BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Can't create my own .bib files, but preloaded ones work!

[nimon]

Hello. I am a new user to BiBTeX and I am getting frustrated after a day of troubleshooting.

I have the protext MikTex 2.9 + TeXMaker X package configured with bibtex command "bibtex %" and build command "latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|bibtex %.aux|latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|xdvi %.dvi"

Along with my MikTeX distribution came a load of .bib files which can be invoked with no problem via

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

I want to cite \cite{taylor}.

\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{startex}

\end{document}

Where startex.bib is contained in "MikTeX/bibtex/bib/startex".

Now when I write my own .bib file, no matter where I put it or what I do to invoke it, there is no .bbl file produced. This behaviour is very weird, since I can copy/paste the contents of one of MikTeX's preloaded .bib files into my own, save it in the same location it came from with a different name and change the key, so I essentially have a carbon copy of a working .bib file but under a different name so BiBTeX doesn't get confused. Result? No .bbl file can be produced.

What is going on here?

[josephwright]

Is you .bib file in the same folder as your .tex file?

[nimon]

Ok I think I've fixed this, kinda. I can get .bbl files from my own .bib files now, provided that the .bib file is in the same file as my .tex file (thanks joseph) and the .tex file hasn't been compiled incorrectly once. If it fails to compile properly once and an empty or invalid .bbl is created, then I have to fix the issue with the .bib file, copy the latex document's source code into a new .tex file and compile, because the empty/invalid .bbl file won't be overwritten, even if I delete it and recompile. Working .bbl files are overwritten as normal, however, which is nice.

I don't know why this is and frankly, now I have a work around, I don't care.

Thanks for your help, now I can get on with the rest of my life.