Documentation of the Citrus Automatic Legal Citation Software for The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation

Frequently Asked Questions about Citrus, the Automatic Bluebook Citation Software

How is Citrus associated with the publishers of the Bluebook?

Citrus is not developed or endorsed by the publishers of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, nor is it affiliated with the Legal Bluebook web site. Where it does not conflict with Bluebook rules, common use, or common sense, Citrus incorporates rules from other sources including ALWD, state supreme courts, state rules such as the Texas Rules of Form, and material written by experts in particular subject matter. Citrus also corrects some errors in the Bluebook and associated citation sources. Citrus recognizes many citation forms, but you will need to refer to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation for others.
How do I use Citrus to help manage my legal citations?

Citrus plugs into Microsoft Word 2003 or Word 2007, which means that it appears to a writer that it is a part of Word. When you want Citrus to manage a citation for you, press F2, enter the citation, and press F2 again. Citrus will generate a citation according to Bluebook rules and insert it into the document in place of the citation that you entered.

Follow this link for a brief animated demonstration showing how Citrus can generate correct Bluebook citations and maintain them in correct Bluebook format.
What does Citrus do with the citations that it manages?

When you enter a citation, Citrus will generate a citation in correct Bluebook form including underlining, abbreviating, adding or removing punctuation, and meeting other citation format requirements. As you edit your document, Citrus will make whatever adjustments are necessary to keep the citation in Bluebook format. For example, if you have a citation followed by Id. and then you insert a different citation between the first citation and the Id., Citrus will automatically change the Id. citation to a short citation to the same source.

See the documentation page for more information about specific citation forms and the changes that Citrus may apply.
Can Citrus use italics instead of underlining in citations?

Yes. Citrus defaults to using underlining in citations, but you can make it use italics instead by clicking on the Citrus menu item in Word's main toolbar (it usually appears at the far right) and selecting the option to use italic formatting as shown below. Do the same thing to switch back to underlining.
Citrus cannot find a particular case that I want to cite. How can I fix that?

Although Citrus can cite to any case you want, the only cases that Citrus can find from their reporter references are U.S. Supreme Court cases. If you cite to "394 us 705, 708" then Citrus will look that up and generate a citation to "Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 708 (1969) (per curiam)". However, you must cite the case from the D.C. Circuit as "Watts v. United States, 402 F.2d 676 (D.C. Cir. 1968)". Once you have entered the full cite to the D.C. Circuit case reported in F.2d, Citrus will recognize shorter citations to the case when you use them elsewhere in your document.
Citrus sometimes generates a citation in a format that is different from the same citation in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation or other citation authority. How do I make it generate the citation correctly?

Citrus may well be generating the citation correctly already. Citrus fixes over 300 citation errors (and finding more every month) that are present in various printed citation authorities. We report many of the errors to the authors of the materials. However, we can use the internet to get updated Citrus software to you faster than they can use UPS to get updated books to bookstores, so Citrus is often a better source for correct citation format.

Having said that, no software is perfect. If you find a problem, please update to the latest version of Citrus (see instructions below). If it is not fixed in the latest version, please send us email at Support@Cit-R-Us.com so that we can fix it.
What version of the Bluebook does Citrus support?

Citrus conforms to the Bluebook rules in the 18th edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 3d printing. However, Citrus will add support for the latest rule changes as new printings or versions of the Bluebook become available. When that happens, Citrus will automatically correct the Bluebook citations in your documents so that you do not need to worry about keeping up with arcane rule changes.
Will Citrus use law review format, or does it only use practitioner format?

At present, Citrus generates only practitioner format. This is the format that is used for court documents, legal memoranda, most law school writing assignments, and law student writing samples.

Citrus can help you write law review articles. It will still make sure that you include all of the necessary information for a given citation type, automatically translate cites between long, short, and Id. form, and otherwise manage your citations. However, you will need to take one last manual step, which is to make a final pass over your document and apply the law review styles. Applying law review styles typically amounts to little more than changing ordinary Roman type to smallcaps.
Citrus lacks support for a particular citation format, Bluebook rule, or other feature that I want. What are you going to do about that?

