BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Making sure bibtex is using the right style

[lalop]

I'm a complete noob to bibtex, and the sites online seem to contradict each other and/or common sense about this.

How do we know whether bibtex is actually using the right bibilographystyle, or using a bibilographystyle at all? To test this, I tried \bibliographystyle{omgwtfzzz} and it still came out without any errors.

I was trying to use apacite, and the guide here said:

make sure that you have the files apacite.bst and apacite.sty in the same folder as your manuscript (as well as the apa.cls file).

Other sites also talked about having the .bst file in the same folder, but didn't mention a .sty. So I'm sort of confused as to what you need.

So I guess it comes down to three questions:

1) Is it actually necessary for any of them to be in the same folder, if the packages (apacite, apa) were installed with miktex? If you install the package with miktex, is that the end of your worries?

2) Is there an easy way to check that the right .bst file actually does exist and is being used? (I did citations, apparently successfully, for like 20 minutes without having installed apacite.)

3) And, is there a way to make miktex download on the fly bibilography styles like apacite, like it does with apa?

[josephwright]

How do we know whether bibtex is actually using the right bibilographystyle, or using a bibilographystyle at all? To test this, I tried \bibliographystyle{omgwtfzzz} and it still came out without any errors.

Well, LaTeX won't give an error, as it does not use the style file. However, when you run BibTeX it should complain. Look for a file called <filename>.blg: this is the BibTeX log.

1) Is it actually necessary for any of them to be in the same folder, if the packages (apacite, apa) were installed with miktex? If you install the package with miktex, is that the end of your worries?

Yes: files installed by MiKTeX are on the TeX search path. Needing things in the same folder only applies if you download them yourself (and don't do a "local installation").

2) Is there an easy way to check that the right .bst file actually does exist and is being used? (I did citations, apparently successfully, for like 20 minutes without having installed apacite.)

As I said, LaTeX doesn't actually care about the BibTeX style you use. You'll see problems only when you try to run BibTeX.

3) And, is there a way to make miktex download on the fly bibilography styles like apacite, like it does with apa?

It should do, but if not try the Package Manager to force installation.