Citations
From Scripture Topical Guide
Managing Citations was the primary purpose for which the Scripture Topical Guide was created. Citations are organized by subject, and each citation has three parts, the text, the reference, and the notes. Citations can also be marked as private.
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Managing Citations
Adding a Citation
To add a citation, right click on the subject (in the left-hand tree view) that you want to add the citation to and select "Add Citation" from the pop-up menu. The citation will immediately be created and opened for you to begin entering the citation details.
Removing a Citation
To remove a citation, simply right click on the citation (in the tree on the left-hand side) and select the item from the pop-up menu which begins with "Remove Citation:".
Ordering Citations
Unlike cross references, citations do not have an easy natural order that can be easily predicted programmatically. For this reason, citations are naturally organized in the order they were created. You probably have your own ideas about how your citations ought to be ordered.
To reorder the citations in a subject, find the subject in the tree view on the left and expand it so that you can see the three items "Citations", "Notes", and "Cross References". Select "Citations" (it is not necessary to expand the item) and the area to the right will display a list of the subject's citations. In this list, you can click and drag the citations to change their order.
Moving Citations between Subjects
To move a citation to a different subject, simply right click on the citation (in the tree on the left-hand side) and select the item from the pop-up menu which begins with "Move Citation:". This will bring up a dialog box which will allow you to find and select the destination subject for the citation to move to.
The Text
The text of the citation is really the heart of the citation. It is here that you would write Matt. 3:5, Hugh Nibley, "Temple and Cosmos: Beyond This Ignorant Present", pp. 1-5, or any other such citation. This could reasonably be the only citation information you enter. It is the simple text of a citation.
The Reference
The reference is a utility for making hyper-linkable citations. Currently there are only two kinds of special references, url references and scripture references. These reference types are indicates by entering url: and scripture: respectively. This text is then followed by the reference text, which is interpreted according to the reference type.
This is an especially useful feature in conjunction with an export to HTML. A link is provided within the application which will allow you to visit the reference. This allows you both to utilize the reference within the application and verify that it will work in the exported HTML.
It is important to note that if the text portion of the reference is left blank, then the text that is exported to HTML and linked is the text following the ending colon of the reference type. (ie. url: http://www.lds.org/ would appear as http://www.lds.org/ if no other text was provided.) Hence, if a reference is provided, the text portion is not always necessary.
URL References
For example, you could reference the URL http://www.lds.org/. This reference would be entered as url: http://www.lds.org/.
Scripture References
When entering scripture citations, it is easy to make your citation link to the proper passage at http://scriptures.lds.org/. For the most part, you can simply enter your citation as a reference prefixed with scripture:. Mark 2:10-12 would be entered as a reference as scripture: Mark 2:10-12. For a reference such as Mark 2:10-12(8-15), the (8-15) would be ignored. (This syntax is sometimes used to indicate a specific passage being referred to and then a larger area of interest.)
References which list multiple chapters will only have the first chapter linked. Mark 2:10-12,14;5 will only hyper-link to Mark 2:10-12,14. Similarly, references which span multiple chapters will be cut off to only include the first verse in the spanned verses beginning in the first chapter. Mark 2:10,12-14:5 will reference Mark 2:10,12.
It's not necessary to reference chapter and verse either. Simple chapter or book references such as Alma, or Jacob 5, will also work.
The Notes
The notes of a citation are used to describe the citation. This is a good area to note anything unique or important learned from the cited material, or to quote a short passage. We don't recommend writing long essays here as it would tend to make the actual citations hard to wade through. Subjects have a separate area for just notes, where longer thoughts and insights can be organized.
Privacy
Citations can be made private. This is ideal for any citation that might be considered highly personal and/or privileged. Examples of such information might include patriarchal blessings, temple ordinances, personal revelation, or politically sensitive information (not referring to party politics, but rather information that might have the potential of offending).
When information is exported to HTML, the program will prompt you as to whether or not you would like to include private information. You might want to to prepare a printable document for your own records or in a privileged access environment, (someplace with password protection which you control access to) but you would certainly not want to include private information on your website.
Private information is not encrypted or otherwise protected internally, so if you are concerned that someone might try to break into your citation, it is recommended you take precautions to keep them safe.
