PDF fulltext search in Bookends attachments

[iljajj]

I did not find any answer on this on the forum, so here goes:

Does anyone know whether it is possible to do a fulltext search in all the PDFs in a library? And if not, are there any plans (Jon?) to include it anytime soon? To me, this is a killer feature in Mendeley and Zotero and it would really make my life easier if I could do the same in Bookends.

[Jon]

Yes, I think Bookends had this feature before either of those existed.

In the Find dialog (Command-F), enter the text to search for in the Spotlight text box.

In the live search box (upper right hand corner of the library window), click on the magnifying glass and select Spotlight from the popup menu. Then enter the text and hit Return (Spotlight searches don't execute with each keystroke because they are too slow).

Jon
Sonny Software

[iljajj]

Ah, RTFM? Sorry.

However, the same search yields quite a few more results in Mendeley than it does in Bookends. Moreover, Mendeley shows the context of the search words, which is really useful.

[Jon]

I don't know about Mendeley, but Bookends shows hits where references in the library have attached pdfs that match the search. And the attachments must be in the attachments folder (or subfolder).

I assume you mean that Mendeley will scroll to the place in the pdf where the match is. If so, Bookends won't do this.

Jon
Sonny Software

[iljajj]

Hi,

Thanks. Yes, I did mean that. And Bookends' functionality will cover me for now.

Cheers,
Ilja