How to proceed with the development of the

Docear4LibreOffice add-on ?
October 23rd, 2014 by Joeran [Docear]
More than half a year ago, we started a call for donation to pay a freelancer who wanted to develop
an add-on for LibreOffice and OpenOffice, comparable to Docear4Word. Originally, we estimated
that it would take about 2 months before the work was completed, or at least a decent demo version
was ready to released. Well, that estimate wasnt quite precise the developer hasnt finished even
an alpha version yet. In addition, we are still missing a significant amount of donations to fully pay
the developer ($1,000 are missing).
The question arises, how to proceed? We see the following options:
1. Just wait
The freelancer is still working on the add-on. So, most likely he will finish the add-on some day
maybe in 2 months, maybe in 6 months, maybe in a year. However, I have to point out that my
satisfaction with the current progress and outcomes are not overwhelming. Personally, I have some
doubts that the final add-on will meet the quality expectations I have, and that probably most
Docear users have. However, I suggest you get an idea of the add-on yourself. The freelancer sent
me a demo version that you can try out. To do so, download the add-on, store it on your hard drive,
and open the downloaded file with LibreOffice or OpenOffice. This should open an installation
dialog, and you need to confirm all messages in the dialog. After the installation, you should restart
Libre/OpenOffice. If you are using OpenOffice, you will have a Docear entry in the menu and in
the tool bar (see screenshot below). If you are using LibreOffice, you will only have an entry in the
menu.

To being able to use the add-on, you need to specify where you store your citation styles (click
Citation Styler in the menu). If you are already using Docear4Word, specify the Style folder of
Docear4Word. Otherwise, download some example styles, extract the styles in the ZIP file
somewhere on your hard drive, and specify that path in Open/LibreOffice (see screenshot below).

Then you need to specify your BibTeX file (click Settings in the menu):

Now the add-on should work. Feel free to Add References and a Bibliography. However, please
note that there are many open issues and the add-on is not ready for productive use.
If you try the add-on, and if you are happy with what you see (considering that this is the result of
more than half a year work), please let us know in the comments. If you are not happy, please read
on
2. Seek another freelancer
If you feel that the current achievements do not meet your expectations, we might look for another
freelancer. The current freelancer will not receive any reimbursement in this case (unless the next
freelancer uses some of the original source code). Please note that we currently have no other
freelancer at hand. Finding one might take some time, and there is no guarantee that the new
freelancer will do the work for $2,500 (chances are, other freelancers will ask for more money).
3. Cancel the project
If you believe that its not possible to develop the add-on in a reasonable amount of time, or in a
satisfactory quality, please let us know. In this case you will get back the money you donated. If you
donated via PayPal more than six weeks ago, PayPal will keep a small fee (between 1% and 3% I
believe). Otherwise, you will get back the full amount.
Finally, a few words about how to handle the problem that we probably will not be able to collect
enough money to pay the freelancer in full (be it the current freelancer or a new one):
Our suggestion is that we Docear pay the missing money. However, we will release the add-on
as closed-source shareware. This means, there will either be a free light version (e.g. for
managing up to 50 references), or a free trial version (e.g. for 30 days). To use the unlimited full
version, a fee of e.g. $5 is to be paid. Of course, anybody who contributed with a donation during
the development will receive the add-on for free. Once, we sold as many full versions to cover
our expenses, we will release the add-on as open source. Of course, if you wanted the same (get
your donation back as soon as enough users paid), you are welcome. Please note that this is only a
suggestion. If you have a better idea how to collect more donations, or how to get the required
money otherwise, let us know.
So, what do you think?

Let us know your suggestions and comments, either here in the Blog, or by email.

