I’m writing my master’s degree, so I need to write a bibliography. I’ve chosen to use in-document bibliography rather than the bibliographic database so every reference is inside the document and I can send it around. Since I’m not writing the thesis in what will be the final order of chapters and I have to put references everywhere in the text, I’m wondering how I can order them at the end.
I’d like to have in the text only a number to the reference (e.g. [1], [2], etc.) and then have a bibliography index at the end where I have them all listed, like:
[1] yadda yadda
[2] yadda yadda
and so on. Now, how can I make the numbering follow the actual order in the text? So far I’ve put the numbers with the parentesis as reference abbreviaton, so they appears as number in the text, but in this way I don’t have automatic ordering. Is there a way to do so?
Take a look at Zotero’s capabilities – it’s a powerful tool for managing sources and generating bibliographies, and will hopefully cover all of the features you need.
Here’s a question with more information: Is there a tool to manage bibliography?
I know about Zotero and similar. I may end up using bibus, but I was wondering if it was possible to do it with built-in libreoffice tools.
@iacchi, Ah, okay. I don’t use the bibliographic tools that much, so I wasn’t certain of the capabilities built-in 
You have apparently entered your references as plain text, not as endnotes. If they were endnotes, then rearranging the document would re-order the endnotes.
How to insert an endnote into a document so that the endnote citation in the text looks like “[##]” and the endnote looks like “[##] Some endnote text”, both without the quotes.
First do some set up. On the main menu choose Tools>Footnotes/Endnotes. Set the AutoNumbering to 1,2,3, … Set the Before character to “[” and the after character to “]”, both without the quotes. Verify in the Styles section that the Paragraph and Page styles are both Endnote and in the Character Styles area that the Text area style is Endnote anchor and the Endnote area style is Endnote Characters. Click OK.
Then key F11 (or on the menu Format>Styles and Formatting) to bring up the Styles and Formatting dialog. Select Endnote anchor in the Character section. Set the Font and font size to match your text if you wish, and set the Position to Normal (not a superscript). You can also set your Endnote character style now. I haven’t figured out how to link the Endnote anchor style to be the same as your paragraph style.
Now add some citations. At the point you want an endnote citation reference inserted enter the left bracket “[” then on the menu Insert>Footnote/Endnote, then choose type Endnote. This will place the cursor in the endnote section at the end of the document with a number before the cursor. Type your endnote text. Click on the endnote number to go back to your text location. Move past the inserted reference and type the closing bracket “]”.
You can insert another anchor in the text to point to an existing endnote. Start your text anchor with the left bracket “[” then on the menu choose Insert>Cross Reference. On the Cross References tab choose Type as Endnote, the Selection as the endnote you want to cite again, the Insert Reference To as Reference. Click Insert, then Close. Then type your closing bracket “]”. Clicking on the anchor in the text takes you to the endnote. Clicking on the endnote number takes you to the first text anchor.
I have not figured out how to move to other instances of the same anchor number or to search for a endnote anchor. You can do a regular expression search for “[.*]” (without the quotes) and locate all your anchors, but not for an individual one (e.g. searching for “[3]” fails.). Another deficiency; hovering over the first endnote anchor brings up the endnote text. Hovering over cross-referenced endnote anchors does not. If you can find these cross references, you can edit them. Place your cursor in front of them and Edit>Fields.
You can have endnotes appear at the end of a section instead of the end of the document. When you insert a section, there is a Footnotes/Endnotes tab that lets you collect endnotes at the end of the section and optionally restart numbering. You don’t have to start numbering with 1.
Endnote/Footnote is not what I’m looking for. I mean actual bibliography, as explained here: Insert Bibliography Entry - LibreOffice Help The difference is that with bibliography you can cite an article multiple times in the text, with endnotes you have to do a new one every time.