I copy a citation from a database that provides complete citations for my sources. I try to paste to the small Paste Citation window available in the Source window. I receive the following message: There is no memorized citation yet. The database clearly indicates that I have successfully copied the citation but I can’t paste it . I believe there is something wrong with my “mechanics”.
What am I missing?
If you want to paste a string of text from an external database into RM, then go to the specific target field and paste. Use standard OS keystrokes for windows or mac or right-click for options. You may want to ‘paste as plain text’ (Shift + Ctrl + V) to avoid html tags and other formatting metadata.
‘Paste Citation’ is a special RM action that is used in conjunction with the ‘Memorize Citation’ RM action. It copies all of the source and citation fields from a selected RM source citation. This can only be used when copying a RM citation, not when copying from an external source.
Thank you, Kevin. I think my best option is to copy the citation to the Note area for the corresponding Fact. Do you agree? It saves a lot of time creating a source and is probably more t echnically accurate. I appreciate your help.
I would probably disagree with this for two reasons. The first is that citations produced by many sites, especially Ancestry, are flawed in their format, and most certainly don’t follow the EE standard in others, assuming you believe Elizabeth Shown Mills to be the arbiter for proper formatting. Second, pasting into notes is not going to provide you with the nice little footnote numbers in your report, and given a few quirks with notes (such as not printing a blank line in reports before starting the note text), your source may just run into the body of the note if it exists. Plus the repetition situation becomes a little more horrific if you use the same source for many facts. If you actually use sources, then one is only subjected to the short footnote on subsequent uses instead of a repetition of the entire source/citation.
If nothing else, I would argue for the creation of a source, even if you use the freeform option, paste you bits into it and go from there. Of course this means you may need to create the short footnote and bibliography out of what you paste in, but it would at least be a little more ‘proper’. Once created, it can then be reused for as many facts as you need it to be.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to help me. I am a relatively new user of RM and, of course, ver. 8 is brand new. You certainly gave me more to consider regarding copying citations.
Many of the citations I have been using generally come form reputable sources like state and county databases. In my judgement (as a librarian) the formatting is correct. I need to consider how to proceed. Thank you again.