Personal Document Numbers (PDN)

[Judi 0]

About ten years ago some of us were putting our Personal Document Numbers in the Source Definition Screen, Output, Bibliography in { } in the hope that eventually we would be able to generate a sortable list of our sources with our Personal Document Numbers. I have not been able to locate any information on the Support Forum to show if anything happened with this subject. It now appears that some are adding a Source Element such as File Reference for this purpose. Has there been any software created to globally move the PDN from one place to the other? I assume if you used a Source Element field you can add it to the Output column in the List of Sources Report to achieve the report. Is it possible to export the report to Excel instead of Word? Thanks for any new information on this subject.

[Jim Byram 0]

With the List of Sources report in v7.04, if you select 'Columnar'on the Options / General tab, you can output the report to Excel. And if you have data in the File Reference field, you can sort the report on this data.

 

I suspect that you're going to need to decide on your source template design and edit your source types and sources to get your sources set up like you want.

[Michael Hannah 0]

Sorry, Judi, but I looked at the TMG Utility and can't seem to figure out a way to have it move text it finds in the Bibliography sentence to the contents of a Source Element such a File Reference. You could "find" all these brackets you used and "replace" them and the text inside them with a source element variable name, but that does not move the text to that element's contents.

 

If you are going to edit these sources and move your Personal Document Numbers, I suggest thinking carefully about the differences between the Source Element named File Reference, and the Reference field associated with linking a source to a repository. There are advantages and disadvantages to putting the PDN in each of them.

 

In my sources I use the File Reference element only for an original document, such as a birth certificate, with an official filing number that is part of that document's definition and/or is the number you must use to find that item where the original is located. If I have a document in my own personal files, whether a copy or an original, and have assigned my own Personal Document Number to it to aid me in relocating it within my own files, then I link my TMG repository "My Files" to the source, and enter my PDN in the Reference field of that link.

 

Since either of these methods can output the filing number in any of the three source templates, e.g. Bibliography, it is really a matter of choice. The first is the element [FILE REFERENCE], the second is the element [REPOSITORY REFERENCE]. I like using [REPOSITORY REFERENCE] for the PDN as I find it makes it easy to produce a List of Sources report of everything in that repository.

 

Hope this gives you ideas.

[Judi 0]

Thank you both for your suggestions. Since I have almost 1800 sources, I will have to give this some thought before I change anything one source at a time. It may just not be worth the time.

[Jim Byram 0]

btw...

 

About ten years ago some of us were putting our Personal Document Numbers in the Source Definition Screen, Output, Bibliography in { } in the hope that eventually we would be able to generate a sortable list of our sources with our Personal Document Numbers.

If the PDN in sensitive braces is located at the beginning of the Bibliography template, then the List of Sources report can be sorted on the PDNs since sorting on the Bibliography templates will accomplish what you want.

[Michael Hannah 0]

Thank you both for your suggestions. Since I have almost 1800 sources, I will have to give this some thought before I change anything one source at a time. It may just not be worth the time.

Happy to share ideas.

 

With that many sources, I would probably take a long term approach. I would put the PDN in the element of my choice for all new sources, and every time I added/modified a citation to an existing source I would change its PDN. After a while the sources that still need changing may be small enough to make it worth the time. I keep a list next to my keyboard of housekeeping changes like this I wish to make as I work on my data. Then I periodically check what is "left" to see if I can finish off that task. It seems to make them less daunting.

[Judi 0]

btw...

 

About ten years ago some of us were putting our Personal Document Numbers in the Source Definition Screen, Output, Bibliography in { } in the hope that eventually we would be able to generate a sortable list of our sources with our Personal Document Numbers.

If the PDN in sensitive braces is located at the beginning of the Bibliography template, then the List of Sources report can be sorted on the PDNs since sorting on the Bibliography templates will accomplish what you want.

 

Unfortunately they are at the end of the Bibliography template. But I can still print the report and sort by title and get the PDN if I landscape and make my Bibliography column wide enough. It just takes more time and ink to print. I just won't be able to sort by PDN but I'm not sure I would ever want to do that anyway. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Judi 0]

Thank you both for your suggestions. Since I have almost 1800 sources, I will have to give this some thought before I change anything one source at a time. It may just not be worth the time.

Happy to share ideas.

 

With that many sources, I would probably take a long term approach. I would put the PDN in the element of my choice for all new sources, and every time I added/modified a citation to an existing source I would change its PDN. After a while the sources that still need changing may be small enough to make it worth the time. I keep a list next to my keyboard of housekeeping changes like this I wish to make as I work on my data. Then I periodically check what is "left" to see if I can finish off that task. It seems to make them less daunting.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I may just start this when I start researching a different line. As for going back and changing the 1800 sources I already have---that would just add another list of housekeeping changes to the pile I already have.