BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Wrong BibTeX keys generated in \bibliography

[hamza]

Hi folks,

I have a rather strange problem with BibTeX keys and would appreciate any pointers on how to solve this.

I am using an external .bib file, which was created using JabRef and my BibTeX keys follow the "[first 3 names of the lastname (of first author)][year]" convention. I then reference them in my document using a simple \cite{REFNAME} statement and it does work, but instead of using the BiBTeX keys I have assigned to entries, it creates completely random (from what I can tell) keys which make no sense at all.

It's a bit difficult to explain so I've taken a screenshot of what happens. Please have a look at http://bayimg.com/image/fapicaabh.jpg for the output.

I thought it was an encoding issue at first but everything is plain old ASCII. I am using MikTeX 2.7, TexMaker 1.8 and JabRef 2.4.2

Has anyone seen a similar behaviour before?

Comments much appreciated!


Cheers,
H.

[hamza]

For future google searches: Thanks to the useful replies I got from the [miktex-users] list, I can say that it wasn't BiBTeX's fault. It was more of a PEBKAC situation!

I thought that the BibTeX keys I've assigned in my .bib file would be untouched if I used the 'alpha' style but apparently the reference markers are generated depending on the style file used...

Hope this helps someone in the future.


Cheers,
H.