Citations and references

Write a citation inline with [@key] — the key is the one the work has in your bibliography. Typing @ makes LightNote suggest the works it knows, showing author, year and title; only the key goes into the note. There are also [@key, p. 45] (with the page), [-@key] (when the author's name is already in the sentence) and [@a; @b] (several works at once). This feature comes turned off: switch it on in Settings → Features → Academic → Citations and bibliography. LightNote is a simple editor that also handles a thesis, and someone who does not write academic work should not pay for it with menus and options they never use.-citacoes

In reading mode the citation becomes formatted text — (Silva, 2020, p. 45) — and the token [bibliography] alone on a line becomes the list of the works you cited, in the order the style requires. In the editor the key stays visible, because the key is what you edit.

The bibliography is a file in your workspace: any .bib, .ris or .csl.json in the folder counts. That is what makes it travel with your notes through Git or a USB stick and keep working on another computer. Opening one of those files shows the list of works with each key, ready to copy.

To bring works in: Tools → Bibliography → Add work by DOI takes a DOI or an arXiv identifier and fetches the rest by itself; and Import from Zotero reads the library of the Zotero 7 running on this computer (first tick Preferences → Advanced → Allow other applications on this computer to communicate with Zotero).

The style belongs to the folder, and a note may disagree. Pick the default in Tools → Workspace → Workspace settings → Citations (ABNT, APA 7, Vancouver, Chicago or ISO 690); a note headed elsewhere declares citation-style: apa in its properties. A key that is not in the bibliography stays as you wrote it, so you can see which one to fix.