Automatically abbreviate authors' first names in LaTeX

Question

Using natbib/Latex/Bibtex, in the references section I get references with full first names like:

Vladimir Iosifovich Levenshtein. Binary codes capable of correcting deletions, insertions, and reversals. Technical Report 8, 1966.

I would like automatically abbreviated first names like:

V. I. Levenshtein. Binary codes capable of correcting deletions, insertions, and reversals. Technical Report 8, 1966.

If you have an idea how to do this I will be glad to hear.

Answer 1

Use a BibTeX style that does this. Alternatively, create your own style by modifying an existing one. You will have to change the function format.names, so that a line similar to this:

s nameptr "{f.~}{vv~}{ll}{, jj}" format.name$ 't := 

has f. as shown. The full first name would be shown if it is ff.

Answer 2

If you are using Biblatex, just add this in your preable when calling for Biblatex:

\usepackage[backend=bibtex,firstinits=true]{biblatex}