## Update 2014-10-24 ##
Many of the commenters voted to wait and see what the freelancer will come up with eventually.
However, I have the impression that most users did not try the current demo version of the add-on.
Therefore, please download the add-on, and have a look it to find out if it fits your expectations. For
instance, you might find out that the add-on is quite slow (and there is no guarantee that the
freelancer will be able to improve the performance). If we all agree that the freelancer should go on,
then we will have to pay him the money ($500 for the first Alpha, another $500 for the second
version, and so on), and we cannot complain later that the add-on is too slow etc. Personally, we
(the Docear team) dont mind because we wont use the add-on anyway (we all use Microsoft
Word). So, if you donated because you need the add-on, then you need to decide if work done so
far meets your expectations.
## Update 2014-10-29 ##
Thank you for all your feedback. We decided to stop the current project, and to look for another
freelancer. Since we collected only $1,405 of donations so far, and probably no freelancer will
develop the required add-on for that amount of money, we, the Docear team, probably will pay the
missing money (as long as its not $10,000). However, we will release the add-on with some
restrictions (see above for details), and as closed source until we got our money back. Of course,
anybody who donated at least $1, will get the add-on for free with full functionality right away. If
you already donated money, and the proposed solution is not acceptable, please let us know, and
you will get back your donation.
## Update 2015-02-26 ##
Unfortunately, we were not able to find any freelancer who could deliver the add-on. They either
didnt make a competent impression, or wanted to have ~20.000 Dollars and more to develop the
add-on. Hence, we will pause our efforts on this project, until we stumble upon a capable freelancer
who meets our price expectations (<10.000$).
Tags: add-on, addon, bibtex, development, donations, libreoffice, openoffice
Category: Docear, Help Wanted

32 comments to How to proceed with the development of the

Docear4LibreOffice add-on ?

Timothy
October 23, 2014 at 12:26 pm Reply
I vote for waiting. I know that not everything is immediate. I believe this add-on is going to
be a powerful tool in the hands of many.
Wish the best,
Tim

valioni
October 23, 2014 at 1:02 pm Reply
I vote for waiting.
In the case docear would pay the missing sum, I believe you should search for a backup
freelancer just to be safe.
In the end, I dont believe in canceling the project under no circumstance, no matter how
long it takes to develop it. Im tiring to evade the closed sourced jail and each piece of
freedom matters.
hope for the best,
vali

Georg
October 23, 2014 at 1:06 pm Reply
Jorean, you are very generous.
I exclusively use Word. Yet I would like this Add-On to come into being, but I have time to
wait and agree with Tim.
The text reads as if you are unhappy with the work of the current freelancer, almost doubting
his ability to create a good product. I cannot judge this and will leave it to others to decide
whether to keep him or not.
Even if you decide to cancel this Add-On, I would not want my money back, consider it paid
towards all your great effort.
Best,
Georg

Jay
October 23, 2014 at 2:16 pm Reply
I use Word but understand that for folks that use OpenOffice or LibreOffice this is feature
they cant be waiting more than a year for and with no guarantee that it will be a quality
release. I have a long experience of using freelancers and one thing is for certain: if they
miss the first two deadlines for project (first one and second opportunity to rectify) they
wont complete the project on time and most likely the product wont be of quality.
Another problem is what is going to happen when the plugin have to be updated to work
with future releases of Docear? Wait another year? If you cant find another freelancer that
can do the job now, freeze the project and remove the current freelancer, with time you
should be able to find someone in the Apache Foundation OpenOffice forums or LibreOffice
ones.

Piotr
October 23, 2014 at 2:41 pm Reply
From the post above I assume that you, the Project Manager, you are unhappy with the
outcome. I vote for waiting one more month and then making a decision between 1. and 2.
(unless you have sent a warning already), but please carry on! Keep my cash and I can
chip in bit more if necessary.
Piotr

david
October 24, 2014 at 4:01 pm Reply
a while ago i donated $30, and i dont mind to wait a few more months. however, i tried the
addon, and, imho, results are kinda disappointing. 1. its really slow. if the response times for
opening dialogs does not improve drastically, the addon wouldnt be useful for me. 2. seems
to me that lots of functionality is still missing.

david
October 24, 2014 at 4:04 pm Reply
sorry, forgot to vote: stop project. hire other freelancer. i donate another $30 if necessary.

