Biber is a {bibtex} replacement for {biblatex}. It is functionally a significant superset of BibTeX, allowing more customisation by the user of, e.g., sorting, label generation, inheritance, and data source stream manipulation. It also supports advanced auto-disambiguation of names and name lists.
87
votes
1answer
11k views
bibtex vs. biber and biblatex vs. natbib
I've heard of many different bibliography-related packages/platforms/?. What's the difference between the following, which is good for what tasks, advantages/disadvantages, which one is the most ...
28
votes
3answers
2k views
Bibliography tools that are compatible with biblatex and biber
I’m currently in the process of reconsidering how I do bibliography management. It seems to be most sensible to use biblatex with biber. I’d like to know what tools are available on which I can build ...
20
votes
3answers
2k views
Compatibility of bibtex and biblatex bibliography files?
In the answer to bibtex vs. biber and biblatex vs. natbib the advantages and disadvantages of Biber vs. BibTeX (and of natbib vs. biblatex) were explained. However, one point was omitted: The question ...
19
votes
2answers
8k views
How to use biber
Simply put I want to know what steps I need to take to start biber with biblatex. I haven't been able to find any proper tutorials or guides showing how you go about using it instead of BibTeX.
What ...
17
votes
2answers
2k views
Customising emacs to use biblatex-biber instead of bibtex
I use biblatex, but I still go through running bibtex on my .bib files, rather than biblatex-biber, which is/will be preferred. How do I arrange for C-c C-c to run the relevant biber command, rather ...
17
votes
2answers
2k views
In TeXShop, is there a directive to select biber or BibTeX on a per-document basis?
As in the title, I'd like to be able to select whether TeXShop uses biber or BibTeX in the document rather than using the command line or changing the default in the TeXShop preferences.
For TeX ...
16
votes
1answer
482 views
Why is biber so slow?
I have a simple document, about 20 pages long with some mathematics and a couple of tikz diagrams. I use biblatex and biber (0.9.9 MacTeX 2011) to compile my references, of which there are currently ...
16
votes
1answer
615 views
How to create multilingual (English, Japanese) bibliographies with biblatex, biber and polyglossia
I would like to update my bibtex file in a way that allows me to create multilingual bibliographies. Since I publish in English and Japanese, I will need this to work in a way that:
In an English ...
15
votes
3answers
287 views
Why do we need add on programs like Biber and MakeIndex?
The creation of biblatex has made bst files obsolete allowing the formatting to be done by LaTeX and not an add on program like BibTeX, but it didn't completely eliminate the need for an add on ...
15
votes
3answers
1k views
biblatex: multiple bibliographies categorised by different .bib files
biblatex supports multiple bibliographies by looking up the 1) entry type, 2) keyword, or 3) category.
This is all fine, but in the use case of primary sources and secondary sources:
1) the 'type' ...
15
votes
1answer
207 views
Word-by-word sorting of authors in bibliography using biblatex/biber
I am using Biber/biblatex for the bibliography of my forthcoming book. I just received the last round of corrections from the copyeditor, and discovered that the sort order used in my bibliography is ...
13
votes
2answers
631 views
biblatex authoryear-comp and name aliases
Using the authoryear-comp style I often cite different authors having the same last name. The biblatex package options
backend=biber,style=authoryear-comp,firstinits=true,uniquename=init
eliminate ...
13
votes
2answers
2k views
Using Biber with latexmk
With version 4.22, latexmk claims to
[s]upport the use of biber (with the biblatex package) as an alternative to bibtex for generating bibliographies, with automatic determination of whether to ...
12
votes
4answers
184 views
Non-ASCII characters in Biblatex
I am using biblatex with backend=biber and the following .bib file:
@article{concellon_synthesis_2006,
title = {Synthesis of Enantiopure ({αS,βS)-} or ({αR,βS)-β-Amino} Alcohols by Complete ...
12
votes
1answer
155 views
BibLaTeX not settling down when using multiple styles
I use BibLaTeX with two different bibliography styles, one with author-year style (for publications) and the other one with simple numeric style for online references, but pdfLaTeX never really ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
RefTeX won't find my .bib file in local library tree
RefTeX gives out the following error when trying to insert a citation:
No valid bibliography in this document, and no default available
I keep a master .bib file in ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
Error with percent sign in bib entry field when using biblatex/biber
I'm trying to use biblatex (v1.5a) with biber (v0.9.3) instead of BibTeX but I am having a problem with bib entries, where the abstract contains a percent sign. In that case, in the bbl file the ...