We are going to support that feature if possible, and if you send email to us at Support@Cit-R-Us.com then we will know that it is important to you and we will prioritize the development and release of that feature accordingly. There are many citation rules in the Bluebook (which is one of the reasons you are taking an interest in Citrus) so we may not be able to get to your particular feature today. However, we want to make Citrus as useful to you as possible and so if you tell us what you need, we will do our best to make Citrus as helpful to you as we can make it.
I need to use a non-Bluebook citation form to comply with specific local rules. How can I use Citrus with non-Bluebook citation forms?

While editing your document, use the Bluebook citation forms that Citrus generates. Citrus will keep your citations up-to-date including adjusting Id. and short citation formats and otherwise managing the citations. When you are done editing your document and you are ready to print the final copy, use Remove Citrus Data From Document under the Citrus menu as shown below.

This will leave the cites in place with the same formatting, but will direct Citrus to stop managing the citations. Make one quick pass over your document and adjust the format of the non-standard citations.
Does Citrus allow citations in footnotes?

Citrus has some support for citations in footnotes, but it is not yet as good as the support for citations in the main text body. For example, it does not support the "supra, note <n>" format at this time. Also, it does not yet work well when writers cite to the same source in footnotes and in the main body of the text. This is typically not a problem because most writers have footnotes either in the main text body or in footnotes but not both. We are working on this and it will support footnotes and endnotes shortly.
Why are the underlines on your links on this web site all so long? Why don't you use shorter links like everyone else??

We write long links because screen readers for our sight-impaired or blind users find those links easier to process. As little as our fully-sighted users enjoy proof-reading their briefs to make sure that all commas are correctly italicized, sight-impaired users enjoy it even less. Consequently, the automatic formatting in Citrus is even more helpful to the sight-impaired than to fully-sighted users and so we try to make our products and our web pages as accessible as we can. "Follow this link to purchase an academic license" is easier for some screen readers to present intelligibly than "Click here to purchase an academic license." So please join us in asking other sites why their links are so short!

How is Citrus licensed?

Citrus is licensed on a per-machine basis. A Citrus license is good forever, so you can continue to use Citrus with no licensing or subscription fees for as long as you would like once you purchase your initial license. Your license lasts forever (but see the answer to the next question for information about support). One Citrus license will run on one machine regardless of how many users use the machine, so you need only one Citrus license for a public terminal, computer in a law school clinic, or laptop that may be checked out for travel purposes.

Academic licenses are available for people associated with a school. You can be associated with the school as a full- or part-time student; adjunct, emeritus, or regular faculty; librarian; administrator; staff; or any other reasonable association. Citrus continues to count you as being associated with the school for one year after your formal association with the school terminates, so you can keep your academic license for a year after you graduate, stop teaching as an adjunct, or otherwise move on. You can use your academic license for non-academic purposes, so feel free to use it at your internship, job, clerkship, partnership, or other occupation as well as at school.
What support do we get for Citrus?

Law students get free updates, upgrades, bug fixes, and new features for one year after you leave law school. This includes additional legal citation forms, additional information about existing citation forms (e.g., publication data about a new Restatement), and other things. You can continue to get support for your student license for one year after law school even if you are using it in your practice or for things unrelated to school.

The easiest way to get updates is to use the update button under the Citrus menu as shown below. You can also download updates from http://www.cit-r-us.com.

Regardless of whether you are within the support period, you can continue to use Citrus and we will answer your questions for free for as long as you use Citrus.
Does Citrus have academic pricing?

Yes. Follow this link to verify eligibility for an academic license and to purchase an academic license for Citrus. As an academic user, you can use your Citrus license for academic or non-academic purposes. You can use Citrus for your academic work and you can also use it to make yourself more productive and effective in your internship, clerkship, writing sample, or for other purposes.
What are the system requirements for Citrus?

Citrus plugs into Microsoft Word 2003 or Microsoft Word 2007 running with either the Windows XP or Windows Vista operating system.
Is Citrus available for Word Perfect, Mac, Linux, or some other system not listed in the answer to the previous question?

Not yet. We are working on other versions of Citrus and we will announce them as they become available. If you would like to be notified when Citrus becomes available on your favorite platform, please send a brief email to Notices@Cit-R-Us.com. We will use your email address only to notify you when the version you want is available. See our privacy policy to read more about how we will and will not use your email address or other personal information.
What should I do now?

See a short animated demonstration of Citrus here, read more about Citrus' capabilities here, or buy a Citrus license. Academic users or people buying a gift for a law student or other academic user can buy an academic license here.