Nicolas
October 24, 2014 at 8:49 pm Reply
In the computer at my office the AddOn doesnt work at all. It opens the dialog, but doesnt
allow me to add the references to my documents. Furthermore, it increase the counter of
number of reference every time I open it. But wait, not just the counter, the references
appear repeated in the list also. So, the plugin is just a visualizer of the database with a
worse interface than Docear or Jabref.
I vote for 2, find another freelancer.

Joeran [Docear]
October 25, 2014 at 5:25 pm Reply
>It opens the dialog, but doesnt allow me to add the references to my documents
What happens? Nothing? An error message? I think you need first to select a citation
style, and maybe not all are working correctly. Try e.g. ACM SIG Proceedings.

CharlesD
October 25, 2014 at 6:32 pm Reply
I installed the add-on. It runs on my Windows 7 machine with LibreOffice. However, the
add-on seems like a very early prototype (more like a proof-of-concept than anything near a
stable add-on). If it took the freelancer 6 months to develop this add-on, a 1.0 stable, that
could be used in a productive environment, will take my guess at least 1 more year,
probably 2.
-> Option 2

Roland
October 26, 2014 at 6:27 pm Reply
Hey,
I wanted to try the add-on, however the following error occurs:
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
I am running LibreOffice 4.3.2.2.0 on Manjaro Linux (based on Arch) with the latest oracle
java. If someone can point me toward a solution, I would be happy to try the add-on.
As I am a donator for the development of this add-on, I think the project should not be
aborted. I agree with CharlesD, you should seek another freelancer, the current one seems
not be able to finish the project in an acceptable time-frame.
Beside that, I wonder if you ever discussed possible financing models? I used Docear for my
MSc thesis and still use it during my PhD thesis and in my eyes it is the most powerful
literature/knowledge organization tool I know. However, there are still a lot of open (small)
issues, being it the interface/usability, the workflow, LibreOffice ad-don, etc. Of course you
are a small team and dont have the resources to speed up the development. But in the case
of the development of the metadata retrieval one could see a successful funding of an
additional feature. Docear should stay free for everyone, but what about a premium
membership version? As I use the software on a daily basis I would willingly pay for it (for
example one pays 50 bucks for Evernote premium per year, something I would also pay
readily for Docear). Premium members would then get the latest features 2 weeks earlier or
could vote on the direction of the development. Or what about kickstarter? Would it be
possible to gather funding there for the future development?

Joeran [Docear]
October 28, 2014 at 6:54 pm Reply
>I wonder if you ever discussed possible financing models?
>Docear should stay free for everyone, but what about a premium membership
version?

We currently are discussing options for funding. Unfortunately, we are really busy
right now (with some not-Docear-related work), but I am confident that in a few
weeks we will present and discuss our ideas with Docears users (visit the Blog if
you are interested, or follow us on Docear or Twitter).

NormanS
October 26, 2014 at 10:09 pm Reply
Hallo,
ich hatte vor einiger Zeit einen Antrag zur Unterstuetzung freier
literaturverwaltungssoftware gestellt, welchem damals zugestimmt wurde. Ein erster Antrag
auf finanzielle Untersttzung scheiterte damals aber leider.
Es wre schon sehr gut ein solches Plugin den Studenten (und nicht nur den) anbieten zu
knnen. Besonders weil sowohl das Plugin als auch die Textverarbeitung, fr die es gedacht
ist, Freie Software sind.

Anna
October 27, 2014 at 5:34 am Reply
I vote for finding another freelancer for this project, and making the addon paid until Docear
gets its money back.
I am a freelancer myself, and Id never let myself go that slack on a project especially
when its clear how many people are waiting for it. This guy either doesnt really have the
skills, or has productivity issues.
Its a good idea to check in the LibreOffice/OpenOffice forums.

starstuff
October 29, 2014 at 8:40 am Reply
I agree with Anna, I vote for number 2.

valioni
October 27, 2014 at 9:00 am Reply
Im changing my vote, I believe you should search for another freelancer.
I do not have experience in programming and I dont know if another freelancer could use
what this one has almost made, but while we wait for a new programmer, the current one

should be given a fixed amount of time, say 1-2 months to produce a working alpha, and
release the code to get the first 500$, his involvement in the next phase should be discussed
after that, if there is something to be discussed (a working alpha).
I also did not like the attitude of some of his comments on github, that is the main reason for
changing the vote, sorry for him but hes pretty much a no person, we need a yes one.