10
votes
3answers
8k views
Biblatex + Biber + Texmaker + MiKTeX
Will someone please help me to both configure Texmaker and use it so that I can use the backend=biber option with biblatex package. I am using MiKTeX 2.8 and Texmaker 3.1. Please do not simply tell me ...
10
votes
2answers
442 views
How to get biber to pass fields into the .bbl file?
I'm using biblatex and biber, and trying to modify the usual styles to include a field for the AMS MathReviews number. My BibTeX file (well, I guess it's a Biber file now) has mrnumber fields, and ...
10
votes
1answer
148 views
Wrong sorting for Biber with Norwegian sortlocale
There is a problem with the sorting for Biber when using sortlocale=nb_NO.
\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{test.bib}
@misc{a,author = {A}} @misc{b,author = {B}} @misc{c,author = ...
9
votes
2answers
719 views
biblatex: Setting maxnames on individual entries
I'm using biblatex (with biber as backend). I use the global maxnames option to shorten author lists (with "et al."). However, I would like to create some exceptions to this rule for some specific ...
9
votes
1answer
217 views
Biblatex: How can I get the label [BvB60] instead of [BB60] for an article by “Bach and van Beethoven (1760)”?
I'm using the alphabetic style of biblatex as follows:
\usepackage[
style=alphabetic,
maxcitenames=3,
minnames=3,
useprefix=true
]{biblatex}
In the .bib-file, I have an entry:
...
9
votes
1answer
1k views
Setting up biber as a default biblatex backend in the configuration file
The biblatex release notes recommend to setup backend=biber in biblatex.cfg, however LaTeX refuses to accept this text in biblatex.cfg:
\ProvidesFile{biblatex.cfg}
...
9
votes
1answer
109 views
Problems with defbibentryset sorting
I have been using biber/biblatex for a while now and I was used to define multiple citations with defbibentryset and the subentry option for biblatex. This worked nice but since the last update I have ...
9
votes
1answer
91 views
Converting from biblatex to BibTeX format using biber
I wish to use biblatex+biber, in large part because of its data format (xdata!), but often need to use .bst-based bibliography styles. I am aware that biber --tool allows conversion of .bib-files. ...
9
votes
1answer
134 views
Using BibTeX keys containing parentheses with Biber
I am trying to move to using biblatex with Biber rather than BibTeX. unfortunately, nearly all of my BibTeX entries have keys that include colons and parentheses. like,
@BOOK{Chambers+Hastie:(92),
...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
Dummies Guide to Biber
I've spent a good deal of time searching the forum and couldn't find a user-friendly guide to citations with biber using TeXShop or TeXworks on a Mac. I'd like to successfully reproduce a slightly ...
8
votes
3answers
554 views
Using biber with gedit + rubber
I've been having a lot of problems trying to switch to biblatex with biber from bibtex, and after a few problems solved I'm at loss. The situation now:
biblatex works when not using biber as a ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
How to automate using biber in MiKTeX-TeXworks
I have MikTeX 2.9, 32-bit, Windows 7, all the latest updates are there. I'm using TeXworks ( pdflatex + makeindex + bibtex).
When I use biblatex package with option [backend=biber] I have no ...
8
votes
2answers
3k views
Install Biber in MiKTeX on a 64-bit version of Windows
The question Biblatex + Biber + Texmaker + MiKTeX describe how to use Biber with MiKTeX. But on the 64-bit version of MiKTeX Biber isn't installed.
How it is possible to install Biber on a 64-bit ...
8
votes
1answer
133 views
What's the relation between NbibTeX and biblatex/biber?
Both projects want to replace BibTeX in a way but with different goals. Searching for both search terms at the same time is a rather frustrating experience. Is there any mutual recognition at all? Can ...
8
votes
1answer
357 views
Show journal abbreviation in reference list with biblatex/biber
This question was previously asked by Yotam who got an answer from Andy Thomas saying he should edit the biber.conf file in order to use biber's regular expressions capacities.
I tried this with my ...
