Hi, Ihor,

Thanks for the comments. I attach a revised patch and reply inline.

> Christian Moe <[email protected]> writes:
>> [...] I think Worg rather than the manual might be the place to
>> reproduce and update [Tecosaur's] large table of styles/variants, so
>> I've taken a different tack here.
>
> +1

I think I'll make it a section of a new general org-cite tutorial page
under worg/tutorials/org-cite/ (making it a dir to have a tidy place for
bibfiles etc.).

>> +- CSL styles recognize "locators" such as page or chapter numbers in
>> +  the suffixes to citation keys, and have rules for rendering them.  A
[...]
>
> I think it is worth clarifying that locators are only supported when
> using ob-csl processors. Otherwise, it may be confused, say, for
> oc-basic, that supports CSL bibliographies, but not locators.

Clarified. At the bottom of the patch, I have also tidied up the format
of the list of locator terms.

>> +- =locators= (=l=) :: Provide the locator(s) only, e.g., the page
>> +  number.  Variant: =bare=.
>> +
>> +- =bibentry= (=b=) :: Provide full bibliographic information as an
>> +  in-text citation.  Variant: =bare=.
>
> These are not supported by all the citation processors. Maybe it is
> worth clarifying which processors support which styles.

Clarified by adding a shorter list of the other processors and the
styles they support (but not the variants), with a footnote about the
meaning of =locators= for biblatex. I have not gone into variants here.
I also added an explanatory paragraph about what the (nat)bib(la)(tex)
processors do differently from basic/csl, and mentioning the option of
customizing `org-cite-biblatex-styles' for biblatex. Is it clear enough?

>> +The following table gives some examples of how style variations can be
>> +used and how an citation export processor might render them:
>> +
>> +| =[cite:@dewaal06 p. 5]=      | (de Waal et al. 2006, 5)            |
>> +| =[cite//bc:@dewaal06 p. 5]=  | De Waal et al. 2006, 5              |
[...]
> Maybe we should provide full style/variant names for better readability.

Or maybe we should mix full names and shortcuts to illustrate both
options. I've tried that approach here.

Regards,
Christian

>From 4e9400d72ffc337c06923ab079ca684b9c3a6f6f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Christian Moe <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2025 23:25:23 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] org-manual: Document citation styles and locators

* doc/org-manual.org (Citations): Mention style variants.  Simplify
the cite/style syntax example and add an example with a variant.
Mention locators in suffixes.  Add a table of supported styles, a
table of variants, and a table with examples of use.  Add a list of
locator terms.  Add index entries.

Brought up by yaca in the October 2025 Org meetup.
Reported-by: Ihor Radchenko <[email protected]>
Link: https://list.orgmode.org/87ms5cp4j5.fsf@localhost.

The listings of styles, variants, and locators have been adapted from the
commentary in lisp/oc-csl.el.
---
 doc/org-manual.org | 91 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 89 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/org-manual.org b/doc/org-manual.org
index ff5a569d4..f23a7c6b9 100644
--- a/doc/org-manual.org
+++ b/doc/org-manual.org
@@ -17811,6 +17811,7 @@ search for citation keys.
 One can then insert and edit citations using ~org-cite-insert~, called
 with {{{kbd(C-c C-x @)}}}.
 
+#+cindex: citation
 A /citation/ requires one or more citation /key(s)/, elements
 identifying a reference in the bibliography.
 
@@ -17835,9 +17836,14 @@ identifying a reference in the bibliography.
 
 - One can also specify a stylistic variation for the citations by
   inserting a =/= and a style name between the =cite= keyword and the
-  colon; this usually makes sense only for the author-year styles.
+  colon; this usually makes sense only for the author-year
+  styles.  Additionally, one can insert a =/= and a variant name after
+  the style.
+
+  : [cite/<style>:@key]
+  : [cite/<style>/<variant>:@key]
 
-  : [cite/style:common prefix ;prefix @key suffix; ... ; common suffix]
+  Supported styles and variants are detailed below.
 
   When =style= is not specified, one of the two default styles are
   used
@@ -17852,13 +17858,94 @@ identifying a reference in the bibliography.
 