Guido
October 28, 2014 at 4:54 pm Reply
Hi,
I tried once Docear few months ago and I wish starting using it on a regular basis (as Roland
does).
I do not use Microsoft software since many years now, and the missing plugin is one of the
things people like me would really appreciate in order to adopt Docear, so you should
definitely keep going on with the development (up to you evaluating whether with another
freelancer or not), and the plugin should be developed in a reasonable time span.
I still havent made a donation but I am ready to contribute even if I (still) dont use your
great program (I advertise it to anyone I think might be interested).
Please keep going on!

Guido
October 28, 2014 at 4:57 pm Reply
Sorry I forgot to mention that I am also experiencing the
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
I am running LibreOffice 4.3.2.2 on Lubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Roland
October 30, 2014 at 8:19 am Reply
A small update on the java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException-error:
2 possible approaches:
1) Ubuntu user should check if they have the libreoffice-java-common pkg installed.
2) Start Libreoffice as root (sudo), then installation worked for me. However, the extension
is not really working/crashes.

Bettina
October 30, 2014 at 10:38 pm Reply
Its not running on Macintosh and Openoffice. The programm didnt react anymore, after I
had clicked on Citation styler to choose the bib-file. So I would search for a new freelancer.

I like the idea of a shareware or test version to finance the project. If it would be sure to get
back the main part of the donation, I would consider to donate more money.

Edmund Laugasson
November 16, 2014 at 1:26 pm Reply
I would vote on 2 find another freelancer. Also I would suggest to find crowdfunding site
and promote the project there. Here are top 10 crowdfunding sites
http://www.crowdfunding.com/
Other opportunities are written here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding also
Angel Inverstors etc.
I really hope that the LibreOffice extension will get ready before I have to finish my PhD
(started at 2012).
Also there are possibilities, that if Docear will be the tool to use at Mac OS, GNU/Linux,
MS Windows then I am pretty sure, that also universities are ready to support. I mean there
could be find some project in partnership with some university and Docear Team and do the
LibreOffice plugin and even more development you need.
Currently I know, that also Mendeley is a lot used there is possible to create research
communities, share your library or part of it, etc. I assume Docear should have similar
features, otherwise researchers will not adopt it. Especially collaboration features. Also
integrating ResearchGate, https://www.academia.edu/ would be good idea. I mean there
would be not a good idea create new community but integrate existing ones into Docear.

Edmund Laugasson
November 16, 2014 at 1:28 pm Reply
The Mendeley, Researchgate, https://www.academia.edu/ would be three main communities
to rely on if there are anyone else please let here know.

zaxebo1
November 23, 2014 at 4:36 am Reply
rather than finding just another random developer,
it will be BETTER to contact LIBREOFFICEs ORGANIZATION CERTIFIED
DEVELOPERS listed at
https://www.documentfoundation.org/certification/developers
The unaffiliated or collbora section on that above url link may get you the cheapest deal
from those developers, to develop this.

Libre
January 12, 2015 at 2:09 am Reply

Agree with zaxebo1 above. Please contact the Libreoffice Certified Developers. No more
freelancers Id rather have a guild doing my work then someone who promises big but
has few credentials.

nicosaon
February 14, 2015 at 10:17 pm Reply
Hello!
Please dont leave this objective, it is an urgent issue to freely work using Docear
I really need the extension because I cant use Word and Im almost finishing my thesis.
In the comparison of software from Wikipedia Docear appears as a compatible with both LO
and OO, I start using it, create a database and now I cant use it with the text processor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software
I will make another contribution for the development next month, but I think it could go
starting. I really hope so.

