BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Missing \begin{document} - error converting

[Choughed]

Hi folks 

How can I separately convert .bib files into .blb?

Ta
John

[Johannes_B]

I guess you are looking for BibTeX to generate a bbl. You will also need a bibliographystyle that defines the visual output.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi John,

welcome to the forum!

I'm sure you need at least a small .tex document with a bibliography style, as Johannes said. It may contain just a short dummy text with \printbibliography. You can use \nocite{*} to include all bib entries.

Stefan

[Choughed]

Many thanks, folks.

Okay, I pasted \bibliographystyle{harvard} and \bibliography{sage_harvard} into the .bib document.

I then asked TeXShop to typeset using BibTeX. It refused to typeset and instead asked for a .aux file, which I don’t have.

There is a sage.cls file and a natbib.sty file, but I think they go to the overall format.

Any thoughts?

Cheers
John

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi John,

you need to typeset via LaTeX or pdfLaTeX first. That produces the .aux file.
BibTeX actually works on the .aux file.

Stefan

[Johannes_B]

It seems you don't know yet how LaTeX works. You can have a look at LaTeX for complete novices, a free e-book.

[Choughed]

Hi Stefan

I typeset in LaTex. However, instead of an .aux file this error came up:

Missing \begin{document}

John

[Choughed]

Many thanks, Johannes

I’ll give it a go.

John

[Johannes_B]

You cannot just convert a bib-database to a bbl-file. You need to set up a full and working document and include your bibliography in there, including a matching style.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

I'm just curious - for what do you need that file, if not for processing with LaTeX?

Stefan