The end ... of EndNote

[deut3221]

I hope this isn't too far afield, but it's time to say "No," to the annual EndNote upgrade rip off.

This morning, I concluded that I am not going to pay for another round of poor software that crashes Word and has more quirks and twists than any other Mac software that I currently use. So, I deleted the Endnote application, libraries, etc, and am going to go 100% with Bookends.

That's it! It's over.

So, keep it up BookEnds and bring on an ever-better product. You've won my business.

-sl

[tharpold]

I hope this isn't too far afield, but it's time to say "No," to the annual EndNote upgrade rip off....

That's it! It's over.

So, keep it up BookEnds and bring on an ever-better product. You've won my business.

-sl

And I've come along with you. An EndNote user since version 1.0 (15 years, I dunno), I've paid for too many costly "upgrades" that have resulted -- at least since Thomson took over the product and esp since OS X -- in an app that was less reliable, more quirky and simply annoying, than any other I required on a daily basis.

I've been working with Bookends for the past two weeks, and have been, overall, quite pleased by the simple grace of this program. I will not be going back.

Bookend's not all that I desire in a bibliography database (but, then, EndNote was becoming the very model of what I don't desire), but it shows every evidence of one that is diligently supported by a programmer who listens to users' questions and complaints, and cares what a Mac app should be and do. Recent changes to the UI and tweaking of many functions suggest that Bookends will continue to mature and improve.

Keep up the good work Jon! Others will follow!

TH

[jadrain]

Bookend's not all that I desire in a bibliography database

I agree with your sentiments, and appreciate your insightful comments about potential improvements in the past couple of weeks, but I think it would be useful to continue to be as explicit as possible as what you (and everyone) do desire in a bibliography database. Bookends was not everything I desired, either, as another long-term EndNote user (since 1993, version 3, I think) who realized that after Niles got bought out by a grim, awful, monopolistic corporate entity, that Endnote was for a while charging for compatibility updates, then actually charging for increasingly buggier and less usable versions of the same unimproved software. But Jon has been simply amazing at incorporating my requests - the sensible ones, at least - into the software as the regular updates move along. At this point, my personal wish list for the program is awfully short.

Jonathan

[Jon]

Thanks to all in this thread who have had kind words for Bookends. Most ideas we get for new/improved features at this point come from our users, and we do try to incorporate the ones that make sense (and that are feasible). Bookends 8.1.2 is already under development, and has one cool new Spotlight-related feature that no one has asked for yet (well, I think it's cool, we'll see how you all like it). More will follow.

Jon
Sonny Software

[alexwein]

But Jon has been simply amazing at incorporating my requests - the sensible ones, at least - into the software as the regular updates move along

Ditto on this! Jon has been amazing at hearing my/our concerns and addressing them. And with the speed at which he has responded! I've pared down my program usage to programs that have a really high level of user/developer interaction, and that seem to be developing in the direction that fits my own needs. Bookends is most definitely one of these programs!

Many, many thanks,

Alexandria

[Sue]

.....I hope this isn't too far afield, but it's time to say "No," to the annual EndNote upgrade rip off......

I'll endorse that too.

One thing to note though is that several of us need very good export filters to Endnote because we share reference libraries with colleagues who are Windows users and stuck with Endnote (and just as unhappy).

[Jon]

Bookends canl export Refer files (the EndNote (Refer) format) that any verions of EndNote can read. And it can also export EN 7 XML, which (of course) EN 7 can read. These let's you share references with EndNote users.

Jon
Sonny Software

[rickl]

I hope this isn't too far afield, but it's time to say "No," to the annual EndNote upgrade rip off.

I decided this a couple of years ago. I didn't think EndNote was that bad as a piece of software, but each upgrade cost more than a new copy of Bookends (and it was so stubbornly Word-centric), so I couldn't see any reason not to at least try Bookends out. And after trying it out I couldn't see much reason to go back, except for the (at the time) superior external database search functionality of EndNote. That for me was outweighed by the support, responsiveness, and general friendliness of Sonny.

I agree with your sentiments, and appreciate your insightful comments about potential improvements in the past couple of weeks, but I think it would be useful to continue to be as explicit as possible as what you (and everyone) do desire in a bibliography database.

I agree. But one interesting thing with Bookends is that improvements often come in areas that I had never considered, but that are most welcome once they do come. The database searching across a network thing that started with version 8 is one example.

Bookends 8.1.2 is already under development, and has one cool new Spotlight-related feature that no one has asked for yet (well, I think it's cool, we'll see how you all like it). More will follow.

TTYTT, Spotlight functionality is something that I had hoped for, but had refrained from mentioning because I believed that Bookends isn't Cocoa software and that non-Cocoa software couldn't take advantage of Spotlight. I'm glad to be proved wrong on either or both of these beliefs. Except for people who are very well organized or who don't keep many things on their computer, I think everyone wants to be able to search for all kinds of information from one central place and without opening all their applications first.

If you're going all Tigerish on us, another thing you might like to consider is a Dashboard widget or two. I consider the StickyBrain and iCal Events widgets suitable models; those available from DevonThink and for Address Book are good, too. After a couple of months of thinking Dashboard was a complete waste of time, I realised it might actually be the fastest way of finding information.

[jem]

TTYTT, Spotlight functionality is something that I had hoped for, but had refrained from mentioning because I believed that Bookends isn't Cocoa software and that non-Cocoa software couldn't take advantage of Spotlight.

I'm not up-to-date exactly how a Spotlight importer works but I sure that it works with non-cocoa applications also ... at least I've seen support for it in non-cocoa development environments and I'm pretty sure that one application I have isn't written using the Cocoa framework and it supports Spotlight. (sorry, make that two)

As I understand it, it's an underlaying change to how the OS X handles files that makes it possible to implement Spotlight the way it works and not something that belongs to the Cocoa framework (but I assume that the support for using it is built-in is available in Cocoa)

I think a problem in using Spotlight is that it seems to work best on documents that really consists of many smaller files while a database like Bookends uses consists of one big file. So the problem becomes: how do I expose the records to Spotlight? But I'm just guessing, I don't know.

[Jon]

So the problem becomes: how do I expose the records to Spotlight? But I'm just guessing, I don't know.

Bookends databases will not be searchable with Spotlight, for all the reasons outlined in other threads on this subject. It isn't practical, and I don't think it's very useful. But that doesn't mean Bookends can't utilize Spotlight itself...

Jon
Sonny Software

[niklas]

Well, I saw this thread and couldn't resist adding my little story...

Back in the days (of, like, EndNote 2) I used to be a strong EndNote supporter. It was the single piece of software on my computer that I didn't have anything to complain about. It was simple, fast end stable and it was a revolution to my academic writing. I know EndNote wasn't the only program in its category, even then, but it was what I used and I was happy with it.

Sadly, EN was also a good example of a good piece of software that got worse with every (expensive) update, by just adding strange features that only made it slower, uglier and more complicated. It was the poor transfer to OS X that finally made me search for alternatives. I looked at Bookends several times but just didn't get the interface and workflow (the Reference-centric view was a mystery to me, and still is...). I noticed, however that, as opposed to Endnote, Bookends seemed to really improve with each release, adding really useful features, and polishing up the interface (like adding a list-view default preference...).

The management of pdf's is vastly superior to endnote, as is searching the DB (live search is fantastic!). Groups are really cool and the info drawer is very well implemented. And not the least, the support is outstanding.

So, I too have made a full switch now, and I am very happy with that. The reference database remains one of the most important tools for academic writing, so this does matter.

And, by now I must say that Bookends not only works well, with the latest release, it also *looks* really nice...