     : [cite:@key] is the same as [cite/nil:@key]
 
+- CSL styles recognize "locators" such as page or chapter numbers in
+  the suffixes to citation keys, and have rules for rendering them.  A
+  locator starts with a locator term and ends with the last comma or
+  digit in the suffix, whichever comes last. Locator terms include
+  "p.", "page", and "chap."; more terms are listed below.  In the
+  following example, the locator is =p. 3-4=, but it might be rendered
+  "pp. 3--4" or just "3--4" in export, depending on the CSL style.
 
+  : [cite:see @Tarski1965 p. 3-4 for an example]
+  
 The only mandatory elements are:
 
 - The =cite= keyword and the colon.
 - The =@= character immediately preceding each key.
 - The brackets surrounding the citation(s) (group).
 
+#+cindex: styles, for citations
+Citation styles and variants can be specified by their full name
+(e.g., =author/bare=) or abbreviation (e.g., =a/b=).  The following
+citation styles are supported:
+
+- default style :: Provide a typical author-date citation in
+  parentheses.  Variants: =bare=, =caps=, and =bare-caps=.
+  
+- =author= (=a=) :: As default, but suppress the year.  Variants:
+  =bare=, =caps=, =full=, and all their combinations.
+
+- =noauthor= (=na=) :: As default, but suppress author names.  Variants: =bare=,
+  =caps=, and =bare-caps=.
+
+- =nocite= (=n=) :: Suppress the whole citation (but list the item in
+  the bibliography).  As a special case, =[cite/n:@*]= will cause all
+  works in the bibliography file(s) to be printed in the
+  bibliography. Variants: none.
+
+- =year= (=y=) :: Provide the year only, like =noauthor=, but also suppress
+  locators.  Variant: =bare=.
+
+- =text= (=t=) :: Provide an author-date citation with the author
+  outside the parentheses. Variants: =caps=, =full=, and =caps-full=.
+
+- =title= (=ti=) :: Provide the title only.  Variant: =bare=.
+
+- =locators= (=l=) :: Provide the locator(s) only, e.g., the page
+  number.  Variant: =bare=.
+
+- =bibentry= (=b=) :: Provide full bibliographic information as an
+  in-text citation.  Variant: =bare=.
+
+The following variants and their combinations are supported for some
+styles:
+
+- =bare= (=b=) :: Do not enclose the citation in parentheses.
+  
+- =caps= (=c=) :: Capitalize the first word. This is sometimes useful
+  for last names beginning e.g.\nbsp{}with "von" or "de".
+
+- =full= (=f=) :: List all author names instead of replacing them with
+  "et al."
+  
+- =bare-caps= (=bc=) :: Combine =bare= and =caps=.
+  
+- =bare-full= (=bf=) :: Combine =bare= and =full=.
+
+- =caps-full= (=cf=) ::  Combine =caps= and =full=.
+
+- =bare-caps-full= (=bcf=) :: Combine =bare=, =caps=, and =full=.
+
+The following table gives some examples of how style variations can be
+used and how an citation export processor might render them:
+
+| =[cite:@dewaal06 p. 5]=      | (de Waal et al. 2006, 5)            |
+| =[cite//bc:@dewaal06 p. 5]=  | De Waal et al. 2006, 5              |
+| =[cite/a:@dewaal06 p. 5]=    | (de Waal et al., 5)                 |
+| =[cite/na:@dewaal06, p. 5]=  | (2006, 5)                           |
+| =[cite/t/cf:@dewaal06 p. 5]= | De Waal, Jones, and Smith (2006, 5) |
+| =[cite/n:@dewaal06]=         |                                     |
+| =[cite/l:@dewaal06 p. 5]=    | (5)                                 |
+
+#+cindex: locators
+CSL locator terms include "bk.", "bks.", "book", "chap.", "chaps.",
+"chapter", "col.", "cols.", "column", "figure", "fig.", "figs.",
+"folio", "fol.", "fols.", "number", "no.", "nos.", "line", "l.",
+"ll.", "note", "n.", "nn.", "opus", "op.", "opp.", "page", "p.",
+"pp.", "paragraph", "para.", "paras.", "¶", "¶¶", "§", "§§", "part",
+"pt.", "pts.", "section", "sec.", "secs.", "sub verbo", "s.v.",
+"s.vv.", "verse", "v.", "vv.", "volume", "vol.", and "vols.".
+
 ** Citation export processors
 
 Org currently includes the following export processors:
-- 
2.43.0

Reply via email to