Hello. I'm about to compile a bibliography and would like to know how to invert the order of authors' names. In my text I refer to e.g. William Shakespeare, but in the bibliography that needs to appear as Shakespeare, William. Is there a 'one-click' method of doing this?

Thanks



Keith Reader

No, that cannot be done. Depending on the referencing format you're using, a citation might look like 'Shakespeare, W' and the bibliography entry might look like 'Shakespeare, William'; neither will give you 'William Shakespeare' unless you tell Word the surname is 'William Shakespeare', in which case both the citation and the bibliography will depict it that way.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks - but what I need is, precisely, 'Shakespeare, William' in the bibliography whereas the text will obviously allude to 'William Shakespeare' ... Why is this impossible? Thank you again for your help.

Because that's how any given referencing format works; that's not something under Microsoft's control. That said, Microsoft's implementation is abysmal for some referencing formats, especially Chicago.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks for your help on this, but so far as I can tell there is no alternative to doing these inversions one at a time by hand (???)

Well, if you want all your references to appear that way, there seems little point using Word's referencing tools at all; you may as well simply type the lot in the required formats.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Time-consuming but from what you say seemingly unavoidable ... The standard practice is given name first in the text ('As William Shakespeare says ...) but surname in the bibliography (Shakespeare, William: Hamlet). Surprised that there appears to be no ready way to move between these.

That is a different matter from inserting a citation one the one hand, and a bibliography reference on the other. The citation might have 'As William Shakespeare says ...' typed, followed by a citation to the particular work, as in:
As William Shakespeare says … (The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, c.1600, p.123)
and for which the bibliography entry in APA format, would appear as:
Shakespeare, W. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (c.1600). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
or, in Chicago format, would appear as:
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Oxford: Clarendon Press, c.1600

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks for your time on this though I'm still floundering. Not sure how to 'insert citation' as per your post. As I write I igive endnote references in the form 'William Shakespeare' but these need to show in the bibliography as 'Shakespeare, William.' I can see no alternative to a laborious manual process.

To insert a citation, you need to first add the source reference (e.g. for Hamlet) to Word, via References|Manage Sources>New, supplying all the relevant details. Having added the source, it will automatically appear in the Bibliography if you add one (References|Bibliography). Similarly, if you want to refer to something William Shakespeare said, you'd use References|Insert Citation for that, editing the citation (by right-clicking on it) to remove the author name and add the page #s. FWIW, I have >850 sources stored in Word.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks ever so much for this - I had no idea! Pity I didn't know this trick when I began writing but shall certainly bear it in mind next time.