can the width of the right-most column be adjusted?

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

can the width of the right-most column be adjusted?

Post by rmsk »

I'm having trouble adjusting the width of the right-most column displayed in the main window listing the Boookends library contents.

By default a new library displays 3 columns, in the following order: Authors, Date, and Title. The first 2 columns can be easily resized according to the user's preference, just as we're used to doing in any Finder window in list view. However the width of the Title column (which is quite long, so much so that it extends beyond the window boundary, necessitating the display of a horizontal scroll bar) somehow seems locked in place -- I can't identify any mechanism to alter its width. After a bit of investigation, it seems that this isn't an issue specifically with the Title column, but rather any column that is in the right-most position.

Am I perhaps doing something wrong or missing some functionality elsewhere in Bookends that would enable adjustment of the right-most column's width?

By the way, I've verified this behavior on macOS 10.14 and 10.15, but not (yet) 11 or 12.
Jon
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Re: can the width of the right-most column be adjusted?

Post by Jon »

No, it can't be adjusted, it always extends from the penultimate column to the right margin. This is why we recommend using the last column for whatever field you show that contains the longest content (e.g. the title).

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

Re: can the width of the right-most column be adjusted?

Post by rmsk »

Thanks for the clarification.

For a future release, would you consider adding the ability to re-size the right-most column?

I should add that I tend to use BE occasionally on a desktop Mac with an expansive display, and more often on a laptop with a much smaller display where vertical screen real-estate is at a premium. Though it's not a major problem, at some point it would be helpful to be able to get rid of the unnecessary horizontal scroll bar and thereby maximize the amount of information in BE that I'm able to view at a time when overall display area is limiting.
DrJJWMac
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Re: can the width of the right-most column be adjusted?

Post by DrJJWMac »

As a work-around, you might consider putting a column at the far right that you know is either mostly/always blank or that you do't care to see in most/all cases. One example could be to use Language in the furtherest right column (e.g. how often do your citations include this information specifically?). With this, you can resize the other columns as you desire.
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JJW
rmsk
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:17 am

Re: can the width of the right-most column be adjusted?

Post by rmsk »

thanks for the thoughtful suggestion. I tried that, but unfortunately it doesn't resolve the issue of the horizontal scroll bar that is present in (at least most standard) Mac applications whenever the amount of horizontal information present exceeds that which can fit within the dimensions of the window.
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