Exasperated

[macula]

I am grateful to Bookends for the numerous solutions it has offered me in my work, but forgive me for running out of patience this time.

I tend to keep long notes in my bibliography. These are kept in the 'notes" tab/field, which allows me to utilize the note stream.

With great note length comes the need to search within the notes. It seems just inconceivable not to be able to do that.

Unfortunately, clicking on [Refs>Find in this reference] does not open any dialogue window whatsoever—absolutely no reaction. I have tried restarting Bookends and rebooting my Mac numerous times, but the problem persists.

Worse still, even if the menu command worked (and it did a couple of times), I suspect that it would not be able to search the "Notes" field. The command is actually greyed-out when I view my notes via the "notes tab" of the item's own window.

My next thought was, "ok—I'll create a Mac OS contextual-menu service to copy the selected text to TextEdit, and do the search from there." Alas, this "solution" would not work either, because after selecting the text of my notes I realized that right-clicking on it is impossible: Bookends does not present me with the standard contextual menu.

All in all, this adds up to a dysfunctional situation that runs counter to Mac OS usability standards.

Forgive me, Jon, for the tone of this note—as I said, I am grateful for your software—yet this one borders on the absurd.

Thank you very much.

[Jon]

Hi,

There is a bug in Find In This Reference -- the dialog only comes up when the List View window is in front. This bug is fixed in the next update. Also in the next update, you can search the Notes field when you're in the reference window Notes tab.

As for Services, you can select the text and use the Bookends -> Services menu items. For some reason, TextEdit services aren't working for me, but you can open selected text in other apps I tried with it, like TextWrangler, with no problem.

Jon
Sonny Software

[macula]

Thank you, Jon. I was very relieved to read about the improvements coming up. Is there an ETA?

Happy camper again.

[Jon]

Not yet. There is a rather complicated feature (to implement, not to use) that we're working on and I'd like to have that appear in the next update. I'm hoping for sometime in late December, but we'll see how it goes.

Jon
Sonny Software

[macula]

Ouch! Since we are talking about a blatant bug here (and not quibbling about a feature, an area for improvement or something), please consider releasing an "bug fix" update in the meantime. For many of us, not being able to search our notes is—once again—a serious restriction in our workflow, and one that is pretty shocking to be honest. Pretty much all my research notes are in Bookends 'notes' fields, and I have a couple of major research papers due soon. Now imagine not being able to search your research notes!

I have a hard time imagining a feature that could be more urgent at this point.

Thank you.

[Jon]

First, you can search the notes field just fine using the Find dialog or the Live Search textbox. That's not a problem (not one I know about, anyway). The only issue here is searching within the notes field once you've identified the reference. Second, you can do that now, too. In the List View (not the reference window) select the reference and use Find In This Reference (the only bug here is that the dialog doesn't appear if the reference window is in front). That allows you to search within that reference (for you, the Notes field). If that's not working for you please contact tech support directly.

Jon
Sonny Software

[macula]

OK, thanks, that last solution will do until the update is released.