BibDesk has a built-in template editor that allows you to create basic templates, without the need to know the template syntax. It is most suitable for citation and bibliography templates. It may be less suitable for preview and export templates, as it does not support more complex collection and condition tags. To create a new template using the template editor, choose "File > New Template".
The basic work flow to create a new template using the template editor is as follows.
First, choose whether you want a plain text or rich text template. In the latter case, choose a font.
Then choose a default type. This is either the type of most of your publication items, e.g. article,
or a generic type, e.g. misc. The latter could be useful only if you add separate styles for a few types,
as described below.
Next edit the prefix, to be added before the items, the suffix, to be added after the items, and the item separator, to be used between the items.
Then you edit the item template or the item templates. You can either add a single template for a single (default) type, or you can include different item templates for several publication types in a addition to a default item templates. In the latter case, check the types for whic you want to add special templates in the table. The types for which a required item template has not been set yet are displayed in red. The default template is dislayed in the table using a bold font. Next you select the different types for which you want to add an item template, and edit the template.
You edit an item template by dragging blue bubbles from the available fields to the item template field. You can also type text between the bubbles. After you select a bubble, you can change some options for the field. The Appending, Prefix, and Suffix options are added only when the value of the field is not empty. The Rich Text bubble can be used to add text with font that is different from the rest of the template, or to add text that is conditional on whether a particular field is set, or not set. In the font options of the bubbles, any font setting can be inherited from the main body of the template. For the font name, simply choose `Same as body', for the font size, choose `Inherit' or 0 for this behavior. To inherit the Bold or Italic setting from the main body, choose a `-' in the check button.
It may be useful to first change the options for some of the available fields before editing the item templates. Options set for the available field bubbles will later be copied to the item templates. Note that editing the options of an available field will not affect the options for bubbles already included in an item template. However these options will be shared between different types.
You can copy an item template for one type to another type by dragging a row in the table and dropping it on another row.
At the end you save the template. You could then edit the template in a text editor such as TextEdit for some final touches, or to add template tags not supported by the template editor.