8
votes
1answer
210 views
Notes after bibliography entry with Biber and biblatex
I'm using biblatex with Biber as a backend. I need to add a one-sentence note, in bold, after a few of my references in the bibliography. These notes are not contained in my .bib file; they are ...
7
votes
2answers
205 views
Suppress year in proceedings
How can I suppress the year from appearing in the bibliography for entries of type @InProceedings? In my specific case the year is implied in the booktitle (e.g. FOCS '09) so it is redundant when I ...
7
votes
2answers
249 views
TeXcount and biblatex
I have recently switched from BibTeX to the biblatex package (using the Biber back-end) and I can only subscribe what others have already said about its many virtues. This question is not so much ...
7
votes
1answer
59 views
biblatex: filter out publications from a specific author without biber with many authors
this is follow-up to a recent question:
On my system with TexLive 2012 (biblatex 1.7-1), I am trying to separate the publications of a specific author from all other references (e.g. in case you want ...
7
votes
1answer
67 views
Setting options on a per-type basis
In the biblatex documentation, under "Entry Options", it says that entry options (like useauthor) can be set on a per type basis.
With Biber, this option is also settable on a per-type basis.
I ...
7
votes
1answer
2k views
Setting up WinEdt 6.0 and MiKTeX to run biblatex and biber
There should be a simple solution to the following problem, but I have failed to find one.
I have a fresh installation of WinEdt 6.0 and MiKTeX 2.9. I usually use SumatraPDF for preview, using ...
7
votes
2answers
357 views
Comment out sections of text in bib file
What's the correct way to comment out sections of explanatory text (included for humans to read) in a .bib file? I would like biber/biblatex to simply ignore this text.
When I put in text like
...
7
votes
1answer
343 views
Citing many long URLs (shortening and numbering)
In my thesis I have to quote a lot from a single weblog. The URLs are mostly of this structure:
blogname.providername.com/stories/123456
...
7
votes
1answer
3k views
BibLaTeX Biber in TeXnicCenter does not produce bibliography
I recently changed to backend=biber after some problems with encoding in bibtex8 ( Biblatex encoding ). Everything seemed to work fine until I added some references and updated the bibliography file. ...
7
votes
1answer
200 views
Biblatex, uniquename, \ifnamesequal{editor}{author}
As soon as one uses biblatex with biber as backend and uniquename=true enabled, the test \ifnamesequal{editor}{author} inside the bbx-file (here: authortitle-dw.bbx) won't expand to true even if the ...
7
votes
1answer
3k views
Problem getting biber/biblatex/XeLaTeX/TeXworks working together
OK, here my situation: I'm writing a paper for my class, and I want to include a bilingual bibliography since some of my sources are in Korean and I want the bibliography to show the original Korean ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
Are there widely used alternatives to BibTeX that define their own file format?
For the institute I work at, we plan to automatically generate bibliography entries for widely used reference managment systems. In another question, someone said that I shouldn't bother with BibTeX ...
6
votes
2answers
73 views
Biblatex: 2 custom fields, only one is working
Following this question BibLaTeX/BibTeX custom field to show file link and Notes after bibliography entry with Biber and biblatex I get it to work (well, more or less). In the code below I defined a ...
6
votes
2answers
169 views
How to move the note field out and away from the main reference using biblatex?
I'm using biblatex to created a list of publications in an academic CV. I'd like to list my publications and outline my contribution to each publication after each listed publication.
My current idea ...
6
votes
2answers
243 views
Automatically indexing references by author and year
I'm writing a literature review, and would like to add indices for both authors and publication year (i.e., two separate indices). Now, I could manually enter the appropriate \index{} commands, but it ...
6
votes
1answer
104 views
Is something wrong with @STRING processing between Jabref and biber?
I've just been revisiting bibliographies, and trying to manage them with Jabref.
I seem to have found something wrong with @strings (or my understanding of them).
In my pre-Jabref .bib file, I have:
...
6
votes
1answer
812 views
Missing 'biblatex' package
I'm attempting to create a bibliography using biber, via Tex Live (installed on a Linux Mint 11 machine).
My source .bib file is:
@article{simon06,
author = {Simon, E. and Flaschker, N. and ...
6
votes
1answer
92 views
biber.conf: suppress warning when not overwriting a field
I use two fields (type and entrysubtype) in formatting a particular entrytype [explanation below, in case it triggers any thoughts]. In most cases these are the same; occasionally there would be ...
