Features request

[frvs]

There's two things I really miss in Bookends:

1- When using composed names (like "van Gennep," or "de Onofrio") I want to enter the composed name as such, but then to see it sorted in the bibliography by the name not the prefix. (Thus, I want "de Onofrio" sorted in "O" nor "d".) Endnote has this slick feature that allows you to add a list of terms you want to see disregarded when sorting authors (to which I would add "de," "van," etc.). Could we have it too, please?

2- I sorely miss another personal-name field I could dedicate to translators, which would have (like those for author and editor) the flexibility of allowing pruning the way the name is displayed according to style requirements. Currently I dedicate a custom field for translators, but this is not a name field, which becomes painfully obvious in formatted bibliographies. This feels to me like a stone-age gap in space-age software. Can we expect a fix soon?

Many thanks,
Francisco

[Jon]

Hi Fransico,

Both are reasonable requests, and are features that others have requested. However, neither are trivial to implement. I've be thinking about them, and will see if we can do something in a future update.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

2- I sorely miss another personal-name field I could dedicate to translators, which would have (like those for author and editor) the flexibility of allowing pruning the way the name is displayed according to style requirements. Currently I dedicate a custom field for translators, but this is not a name field, which becomes painfully obvious in formatted bibliographies. This feels to me like a stone-age gap in space-age software. Can we expect a fix soon?

I have come up with a simple solution, I think. When formatted references, Bookends could treat any field followed by a special character, say asterisk, as a name field for generating a bibliography. For example, if you use User4 as Translator for books, this format order would output the Translator's name arranged in the same style as an Editor's name would be:

g*

What do you think?

Jon
Sonny Software

[frvs]

I have come up with a simple solution, I think. When formatted references, Bookends could treat any field followed by a special character, say asterisk, as a name field for generating a bibliography. For example, if you use User4 as Translator for books, this format order would output the Translator's name arranged in the same style as an Editor's name would be:

g*

What do you think?

Well, the ideal solution would appear to be another regular name field. Barring that, your idea certainly looks like an ingenious solution. Would the feature of name standardization possibly work for translators, too? Anyway, I am glad you have come up with a nimble way to hopefully implement the possibility of formatting Translator in bibliographies. Kudos!
Francisco

[Jon]

Well, the advantage of this approach is that it requires little overhead and is instantly backwards compatible with everyone's databases.

I suppose I would then allow users to "standardize names" for any field -- but it is up to the user, then, to ensure he doesn't do this on the abstract! (I may restrict the option to authors/editors and then to just the user-defined fields). I'll think about that.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

OK, done in 8.1.1: Placing an asterisk after one of the user-defined field designations (e.g. w*) in a format forces Bookends to consider the text in that field as a name, which will be formatted according to the guidelines for editors (secondary authors).

Jon
Sonny Software

[frvs]

OK, done in 8.1.1: Placing an asterisk after one of the user-defined field designations (e.g. w*) in a format forces Bookends to consider the text in that field as a name, which will be formatted according to the guidelines for editors (secondary authors).

Well done, Jon. I can't wait till I get 8.1.1 just on this account. Will the filtering of prefixes in author's names be a lot harder to implement?

Many thanks for taking my request into account and for being so resourceful as to do it so fast. Cheers,

Francisco

[Jon]

Will the filtering of prefixes in author's names be a lot harder to implement?

Well, this is of course a whole different issue. I have an idea of how this might be implemented, but I haven't done anthing with it yet. There are other more pressing issues at hand I'm working on for 8.1.1...

Jon
Sonny Software

[casey]

I'm really enjoying the new features in 8.1, but I have a couple of other requests.

For some reason, having the info sidebar open prevents me from moving up or down the reference list with my arrow keys. (Actually, it works for moving up or down one reference, then stops.) Could this be fixed?

Also, the Mouseworks software for my Kensington 3-button mouse has a neat feature that allows one to switch from vertical to horizontal scrolling by clicking the scroll wheel/middle button. While this feature is supported in most applications, it doesn't seem to work with Bookends. Could this be fixed? Thanks.

[casey]

Another feature request:

I like my reference list to be sorted by date, in descending order. When I quit and restart Bookends, it always opens the database in ascending date order. Is there a way to offer a choice of descending or ascending order in the list preferences and/or to retain the descending display after quitting?

[Jon]

For some reason, having the info sidebar open prevents me from moving up or down the reference list with my arrow keys. (Actually, it works for moving up or down one reference, then stops.) Could this be fixed?

Yes. Get Tiger. This is a bug in earlier versions of Mac OS X.

Also, the Mouseworks software for my Kensington 3-button mouse has a neat feature that allows one to switch from vertical to horizontal scrolling by clicking the scroll wheel/middle button. While this feature is supported in most applications, it doesn't seem to work with Bookends. Could this be fixed?

Not by me. Perhaps it will be in a future version of the application we create the GUI in.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

I like my reference list to be sorted by date, in descending order. When I quit and restart Bookends, it always opens the database in ascending date order. Is there a way to offer a choice of descending or ascending order in the list preferences and/or to retain the descending display after quitting?

Actually, it is author/date (ascending). Do you really have that many papers by the same identical author(s) that this is an issue?

Jon
Sonny Software

[casey]

I like my reference list to be sorted by date, in descending order. When I quit and restart Bookends, it always opens the database in ascending date order. Is there a way to offer a choice of descending or ascending order in the list preferences and/or to retain the descending display after quitting?

Actually, it is author/date (ascending). Do you really have that many papers by the same identical author(s) that this is an issue?

Jon
Sonny Software

That's not the issue. I see that I can sort by date/author by changing the preferences, and I've done this. But additionally, I really like to see the most recent publications at the top of the list rather than the bottom, and I'd like to not reset this type of display every time I open Bookends. Could this option be added? Thanks.

[Jon]

That's not the issue. I see that I can sort by date/author by changing the preferences, and I've done this. But additionally, I really like to see the most recent publications at the top of the list rather than the bottom, and I'd like to not reset this type of display every time I open Bookends. Could this option be added? Thanks.

I'm afraid it is the issue. I don't understand what you want. The list is sorted author/date, so of course the author's name is by far the most important part of the sort. Are you saying you want a pure date sort, most recent on top, without an author sort? Please explain.

Jon
Sonny Software