Adding Alternate Languages to an Output Style

The Output Style Editor has an Alternate Language option that allows you to define existing output styles with language-specific formatting.  This can be useful when you have references in more than one language and you want each language to have its own definition of reference types and bibliography formatting.

Alternate Languages are associated with a main output style that you customize.  The main output style can be defined in any language, and the alternate languages are languages other than that of the main style.  

How does RefWorks know when to use the main output style or the Alternate Languages?  It is all based on the Output Language field that is in every reference.  The Output Language field tells RefWorks what to look for.  If no Alternate Languages are defined for an output style, then the main style is used regardless of what is in the Output Language field.

Locating an Existing Output Style

Now that you have located a style and renamed it, you are ready to modify it to add Alternate Languages.

To Add Alternate Languages to an Output Style:

You are now ready to define the language-specific elements.  This is just like modifying any output style -- you need to define the Bibliography format for every reference type you want to print, as well as any in-text citations and/or footnotes.

  1. By default, the Bibliography formatting for the Generic Reference type are displayed.  If you want to copy the main output style's bibliography formatting for a specific reference type, click on the Copy Fields From Default button.  You must do this for each reference type you want to copy from the main output style -- the entire style is not copied.

  2. Continue defining your bibliography format for each reference type you desire.  Click here for detailed information on defining the bibliography format.

  3. When you are done defining your bibliography format, you can continue to define in-text citations or notes formatting (depending on your main output style) by clicking on the in-text citation tab or notes tab.  For information on modifying the in-text citation format, click here.  Details on modifying the notes format are available here.  You can also copy the main output styles in-text and notes formatting for a specific reference type by clicking on the Copy Field From Default button.  You must do this for each reference type you want to copy from the main output style -- the entire style is not copied.

  4. When you have finished creating your Alternate Language Group, click the Save button.

  5. Your Custom Output Style with Defined Alternate Languages is now available in your RefWorks account and when using Write-N-Cite.  Is it automatically added to your Output Style Manager for your use.

Hint:  If you wish to make changes to the main output style, select [Default] from the Edit Alternate Language Style drop-down.

To Edit an Existing Alternate Language Style:

To Remove  an Alternate Language Style from an Output Style: