Field formatting can be tidied up when saving the database. That ensures your entries to have consistent formatting. If you check Enable save actions in the Database Properties, the list of actions can be configured.
Each action is defined by:
an entry field (upon which the action will be applied).
the type of action to be carried out (such as HTML to LaTeX, which converts HTML code to LaTeX code, as described in the window).
Dependent on the database mode, "Recommended for BibTeX" or "Recommended for BibLaTeX". When pressing this button, the recommended cleanups for the respective mode is called.
Add enclosing braces
Add braces encapsulating the complete field content. For instance
Normalizes the date to ISO date format. Format date string to yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy-mm. Keeps the existing String if it does not match one of the following formats:
"M/y" (covers 9/15, 9/2015, and 09/2015)
"MMMM (dd), yyyy" (covers September 1, 2015 and September, 2015)
"yyyy-MM-dd" (covers 2009-1-15)
"d.M.uuuu" (covers 15.1.2015)
Normalize en dashes
Normalizes the en dashes.
Replace “-” with “--”.
Normalize month
Normalize month to BibTeX standard abbreviation.
Normalize names of persons
Normalizes lists of persons to the BibTeX standard. This separates authors by "and"s with first names after last name separated by a commma; first names are not abbreviated.
"John Smith" ⇒ "Smith, John"
"John Smith and Black Brown, Peter" ⇒ "Smith, John and Black Brown, Peter"
"John von Neumann and John Smith and Black Brown, Peter" ⇒ "von Neumann, John and Smith, John and Black Brown, Peter".
Normalize page numbers
Normalize pages to BibTeX standard. Format page numbers, separated either by commas or double-hyphens. Converts the range number format to page_number--page_number. Removes unwanted literals except letters, numbers and -+ signs. Keeps the existing String if the resulting field does not match the expected Regex.
Ordinals to LaTeX superscript
Converts ordinals to LaTeX superscripts, e.g. 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Will replace ordinal numbers even if they are semantically wrong, e.g. 21rd