Bookends 11 pre-announcememt

[Jon]

There's not much longer to wait. Assuming we still have power after all the snow that's been dumped on the Washington, DC area, we're hoping to release Bookends 11 this Saturday morning, our time.

Jon
Sonny Software

[daiyi]

Thanks for the ETA, Jon. Looking forward to BE 11.

[macula]

Jon, would you be able to indulge us with a list of improvements, or at least a hint or two in that direction? I love suspense, but I also need to plan my weekend, and it would be great to know if BE11 will be irresistible enough to keep me at home tweaking biblio.

[Jon]

I don't want be too specific, but I'll mention a few things without much detail. The most obvious addition is a new way (for reference managers, anyway) of visualizing and finding your reference information. Another major feature that I mentioned in an earlier thread is that you can create metatypes between any combination of references, not just Books and Book Chapters (this will be of interest to a minority of users, but for them it will offer unprecedented formatting flexibility). The interface has been modified, and notecards in particular are more useful (they will display styled text, be more legible, and indicate with an ellipsis that there is more text than you can see). There are also significant improvements in creating in-text citations and formatting output. Of course the release is version 11.0.0, and I think of it as just the starting point for improvements to come in the 11.x series. I hope you'll like the changes.

Jon
Sonny Software

[mbbntu]

I very much look forward to trying the new version. I think it is very unlikely that I would decide not to upgrade.

I think the solution of putting the number of references on the bottom bar is far better. It matches things like word/page count in Word 2004, which is also on the bottom bar. It is not such an important piece of information (at least, not to me) that it needed to occupy such a prominent position and take up so much space as it did in previous versions.

Best wishes,

Martin BB.

[Jon]

Bookends 11 is here.

http://www.sonnysoftware.com/

Jon
Sonny Software

[julesmim]

Bookends 11 is here.

http://www.sonnysoftware.com/

Jon
Sonny Software

Hello Jon,

Just downloaded Bookends 11 and upgraded my license, few minutes after release.
Great Work. I'm glad that you implemented two of my suggestions: unicode normalizing and multiple (and improved) metatypes. I have been wating for the latter for years. I think Bookends is the only Reference Manager that offers it. Thanks a lot. Keep doing such good work.
Jules Mimeault

[macula]

Thanks, Jon. This is a solid update. One can tell you've been in this business for years and you understand the nuances of scholars' needs.

I am relieved tags are being handled better and can be included in search criteria now. The visualization also is pretty useful.

I think that your software is now feature-complete and the most trustworthy solution around. Perhaps this distance you now have from the second-best allows you to focus on Bookends' Achilles heel, namely user interface and experience. By this I mean little but important things like support for Mac OS services, spelling checking, overall aesthetics, and general compliance with the Apple UI guidelines. Just now, for instance, I noticed that triple-clicking on text selects a line of text and not the entire paragraph. Why? Such seemingly tiny design eccentricities only alienates the user, both novice and experienced.

Thanks again.

[Jon]

Hi, thanks. We're always looking to improve the UI (and I think most people would feel this release does that). Some of the items you mentioned are things we'd like to implement in future releases (Bookends does support services now, for example look up in dictionary -- I assume you mean you want it to act as as a service provider).

Jon
Sonny Software

[macula]

Thanks for the response. Actually I meant client-level support for services such as dictionary lookup. And indeed, I just noticed that Bookends 11 adds such support but, again, the feature is concealed by the eccentric UI: contextual menus do not provide access to services.

Strategically speaking, perhaps the time has come to dedicate your design and development efforts on a major UI revamp. I realize that this may entail a migration from Carbon to Cocoa (which will be inevitable sooner or later, anyway). Even so, why not make this your main priority for the next release? As I said, you are so much ahead in terms of functionality, sheer power and flexibility (not to mention support) that this is your only weak link. In my view, a modern user interface is sorely needed to do justice to this best-in-class software.

[Jon]

To be honest, I think these are pretty minor issues (just my opinion, you obviously feel differently). But I do agree with you that they should be addressed, and don't worry, they will be (far before the next integer upgrade). I also don't agree that Bookends is feature-complete -- there are a number of useful things I plan to implement when the dust of this upgrade settles, and I'm sure our users will think of more! :-)



Jon
Sonny Software