The harvard package in Mac

If you have, as I do, a Mac with OS X Lion and use LaTex (or better put, MacTex) then you might want to install the harvard package of citations because, well, it's pretty. Anyway, making it work is super complicated and the available help is totally confusing (almost written in binary code). So, I will give my solution in five (plus an extra) super simple steps. I am sure there is a fancier way to do this, but since I am interested in my bibliography and not in programming elegance, let's proceed.

1. Go to the harvard package directory website and download the contents directory as a zip file.
2. Unzip what you just downloaded. A new carpet called "harvard" will be created wherever the original zip file is (usually the downloads folder).
3. LaTex is pretty particular about where the files are located. Since there is no automatic installer, we will have to manually create the directories and move the files. So, click on Finder > Go > Go to folder and then type "~/Library" (without the quotation marks).
4. Inside the "Library" folder create the next path: ~Library/texmf/tex/latex/misc. The *.sty files will be placed in this "misc" folder. So, go back to the unzipped "harvard" folder and select the files "bibtexlogo.sty" and "harvard.sty" and drag it to the "misc" folder.
5. Inside the "Library" folder and create the next path: ~Library/texmf/bibtex/bst. This directory will contain the *.bst files, so go back again to the unzipped "harvard" folder and select all the files with this extension. In my version of the package, I have seven *.bst files: agsm, apsr, dcu, jmr, jphysicsB, kluwer, and nederlands.
6. If you prefer to have all of your bibliography in a single place and reference it in a Latex document without setting the path (i.e. using the default location for *.bib files), then create the next path: ~Library/texmf/bibtex/bib and place all of your *.bib files in here.

You are done! Now, you can pretty much just throw away the rest of the documentation or create a new folder inside "texmf" and keep it there for reference.

First entry. The reason.

So, the reason why I decided to open this blog is because I need to somehow keep track of what I have had to do to make my stuff work. Last night I spent 4 hours (yes, 4) trying to install the harvard package for citations in my Mac (OS X Lion). Most of the blogs and websites have all the necessary information in a way that can only be read if you speak their language. Most of us need plain english (as a non-native English speaker, I need also simple English!). So, I have decided to write this blog hoping that it will be helpful and comprehensible. Of course, the content is quite related to what I encounter and am able to solve. Pip pip!