The forms Citation uses to display your records are defined in a text file named forms.def, which is located in your citation folder. You can edit this text file with your word processor (or notepad) to add new forms or customize existing forms. If you edit forms.def, you will need to remember to save forms.def as a text file.

To edit the forms.def file

Close Citation, and then open c:\citation\forms.def in your word processor.

When you open forms.def, the file looks basically like this (plus or minus a few fields, depending on whether you are using the standard or legal edition of Citation):

To delete an entire form

1. Highlight all the text for the form (including the two zeros ending the form definition, and press delete.
2. Save forms.def.
3. Restart Citation, open a datafile, and click Edit, Add Record to make certain the changes you have made are to your preferences.

To delete a single field from a form

1. Highlight the line with the field name, and remove the entire line.
2. Save forms.def.
3. Restart Citation, open a datafile, and click Edit, Add Record to make certain the changes you have made are to your preferences.

To change the name of a field

1. Edit the text before the two backslashes. Do not edit the numbers to the right or the left of the field label.
2. Save forms.def.

To add a new form

1. Copy the section of text for the Full Form at the end of the file,
2. Paste the copy of the full form into forms.def at the position where you would like it to appear in the Select form dialog.
3. Replace the form name "Full Record" with a new form name
4. Delete fields that are inessential by deleting the entire line for the field.
5. Rename fields on the form, if that seems appropriate, for your project. Note that It is a good idea to look for fields that are somewhat similar in content (if at all possible) when you are renaming fields for a new form.

When you have finished editing forms.def, save it, restart Citation and open a datafile, then click Edit, Add Record to make certain the changes are to your preferences.

When you are certain the changes are correct, close Citation, and make a backup of the new forms.def file, with a different name.

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