, which I am not using.

At the moment I am using natbib, which I like. But the main problem is that I do not have a .bst file to edit, nor even a .bbl file as I am using this BibDesk- I do not even know how to edit the file BibDesk produces. Also not great at programming so getting very confused! Please please help I would appreciate it so much.

referencingstressesmeout
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    This is a problem with the .bst file, wot with BibDesk. May I suggest it is much easier to do using biblatex. – Bernard Mar 22 '16 at 21:07
  • @Bernard how do I go about that? I can't even find the .bst file? – referencingstressesmeout Mar 22 '16 at 21:08
  • You can find the .bst file: it should be one of the three files in TeXMFRoot/bibtex/bst/natbib. I just say it it harder to patch a .bst file than to customise with biblatex which does not use .bst files, but its own macros which written as normal latex macros. – Bernard Mar 22 '16 at 21:15
  • @referencingstressesmeout - the bst ("bibliography style") file is given as the argument of the \bibliographystyle instruction. – Mico Mar 22 '16 at 21:22
  • @Bernard, how do I use biblatex? – referencingstressesmeout Mar 22 '16 at 21:25
  • @Mico I know the style I am using at the moment is apalike, I just don't understand where this file will be located- all that texshop generates for me is a .bbl file, a .bcf file, and a .blg file? – referencingstressesmeout Mar 22 '16 at 21:25
  • have you tried {&} in the entries and recompile your .bib? that's what I'd do – naphaneal Mar 22 '16 at 21:26
  • @Naphaneal thank you for the suggestion, I tried it but it didn't work- have read somewhere its because bibtex/bibdesk whatever just generates data, it cannot be edited like that as it only recognises 'and' as a splitter between authors, not &. – referencingstressesmeout Mar 22 '16 at 21:31
  • TeXshop is just a front end; it does not generate the bbl and blg files. Those are generated by BibTeX (which is invoked by TeXshop), based on information provided in the aux and bst files. Can you open a terminal window and type kpsewhich apalike.bst at a command prompt? (Since you mentioned the use of TeXshop, I'm assuming you're using MacOSX and MacTeX; please advise if this isn't the case.) – Mico Mar 22 '16 at 21:34
  • You can use the biblatex-apa package,and write \usepackage[style=apa]{biblatex}, but to help you efficiently, you should post a minimal example of your present code to show you what has to be changed.. – Bernard Mar 22 '16 at 21:36
  • @Bernard have tried that, and it comes up with an error because my bib file isn't created using biblatex? – referencingstressesmeout Mar 22 '16 at 21:44
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    @Mico thank you so so much for your help it has worked and you are amazing, you explained the editing of the .bst file so well in your answer to that question! All other explanations of that solution were so confusing for me (the village idiot, apparently). Thank you for your help I so appreciate it! – referencingstressesmeout Mar 22 '16 at 21:58
  • @referencingstressesmeout - You're most welcome! – Mico Mar 22 '16 at 21:59

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