Editing Forum:Citations for digital books

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|This may be slightly off-topic, but is there any possible way to re-write the citation template to allow Kindle locations?  E-readers use locs, which are essentially the number of bytes into a document, rather than page numbers because the page changes depending on the size of the screen and the font.  Some non-ficiton works have the page numbers embedded in the text but most novels don't so it's really impossible to cite the page number when referencing an FR novel read on Kindle.  This probably isn't a pressing issue at the moment but down the road in five or ten years e-readers may become the dominant media.  Some day even WoTC will have to give in and publish their sourcebooks for e-readers at which point the ability to cite e-reader locations may become very important to this forum. 
|[[User:Boo Too|Boo Too]] 04:32, January 11, 2012 (UTC)}}

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|To address that, I've just created [[Template:Cite digital book]]. It behaves the same as [[Template:Cite book]], but instead of the pages parameter, it uses a location parameter. I'd advise anyone using this template to create a sub-page of the sub-page for the different e-readers. For example, I created [[Template:Cite digital book/Shadowbane/Kindle]] (''[[Shadowbane (novel)|Shadowbane]]'' being the only digital-only FR book I own so far).
|'''[[User:Cronje|Cronje]]''' <sup>([[User talk:Cronje|talk]] &sdot; [[Special:Contributions/Cronje|contribs]])</sup> 04:14, January 11, 2012 (UTC)}}

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|You raise a very good point with digital books. This is an issue. But, how can you be sure that there is only one digital edition of ''[[Shadowbane]]''? What if there were multiple editions that could be referenced with different location markers?

Is it the case that digital book editions are catalogued with something like the ISBN system?

As far as digital sourcebooks go, I understand they're usually in PDF format (the ones you can download for free from the WotC site, at least), so page numbers would be okay for those, since they're essentially an on-screen copy of the paper book, and even e-readers will still show the original page numbers, right?
|[[User:Fw190a8]] 23:13, January 11, 2012 (UTC)
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|I thought of that same thing when I was creating the template, and it's the reason why I created a sub-template of the book ([[Template:Cite digital book/Shadowbane/Kindle]]. Presumably there will be a /Nook and other sub-pages for other e-readers. I can tell you that the PC version of the Kindle e-book reader has the same locations as the physical Kindle, so there won't be any discrepancies there.

For the most part, each e-reader has its own format (Kindle prefers .mobi) and uses something similar to a location system. Except for some of the short stories and older sourcebooks available on the Wizards site, which ARE available in PDF format, they use the individual e-book file formats, so there are no page numbers for those.
|'''[[User:Cronje|Cronje]]''' <sup>([[User talk:Cronje|talk]] &sdot; [[Special:Contributions/Cronje|contribs]])</sup> 23:21, January 11, 2012 (UTC)}}

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|Thank you Cronje, this is just what I was looking for.  I'll have to go back to some of my articles and revise the references.

With regards to locations on different readers, a loc is a 128 byte chunk of data in the e-book file.  However, there is no guarantee that the file size of an e-book is exactly the same for each e-reader edition.  If a Kindle and Nook edition of the same book are a slightly different file size, then the locs will be off slightly which makes citations messy.  Creating 3+ templates for each book is going to be a PITA.  It would really be nice if e-book makers could get together and define a common standard.  This probably won't happen until e-books become standard for academic research and the professors start demanding it.

|[[User:Boo Too]] 23:13, January 11, 2012 (UTC)
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== Numbering Citations ==

My question is simple.  When making citations in a book, are they numbered in order from page 1 onward or are the numbers restated with each new chapter or section? I just want to do it properly.