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Moving Citations from Access, Paradox, Excel, and Dbase Databases into RefWorks
These general instructions use MS Word's Mail Merge feature. Specific Access, Paradox, and Excel databases may not be compatible with Mail Merge.
Note: See RefWorks Field Labels and RefWorks Record Types below
In MS Word
- Open a new document.
- Add the Mail Merge toolbar to VIEW.
- Click on Main Document Setup.
- Type the RefWorks field labels you want to transfer, beginning with RT. See field tag labels below.
- Each label consists of two characters plus a space.
Example: RT - Each record must begin with the "RT " field.
- Each record must include a record type. See types below.
- Each label consists of two characters plus a space.
- Click on Open Data Source on the Mail Merge toolbar and select database. (e.g. Access *.mdb, Paradox *.db, Excel *.xls, Dbase *.dbf).
- Place your cursor next to the appropriate field label and click on Insert Merge Field.
- Click on the corresponding field to insert from your data source.
- Repeat steps 6-7 for all fields you want to import into RefWorks.
- Add one blank line after the last field tag entry.
Sample MS Word Mail Merge main document.
The term "Journal" was typed in this example because all records in this hypothetical database are journal articles. - Click on Merge to New Document.
- Select ALL and click on OK.
- Save document as a text file.
Example: dbexport.txt
It may be necessary to change some data formats to comply with the RefWorks format (such as author names) or bibliographic output styles. In the above sample mail merge document, the Source field in the orginal database combined jounal name, volume, issue, and page numbers into one field. For these elements to format correctly in an output style, the Source field should be parsed into journal name (JF or JO), volume (VO), issue (IS), starting page (SP), and other page (OP) before importing into RefWorks. Alternatively, you can edit individual RefWorks records after importing. See RefWorks Tagged Format Help for details.
In RefWorks
- Login to your RefWorks database if you have not already done so.
- Click on References and Import at the top of the screen.
- Select RefWorks Tagged Format from the Import Filter/Data Source drop down menu.
- Select Tagged Format from the Database drop-down menu.
- At the Import Data from the following Text File box click on the Browse button to select the text file name.
- Click on Import.
- Your citation(s) will automatically be imported into the Last Imported Folder.
You may now view your records and move them to the folder of your choice.
| RefWorks Field Label | Tag Legend |
|---|---|
| RT | Reference Type |
| ID | Reference Identifier |
| A1 | Primary Authors |
| T1 | Primary Title |
| JF | Periodical Full |
| JO | Periodical Abbrev |
| YR | Publication Year |
| FD | Publication Data, Free Form |
| VO | Volume |
| IS | Issue |
| SP | Start Page |
| OP | Other Pages |
| K1 | Keyword |
| AB | Abstract |
| NO | Notes |
| A2 | Secondary Authors |
| T2 | Secondary Title |
| ED | Edition |
| PB | Publisher |
| PP | Place of Publication |
| A3 | Tertiary Authors |
| A4 | Quaternary Authors |
| A5 | Quinary Authors |
| T3 | Tertiary Title |
| SN | ISSN/ISBN |
| AV | Availability |
| AD | Author Address |
| AN | Accession Number |
| LA | Language |
| CL | Classification |
| SF | Subfile/Database |
| OT | Original Foreign Title |
| LK | Links |
| DO | Document Object Index |
| CN | Call Number |
| DB | Database |
| DS | Data Source |
| IP | Identifying Phrase |
| RD | Retrieved Date |
| ST | Shortened Title |
| U1 | User 1 |
| U2 | User 2 |
| U3 | User 3 |
| U4 | User 4 |
| U5 | User 5 |
| UL | URL |
| SL | Sponsoring Library |
| LL | Sponsoring Library Location |
| CR | Cited References |
| WT | Website Title |
| A6 | Website Editors |
| WV | Website Version |
| WP | Date of Electronic Publication |
| Record Type (RT) |
|---|
Abstract |
Please send comments or questions to askrefworks@library.wisc.edu