BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Converting .bib keeping citation keys

[mivadar]

I have a bit of a problem -

I use BibTeX, and I have an extensive collection of references in a .bib database (On the order of 2000 papers.)
My friendly boss requested me to make both the database and the references available and usable to the group.

I'm the only person using LaTeX and BibTeX in a radius of 10 km , so beside providing the .bib file (and installation of some GUI to read it with), I'm also converting it to some more general format (relatively free to pick - anything from html to xml - just something "normal" people using Office can be expected to read and use).

So far so good.

The problem is that I sort my papers (the actual pdf files) by having the file-name correspond to the bibtex key - for me this is an easy system, as I use the .bib file as a database anyway, and I can easily search back for the papers on the basis of the key.

However, I don't see an obvious way to convert the .bib file to something else while displaying and maintaining the association to the key.
(And, obviously, if others want to use the file folder and the database, this would be highly useful.)

Any suggestions?

[localghost]

Perhaps you can use JabRef to export the database to a format that can easily be processed by others.


Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten

[mivadar]

Thank You, I'll try.

I tried a few conversions before (not yet JabRef specifically), the problem is that they convert the file fine, all the fields are in tact (more or less), but the key is invariably lost.

I'll try JabRef and get back with the result .

[mivadar]

It worked, thanks.

I already had Jabref on my Linux partition and used it, but normally I use bib2html, etc. to convert, and these tools tend to leave out the key.
It didn't occur to me to try Jabref as well.