Using JabRef to keep track of references

Hi,

I've just finished the references section on my thesis. It was tiresome!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had my references sorted in directories, in alphabetical order. However, to build the references section in the thesis, I had to check which references were actually used. Not easy to do when you're using Microsoft Word. I developed a couple of macros for Ultra-Edit http://www.ultraedit.com to extract the references list - values within squared brackets - from the text. Then I sorted and removed duplicates from the result.

To produce the listing I used JabRef http://jabref.sourceforge.net/ an excellent free tool that uses the BibTex format, from LaTeX. Even though I was using Microsoft Word it still proved very useful. I did the references section using the custom export option, for results just like I wanted them.

I absolutely recommend using JabRef, it is excellent! Especially if you're starting your thesis now or still have a long way to go. Believe me, it will spare you a full working week (and a boring one, I can add).