Simple description of exporting bibliography to Excel and Word

[Kumabjorn]

I've been searching for a simple method or explanation of a method to export Title, Author, Publisher, Publishing Date and ISBN to a CSV file that I can clean up and then merge with Word's Source.XML file so I can handle notes and bibliography in Word.

Some of the problems I encounter are
1) Date field contains publishing date plus some time zone data. I don't want the TZ data.
2) Despite saving the file as an XML file Word tells me it isn't a bibliographic source file.
3) Author names has to be divided into first and last names. Don't know how to separate those.

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I have managed the export part, but it is getting it into Word the way I want it that frustrates me. So, technically, this isn't a Calibre issue (unless you can fix the Author name thing in Calibre). BUT, I'm hoping other users has gone through this process and can show me the light at the end of a frustrating long tunnel.

[Billi]

Use citavi (www.citavi.de). Yes, in the beginning it will be much more work as you have to insert your data into the computer again (although in most cases the isbn will do the trick) but after a short time it will pay off and be much better for your purposes.

[kovidgoyal]

You should probably export as bibtex and then use some bibtex import filter in word.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You should probably export as bibtex and then use some bibtex import filter in word.

That is just it. I read the manual that suggested Bibtex, but in the conversion dialog box I can only find a long list of devices and in the output format there is no Bibtex.
This has me utterly confused.
Hence, the need for a simple description (and probably detailed)

[kovidgoyal]

You need to right click the convert button and choose Create catalog, then on the first tab of the resulting dialog, choose BIB for catalog format.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You need to right click the convert button and choose Create catalog, then on the first tab of the resulting dialog, choose BIB for catalog format.

I didn't see that option. Thank you. Hopefully this will work.

[Kumabjorn]

It does create a very nice looking database. Problem is that Word 2010 refuses to see it as a bibliographic database. Oh well...

PS
I do realize that Calibre is doing a dandy job here and the problem seems to be more with Word. I suppose I have to create yet another macro to solve the problem, and in the end I will be even more invested in Office and will never be able to break free from the shackles of Windows and smell the freedom of Chrome or Linux.

[Kumabjorn]

I have now tried the different conversions.
XML seems to be the most similar to what Word's Sources Management file look like. Yet, it still won't recognize it as a bibliographic database file. I'm fairly sure I should be able to find my way around that, probably with some macro code (things like this are repetitive, hence reasonably attainable even for a non-programmer.

However, there are two things I need to figure ot.
In the output is a record named "pub_date" that looks like a date, followed by time and timezone. Like this:

<pubdate>2012-06-19T07:00:00+09:00</pubdate>

In my library I have a column Published, that gives a month and year for publication. Like this:

Dec, 2012

This is the format i also want in the bibliography. Why is the Calibre conversion so exact, including time zone and hours?

The other thing is input for Authors. Word wants to have a separate entry for Last_Name and First_Name, how do I break up that in the conversion for a catalog.

Sorry for all the noobie questions, but this is one feature I've not tried out Before and to ge honest the Manual isn't exactly helpful. To me, it seems to be written by engineers for engineers. Not an end user like me.

-----------
This is what an exported My Books XML file entry look like:
------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

-<calibredb>


-<record>

<publisher>Random House Inc Clients</publisher>

<isbn>9781780964447</isbn>

<identifiers>isbn:9781780964447</identifiers>

<title sort="Tokugawa Ieyasu (Command)">Tokugawa Ieyasu (Command)</title>


-<authors sort="Turnbull, Stephen">

<author>Turnbull, Stephen</author>

</authors>

<pubdate>2012-06-19T07:00:00+09:00</pubdate>

</record>

----------
And this what Word's look like
-----------
<?xml version="1.0"?>

-<b:Sources xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/bibliography" xmlns:b="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/bibliography" SelectedStyle="">


-<b:Source>

<b:Tag>Bos01</b:Tag>

<b:SourceType>JournalArticle</b:SourceType>

<b:Guid>{9E5C79A3-26C9-4A94-8A92-9DE51C28CF84}</b:Guid>

<b:Title>English Immersion in a Japanese School</b:Title>

<b:Year>2001</b:Year>

<b:Publisher>Bilingual Education</b:Publisher>


-<b:Author>


-<b:Author>


-<b:NameList>


-<b:Person>

<b:Last>Bostwick</b:Last>

<b:First>M.</b:First>

</b:Person>

</b:NameList>

</b:Author>

</b:Author>

<b:Volume>8</b:Volume>

<b:Issue>2</b:Issue>

</b:Source>
-------------------------
Seems to me like it shouldn't be overly difficult getting these to merge.

[kovidgoyal]

All dates are stored as full dates + times regardless of what you actually see in the UI. If you dont want the time part, simply discard everything after the first T in your macro.

calibre does not know what an author's first and last names are, first and last names are very nebulously defined across cultures, therefore you will need to do your own xml processing to convert the author name into a first and last name.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

All dates are stored as full dates + times regardless of what you actually see in the UI. If you dont want the time part, simply discard everything after the first T in your macro.

calibre does not know what an author's first and last names are, first and last names are very nebulously defined across cultures, therefore you will need to do your own xml processing to convert the author name into a first and last name.

Whoa, you're fast.
Yes, I was inclined to Think of a macro, I just didn't know if there was some way to tweak it inside Calibre Before conversion.
Also, sorrry I couldn't maintain the indents.