Gdtyjr

(repost/moved from stackoverflow: currently no answers)

Here is my LateX question:

I'm using (PDF)LaTeX with IEEEtran documentclass and biblatex/biber as bibliography system. As mentioned in the IEEE example (two column paper), references should be balanced between columns on the last page. The presented IEEEtriggeratref command inserts a newpage command after the given reference to manually balance the references list. But, it's not working with biblatex -> nothing happens.

How can I balance my references with biblatex in an equivalent way?

Here are my settings:

documentclass[conference]IEEEtran
[...]
usepackage[backend=biber, % replace bibtex with biber (bibliography backend engine)
 bibstyle=ieee, % write literature lists in IEEE style
 citestyle=numeric-comp, % cite uses a numeric key
 sortcites=true, 
 maxbibnames=3
]biblatex
[...]

Here is the original natbib/bibtex example:

% trigger a newpage just before the given reference
% number - used to balance the columns on the last page
% adjust value as needed - may need to be readjusted if
% the document is modified later
IEEEtriggeratref8

I don't use that class, so I may have misunderstood your question. But I think you should be able to do something like this, in your preamble

renewbibmacrofinentry%
 iffieldequalstrentrykeyKEY%<- key after which you want the break
 finentrynewpage
 finentry

Instead of giving the reference by number, you give the key of the entrytype after which you want to insert newpage (in the place where I have KEY in the macro above). Of course, you can add anything else you want here. Basically, the code you put in place of newpage will be executed after the entry in question has been printed.

Based on Paul's answer, this is a drop-in replacement for the IEEEtriggeratref macro that works with biblatex:

usepackageifthen

makeatletter
newcounterIEEE@bibentries
renewcommandIEEEtriggeratref[1]%
 renewbibmacrofinentry%
 stepcounterIEEE@bibentries%
 ifthenelseequalvalueIEEE@bibentries#1
 finentry@IEEEtriggercmd
 finentry%
 %

makeatother

The usage is the same as the original macro:

IEEEtriggeratref9 % Breaks the column after the 9th entry
printbibliography

Adapting this answer to biblatex, here's an automatic version.

usepackagebalance
usepackagelastpage

makeatletter
deflastreferencepagelastpage@lastpage % can use a hard-coded number instead
makeatother
defbalanceissuedunbalanced% ensure balance only used once
renewbibmacrofinentry%
 ifnumthepage=lastreferencepage%
 expandafterifxexpandafterrelaxbalanceissuedrelax%
 else%
 balance%
 gdefbalanceissuedrelax%
 fi%
 fi%
 finentry%