zaxebo1
March 2, 2015 at 8:45 am Reply
When you download standalone jabref http://jabref.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php , or
install it on ubuntu using sudo apt-get install jabref and then launch the jabref. Then in
Jabref->Tools menu->Openoffice/Libreoffice connection , you can connect to
libreoffice and dynamically manage the references in libreoffice (using jabref) . I have tested
it using latest jabref version 2.10 and libreoffice 4.4.
HENCE, jabref correctly manages libreoffice bibliographic references.
==
NOW when docear uses jabref itself, then why docear can not use this facility of jabref?
Why are searching for development of a seaprate plugin. Why inbuilt jabref into docear can
not be used by docear ,for connection with libreoffice and managing the bibliography
dynamically?

zaxebo1
March 2, 2015 at 9:16 am Reply
help regarding standalone jabref integration with libreoffice/Openoffice
http://jabref.sourceforge.net/help/OpenOfficeIntegration.php
docear has inbuilt jabref , so use this above feature to integrate with libreoffice.

annonymous
January 3, 2016 at 10:22 pm Reply

Are the authors of the docear4word plugin not the people best placed to develop an open
office / libre office plugin?
Surely they have experience of porting or re-coding simmilar plugins for other refernce
platforms.
Why do they not want to touch this with a barge pole?
Is this a more complicated / messy / difficult problem than the budget and previous
freelancer care to admit?
did they just bite off more than they can chew?
Is this some kind of OLE / DLL thing or is it handled by some java / perl / python
whatever backend.

Joeran [Docear]
January 5, 2016 at 4:56 pm Reply
Unfortunately, developing an add-on for openoffice (plattform independent) is
something completely different than developing an add-on for MS Word (Windows
only)

annonymous
January 3, 2016 at 10:29 pm Reply
this tool offers so much promise but on linux/bsd OS appears to be only half-baked
(rendering it useless for mainstream academic use).
integration is everything.
I wish you the best of luck, but it looks like a tie in with MS is unavoidable removing the
USP of this tool.

leoperbo
March 26, 2016 at 6:09 pm Reply
I agree with zaxebo1, Im using Docear for manage PDFs annotations and reference data,
then, I use the standalone JabRef application for introducing cites and generate the
references list in a Libreoffice document, using the OpenOffice plugin for JabRef. If Docear
team integrates the OpenOffice plugin in their JabRef implementation the objective will
be nearly accomplished. Considering that, in words od JabRef developers, the former
plugin has become an integral part of JabRef since version 2.9 and is maintained along new
releases of JabRef, this shouldnt be as difficult as developing Docear4LibreOffice addon.

Gabriel
July 2, 2016 at 8:07 pm Reply
I have LibreOffice and Docear installed.
If I install standalone JabRef, can I send my reference list from Docear to the
standalone JabRef, so I can further send the references to LibreOffice?

Jabref Open Office/LibreOffice integration

Introduction
This feature offers an interface for inserting citations and formatting a Bibliography in an
OpenOffice or LibreOffice Writer document from JabRef.
Throughout this help document, whenever the name OpenOffice is used, it can be interchanged with
LibreOffice.
Using the OpenOffice/LibreOffice interface
To communicate with OpenOffice, JabRef must first connect to a running OpenOffice instance. You
need to start OpenOffice and enter your document before connecting from JabRef. JabRef needs to
know the location of your OpenOffice executable (soffice.exe on Windows, and soffice on other
platforms), and the directory where several OpenOffice jar files reside. If you connect by clicking
the Connect button, JabRef will try to automatically determine these locations. If this does not
work, you need to connect using the Manual connect button, which will open a window asking you
for the needed locations.
After the connection has been established, you can insert citations by selecting one or more entries
in JabRef and using the Push to OpenOffice button in the dropdown menu of JabRef's toolbar, or by
using the appropriate button in the OpenOffice panel in the side pane. This will insert citations for
the selected entries at the current cursor position in the OpenOffice document, and update the
bibliography to contain the full reference.
Note: JabRef does not use OpenOffice's built-in bibliography system, because of the limitations of
that system. A document containing citations inserted from JabRef will not generally be compatible
with other reference managers such as Bibus and Zotero.
Two different types of citations can be inserted - either a citation in parenthesis, "(Author 2007)", or
an in-text citation, "Author (2007)". This distinction is only meaningful if author-year citations are
used instead of numbered citations, but the distinction will be preserved if you switch between the
two styles.
If you modify entries in JabRef after inserting their citations into OpenOffice, you will need to
synchronize the bibliography. The Sync OO bibliography button will update all entries of the
bibliography, provided their BibTeX keys have not been altered (JabRef encodes the BibTeX key

