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Letters, Emails, Instant Messages--all "personal communications" under the hood
I am learning a lot as I explore the CSL (Citation Style Language) that allows the creation of our citations. As some of you are aware, I am seeking to create a slightly modified CMOS style that allows us to get closer to our ideals in genealogy. (More to come on that soon....)
But in exploring, I came across something of interest. Technically, the Letter, Email, and Instant Message item types are all the same item type beneath the hood--an item type CSL calls "Personal Communication." The variations are handled differently based on a "Type" field--a field that only shows up on the Letter item type. The bibliographic citation for both emails and instant messages looks like this:
lastname, firstname. Letter to firstname lastname2. “Email Subject,” January 1, 2011. https://sampleurl/.
The words "Letter to" should have been "Email to" or "Instant message to...".
But if you look at the Letter item type, you'll see that you get to key in a "Type." And whatever you type there controls those words.
I've set up a "Letter" with these fields:
Letters, Emails, Instant Messages--all "personal communications" under the hood
| Type | Letter |
|---|---|
| Author | Donna Cox Baker |
| Recipient | Zotero Group |
| Date | 2/25/2019 |
| Type | Forum Discussion |
| Date Added | 2/25/2019, 8:33:37 PM |
| Modified |
2/25/2019, 8:34:48 PM |
Very interesting. The only downside I can see off the top of my head is the icon would not match the type of communication. I find myself using the icons to show an item type more often than the words. For me, I would like to see an icon of a phone for phone conversations.
The icons must be hardcoded into Zotero and not a part of the CSL style code. I don't think we'll have much control over that. But at least all personal communications will be flagged with the image of the envelope and can be distinguished from articles and books, etc.
Dona;
Have you had any luck with importing email from something like Mac Mail? If not; how can one get the emails into Zotero?
I note that there is an email item type, but no way of getting an email into Zotero. Even more strange; it has a URL field but no email address field.
Mac's can produce PDF's that include attachments or not, as one wishes. I'd prefer not to have to go the route of attaching PDFs to a dummy record but may have to do so.
We've had some success (with a workaround) in getting Gmail to come into Zotero as an email item type, but Gmail is a web-based email system. Each email does have its own URL, though it would only work for someone with the password, I assume.
If Mac Mail is like Microsoft Mail--a free-standing desktop software program--Zotero Connector can't draw from it. The way to do it would be to save or print the email to a PDF, then create the email item in Zotero manually. When you choose the Email item type, you'll notice that the contributor roles change. You can identify the author and the recipient as the second contributor. This data:
-
Type E-mail Author Donna Cox Baker Recipient History Hunter Date 14 Oct 2020 Subject How to do an email in Zotero Date Added 10/14/2020, 9:38:32 PM Modified 10/14/2020, 9:44:29 PM
...becomes this citation:
Donna Cox Baker to History Hunter, “How to Do an Email in Zotero,” October 14, 2020.
Thank you. I’ll try that.
