possible to modify Date Added parameter?

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rmsk
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:17 am

possible to modify Date Added parameter?

Post by rmsk »

I find the "added" parameter very useful for a number of reasons, especially for keeping track of when I first discovered a paper on a particular topic -- for example, using tags and a smart folder, I can call up a list of every paper I have in my library pertaining to insulin, sort on the added parameter, and thus view the chronology of when I first came across each paper; this chronology is often quite different from the chronological order in which the papers were published, and helps me to keep track of the evolution of my understanding of important concepts.

Usually I add/import PDFs of interest immediately or very soon after downloading them, however I occasionally forget to do this. When I circle back days or sometimes weeks later to do this, I want the date added parameter to reflect when I first came across the paper, not the moment at which it's actually added to the Bookends database. So my question: is there a way to manually modify the date added parameter for a given reference in Bookends? I haven't been able to figure out how to do this, so have resorted to the unwieldy workaround of temporarily changing the system clock to my date of interest the moment before I import the PDF into Bookends (and then immediately afterwards revert the system clock to the current, proper time).

If this capability currently doesn't exist, would you consider adding it in a future release of Bookends?

I understand that I could probably create a custom parameter/field to separately keep track of the date/time on which I first came across a given reference. However 98% of the time this corresponds to the automatically-generated date added parameter, so this would be largely duplicative, and would add friction to my workflow. Being able to easily manually modify the date added parameter would be a terrific simplification, and very helpful.
Jon
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Re: possible to modify Date Added parameter?

Post by Jon »

No, sorry, you can't edit the Date Added parameter, and it's unlikely we'd give users read/write access to that.

You could create the field you mentioned (or use Notes) but limit it to only those times you decided to delay fetching the metadata or PDF.

I don't know if this is helpful, but note that in any import filter you have have Bookends insert the date and time into any field you want, automatically. That can be edited, of course. I don't think this will help in the case you outline, but at some point you might find this useful.

Jon
Sonny Software
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