into the reference name for each citation to keep track of which BibTeX key the original JabRef
entry has).
The style file
To customize the citation style you need to select a style file, or use one of the default styles. The
style defines the format of citations and the format of the bibliography. You can use standard JabRef
export formatters to process entry fields before they are sent to OpenOffice. Through the style file,
the intention is to give as much flexibility in citation styles as possible. You can switch style files at
any time, and use the Update button to refresh your bibliography to follow the new style.
By clicking the Select style button you can bring up a window that allows selection of either the
default style or an external style file. If you want to create a new style based on the default, you can
click the View button to bring up the default style contents, which can be copied into a text editor
and modified.
To choose an external style file, you have two options. Either you can choose a style file directly, or
you can set a style file directory. If you do the latter, you will see a list of styles from that directory
(and subdirectories), and can choose one from that list.
Here is an example style file:
NAME
Example style file for JabRef-OpenOffice integration.
JOURNALS
Journal name 1
Journal name 2
PROPERTIES
Title="References"
IsSortByPosition="false"
IsNumberEntries="false"
ReferenceParagraphFormat="Default"
ReferenceHeaderParagraphFormat="Heading 1"
CITATION
AuthorField="author/editor"
YearField="year"
MaxAuthors="3"
MaxAuthorsFirst="3"
AuthorSeparator=", "
AuthorLastSeparator=" & "
EtAlString=" et al."
ItalicEtAl="true"
YearSeparator=" "
InTextYearSeparator=" "
BracketBefore="["
BracketAfter="]"
BracketBeforeInList="["
BracketAfterInList="]"
CitationSeparator="; "

UniquefierSeparator=","
GroupedNumbersSeparator="-"
MinimumGroupingCount="3"
FormatCitations="false"
CitationCharacterFormat="Default"
MultiCiteChronological="false"
PageInfoSeparator="; "
LAYOUT
article=\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\author}
(<b>\year\uniq</b>). <i>\title</i>, \journal \volume\begin{pages} :
\format[FormatPagesForHTML]{\pages}\end{pages}.
book=\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\author}\begin{editor}
\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\editor} (Ed.)\end{editor},
<b>\year\uniq</b>. <i>\title</i>. \publisher, \address.
incollection=\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\author}
(<b>\year\uniq</b>). <i>\title</i>. In: \format[AuthorLastFirst,
AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\editor} (Ed.), <i>\booktitle</i>, \publisher.
inbook=\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\author}
(<b>\year\uniq</b>). <i>\chapter</i>. In: \format[AuthorLastFirst,
AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\editor} (Ed.), <i>\title</i>, \publisher.
phdthesis=\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\author}
(<b>\year\uniq</b>). <i>\title</i>, \school.
default=\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAbbreviator,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\author}
(<b>\year\uniq</b>). <i>\title</i>, \journal \volume\begin{pages} :
\format[FormatPagesForHTML]{\pages}\end{pages}.
(Note that the layout for each entry type must be constrained to a single line in the style file - above,
the lines are broken up to improve readability.)
Global properties
The PROPERTIES section describes global properties for the bibliography. The following table
describes the available properties:
Property
Type Default value Description
IsNumberEntries
boolean
false Determines the type of citations to use. If true, number
citations will be used. If false, author-year citations will be used.
IsSortByPosition
boolean
false Determines how the bibliography is sorted. If true, the
entries will be sorted according to the order in which they are cited. If false, the entries will be
sorted alphabetically by authors.
ReferenceParagraphFormat string Default
Gives the name of the paragraph format to be
used for the reference list. This format must be defined in your OpenOffice document.
ReferenceHeaderParagraphFormat string Heading 1
Gives the name of the paragraph format
to be used for the headline of the reference list. This format must be defined in your OpenOffice
document.
Title string Bibliography The text to enter as the headline of the reference list.
Citation properties

The CITATION section describes the format of the citation markers inserted into the text.
The following table gives a brief description of all the available citation properties. Properties that
are not given in the style file will keep their default value.
Property
Type Default value Description
AuthorField string author/editor BibTeX field containing author names. Can specify fallback
field, e.g. author/editor
AuthorLastSeparator string &
Text inserted between the two last author names.
AuthorLastSeparatorInText string
If specified, this propery overrides AuthorLastSeparator
for in-text citations such as Smith & Jones (2001).
AuthorSeparator
string ,
Text inserted between author names except the last two.
BracketAfter string ]
The closing bracket of citations.
BracketAfterInList string ]
The closing bracket for citation numbering in the reference list.
BracketBefore
string [
The opening bracket of citations.
BracketBeforeInList string [
The opening bracket for citation numbering in the reference
list.
CitationCharacterFormat
string Default
If FormatCitations is set to true, the character
format with the name given by this property will be applied to citations. The character format must
be defined in your OpenOffice document.
CitationSeparator
string ;
Text inserted between items when a citation contains multiple
entries, e.g. [Smith 2001; Jones 2002]
EtAlString
string et al. Text inserted after author names when not all authors are listed, e.g.
[Smith et al. 2001]
FormatCitations
boolean
false Determines whether formatting should be applied to
citations. If true, a character format will be applied to the citations. The property
CitationCharacterFormat controls which format should be applied, and the given format must be
defined in your OpenOffice document. Any font settings and effects can be chosen within
OpenOffice for your chosen character format.
GroupedNumbersSeparator string Text inserted between numbers when numbered
citations are grouped, e.g. [4-6]
InTextYearSeparator string Single Space Text inserted between author names and starting bracket
before year in in-text citations.
ItalicEtAl
boolean
true If true, the "et al." string in citation markers is italicized.
MaxAuthors integer
3
The maximum number of authors to list in a citation that has
appeared earlier in the document.
MaxAuthorsFirst
integer
3
The maximum number of authors to list in a citation
when appearing for the first time.
MinimumGroupingCount integer
3
The minimum number of consecutive entries a
citation should contain before the numbers are grouped, e.g. [4-6] vs. [4; 5; 6].
MultiCiteChronological
boolean
true If true, multiple entries in the same citation are
sorted chronologically, otherwise they are sorted alphabetically.
PageInfoSeparator string ;
For citations with extra information, e.g. page numbers, this
string is inserted between the year (for author-year citations) or the citation number (for numbered
citations) and the extra information. E.g. the text between 2001 and p. 301 in [Smith 2001; p. 301].
UniquefierSeparator string ,
Text inserted between letters used to differentiate citations with
similar authors and year. E.g. the text between a and b in [Smith 2001a, b].
YearField
string year The BibTeX field to get publication year from.
YearSeparator
string Single Space Text inserted between author names and year in
parenthesis citations such as [Smith 2001].

If numbered entries are used, the BracketBefore and BracketAfter properties are the most important
- they define which characters the citation number is wrapped in. The citation is composed as
follows:
[BracketBefore][Number][BracketAfter]
where [Number] is the number of the citation, determined according to the ordering of the
bibliography and/or the position of the citation in the text. If a citation refers to several entries, these
will be separated by the string given in the property CitationSeparator (for instance, if
CitationSeparator=;, the citation could look like [2;4;6]). If two or more of the entries have a series
of consecutive numbers, the numbers can be grouped (for instance [2-4] for 2, 3 and 4 or [2;5-7] for
2, 5, 6 and 7). The property GroupedNumbersSeparator (default -) determines which string
separates the first and last of the grouped numbers. The integer property MinimumGroupingCount
(default 3) determines what number of consecutive numbers is required before entries are grouped.
If MinimumGroupingCount=3, the numbers 2 and 3 will not be grouped, while 2, 3, 4 will be. If
MinimumGroupingCount=0, no grouping will be done regardless of the number of consecutive
numbers.
If numbered entries are not used, author-year citations will be created based on the citation
properties. A parenthesis citation is composed as follows:
[BracketBefore][Author][YearSeparator][Year][BracketAfter]
where [Author] is the result of looking up the field or fields given in the AuthorField property, and
formatting a list of authors. The list can contain up to MaxAuthors names - if more are present, the
list will be composed as the first author plus the text specified in the property EtAlString. If the
property MaxAuthorsFirst is given, it overrides MaxAuthors the first time each citation appears in
the text.
If several, slash-separated, fields are given in the AuthorField property, they will be looked up
successively if the first field is empty for the given BibTeX entry. In the example above, the
"author" field will be used, but if empty, the "editor" field will be used as a backup.
The names in the author list will be separated by the text given by the AuthorSeparator property,
except for the last two names, which will be separated by the text given by AuthorLastSeparator. If
the property AuthorLastSeparatorInText is given, it overrides the former for citations of the in-text
type. This makes it possible to get citations like (Olsen & Jensen, 2008) and Olsen and Jensen
(2008) for the same style.
[Year] is the result of looking up the field or fields given in the [YearField] property.
An in-text citation is composed as follows:
[Author][InTextYearSeparator][BracketBefore][Year][BracketAfter]
where [Author] and [Year] are resolved in exactly the same way as for the parenthesis citations.
If two different cited sources have the same authors and publication year, and author-year citations
are used, their markers will need modification in order to be distinguishable. This is done
automatically by appending a letter after the year for each of the publications; 'a' for the first cited
reference, 'b' for the next, and so on. For instance, if the author "Olsen" has two cited papers from
2005, the citation markers will be modified to (Olsen, 2005a) and (Olsen, 2005b). In the
bibliography layout, the placement of the "uniquefier" letter is indicated explicitly by inserting the
virtual field uniq.
If several entries that have been "uniquefied" are cited together, they will be grouped in the citation
marker. For instance, of the two entries in the example above are cited together, the citation marker

will be (Olsen, 2005a, b) rather than Olsen, 2005a; Olsen, 2005b). The grouped uniquefier letters (a
and b in our example) will be separated by the string specified by the UniquefierSeparator property.
Author-year citations referring more than one entry will by default be sorted chronologically. If you
wish them to be sorted alphabetically, the citation property MultiCiteChronological should be set to
false..
Reference list layout
The LAYOUT section describes how the bibliography entry for each entry type in JabRef should
appear. Each line should start with either the name of a BibTeX entry type, or the word default,
followed by a '='. The default layout will be used for all entry types for which an explicit layout
hasn't been given.
The remainder of each line defines the layout, with normal text and spaces appearing literally in the
bibliography entry. Information from the BibTeX entry is inserted by adding \field markers with the
appropriate field name (e.g. \author for inserting the author names). Formatting information for the
field can be included here, following JabRef's standard export layout syntax. Refer to JabRef's
documentation on custom export filters for more information about which formatters are available.
If author-year citations are used, you have to explicitly specify the position of the "uniquefier" letter
that is added to distinguish similar-looking citations. This is done by including a marker for the
virtual field uniq, typically right after the year (as shown in the example style file). The uniq field is
automatically set correctly for each entry before its reference text is laid out.
To indicate formatting in the bibliography, you can use the HTML-like tag pairs <b> </b>, <i> </i>,
 and  to specify bold text, italic text, superscript and subscript,
respectively.
If you are using numbered citations, the number for each entry will be automatically inserted at the
start of each entry in the reference list. By default, the numbers will be enclosed in the same
brackets defined for citations. The optional citation properties BracketBeforeInList and
BracketAfterInList override BracketBefore and BracketAfter if set. These can be used if you want
different types of brackets (or no brackets) in the reference list. Note that these need not be brackets
as such - they can be any combination of characters.
Known issues
Make sure to save your Writer document in OpenDocument format (odt). Saving to Word format
will lose your reference marks.
There is currently no support for footnote based citations.
The cursor may be poorly positioned after inserting a citation.
Copy-pasting the example style file directly from this page can give an unparseable file. To avoid
this, instead download the example file from the link in the download section.