PDF annotation changes -- comments

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Bernardo
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Bernardo »

All that is understood. It doesn't change that it would be beneficial to expose this information to Applescript. The software could provide read-only access to a record for each of the reference's relations, containing the ID of the linked reference and the link type. An example:

Code: Select all

set theLinks to linked publications of theRef

repeat with theLink in theLinks
  set theLinkedRefID to id of theLink
  set theLinkType to type of theLink
end repeat
Or, in hash format:

Code: Select all

linked_pubs = [{id: "3030", type: "Book-Book_Part"}, {id: "3031", type: "Comment-Commented_Word"}]
With this, or something akin, one could choose to write the information to one of the reference fields as text. Without something like this, the links feature will remain unreliable and, therefore, useless. So far, I have lost this type of information several times when moving references from one file to the other. Knowing better, I don't use it anymore.

In saying this, I am merely trying to make myself understood because nothing in your reply indicates that you did understand the point. Having said that, feel free to refrain from replying. It is your software and your forum (in other words, not my problem to fix).

By the way, the last update did not fix the loss of focus problem reported by many in the previous version. The highlight does remain a second or so longer but then vanishes. I am not using Raycast or Popclip and tried closing other apps such as Alfred, Keyboard Maestro, Karabiner, etc, to no avail.

P.s.: In the inspector, when you hover the mouse over the icon of the link tab, there is a typo in the tooltip. It reads "List and maipulate reference links". Other typos can be found at the bottom of page 291 and in the middle of page 350 of the User Manual. Hope this helps.
Jon
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Jon »

I said I won't respond further on this topic and I won't, except to agree with you that we're talking past each other.

But you brought up other issues.

1. As I explained, the links belong to the library, not the references, and the links only make sense in the full context of the library. You can't copy a reference to another library and retain its links (the linked refs may not be there, they may be there with different unique ids, etc.). However, you said the links are "unreliable". If that means you've had problems with references linked in the same library, please file a bug report and let me know the problem.

2. The recent update didn't change the fact that the PDF annotation popover can be dismissed by other processes that grab the focus. What it did was, in that event, leave the selection "selected" so you could copy it to the clipboard, for example. If you find that the selected text becomes unselected without you doing anything, please contact tech support.

3. The info about the tooltip was sufficient for me to find and fix it, thanks. But I couldn't find the typos in the User Guide, perhaps a bit of dyslexia. If you'll be more specific I'll correct them (please send to tech support).

Jon
Sonny Software
Bernardo
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Bernardo »

They moved from pages 291 to 293 and 350 to 352. I will give further details by e-mail.
edwinc
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by edwinc »

DRNash wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 11:52 am In the latest version (14.0.6), when I highlight text in an attached PDF file, the pop-up appears very briefly and then text is deselected - I normally highlight text in order to copy it to paste somewhere else, but the pop-up is there too briefly to do anything useful, and then text is deselected. I can copy text by selecting text and then pressing command-c before releasing the mouse button, but that is not expected behaviour.

This may have already been addressed by a "silent" update since 11 March, since I have this problem on two of the three macs on which I use bookends, and the one without the problem was the one on which bookends was updated most recently.

- David
Sorry for coming in late to this discussion. Whenever this happens, I just select the note stream instead of "Edit reference" or "Summary" (bottom right corner of the screen) and that usually makes it work properly. Hope it helps.
Per
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Per »

edwinc wrote: Tue May 10, 2022 2:49 pm
DRNash wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 11:52 am In the latest version (14.0.6), when I highlight text in an attached PDF file, the pop-up appears very briefly and then text is deselected - I normally highlight text in order to copy it to paste somewhere else, but the pop-up is there too briefly to do anything useful, and then text is deselected. I can copy text by selecting text and then pressing command-c before releasing the mouse button, but that is not expected behaviour.

This may have already been addressed by a "silent" update since 11 March, since I have this problem on two of the three macs on which I use bookends, and the one without the problem was the one on which bookends was updated most recently.

- David
Sorry for coming in late to this discussion. Whenever this happens, I just select the note stream instead of "Edit reference" or "Summary" (bottom right corner of the screen) and that usually makes it work properly. Hope it helps.

Thank you for this solution! I have desperately tried to identify what process on my Mac that make Bookends lose the focus on the pop-up window for annotating pdfs. I have turned everything off one by one, but the problem has remained util I restarted Bookends (annoying). This solution works for me! However, doesn't it also indicate, in combination with my extensive search for interfering processes, that the problem may be in Bookends itself after all? I am not a computer expert, so if anyone could please explain how this is still some external problem...
Per
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Per »

Jon wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 7:00 pm Thanks for the suggestions. As for

1) It's possible to do that, although others might find that annoying. I certainly do not want to add another UI layer on top of this with options and preferences. It's easy enough to add the quote marks yourself, so this would be a minor convenience. I'd like to hear what others would have to say.,

2. That's not possible. The notes that appear on top are from text in the Notes field. The locked notecards you see are extracted from annotations in the PDF. There is no relationship between the Notes text and the annotation text. So Bookends outputs them in their respective orders. For Notes, it's from the beginning to the end of the field. For annotations, it's from the top to the bottom of the document.

Jon
Sonny Software
I understand. However, I have a follow-up suggestion/question concerning the second point. Is it possible to order the notecards from text with a page number (marked by the @). Now they appear in the order I add them, which makes sense. Nevertheless, I use the brilliant "quote"-function a lot, as well as add page numbers manually to notes, and then it would be awesome if it would be possible to order them by page number without having to do the manual work. I have admitted before that we Bookends-user are spoiled rotten by the fantastic and continuously developing capabilities of the programme :-)
Jon
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Jon »

Thank you.

Note (pun intended) that you can drag and drop the notecards that represent your own notes in the library into any order you want, and they will appear in that order from then on. I'm not sure what you mean by manual work, but it's trivially easy.

Jon
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Per
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Per »

😀 Yes, that’s what I meant by doing it manually. Having many notecards, perhaps a hundred, means a lot of dragging and dropping… I wish the programme could sense the page numbers marked by @ and offer to order these notecards in ascending order. Considering that you have so far managed to make Bookends meet more or less all such wishes, I feel that I just have to ask 😊
Jon
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Jon »

OK, I've heard the request. But what about notes with no page numbers? And what if one wants to order by logical entry rather than PDF page number? What if the user does move a notecard? The logic is clear now, and you can rearrange if you want something else. You can do that as they are entered, not wait until you have thousands. We expect to have small enhancement to the note stream in the next update, but I'm not keen on this. Others are welcome to chime in.

Jon
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Per
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Per »

I am not wishing it to be automatic, but a function to use when wanting to get the notecards with page number in order. Notecards without page number would not be affected. Neither would the locked notecards extracted from annotations in the pdf.
Jon
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Jon »

That's more reasonable. But of course notecards without page numbers would be affected -- unless you're saying to leave them where they are, so that there could be gaps in the list (e.g. if 6 notecards don't have page numbers and 2 do, only the 2 that do would be swapped if they were out of sequential page order).

Jon
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Per
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Per »

Sorry for being unclear earlier. I have not thought through what could happen with the notecard without a page number, and I am also not knowledgeable about what is possible technically (although your team seems to be able to do more or less everything). I guess it would be best if they could be left roughly where they are, as you describe in your example. Some manual sorting would always be required and could perhaps even be helpful. For me, at least, the only notecards without page numbers are my own synthesis/summary notes about the overall contents or meaning of a publication or significant parts of a publication (I assign page numbers manually when possible to attribute the notecard to particular pages). It is obviously different for different users, which is why it would be more resonable with a function that could be used if wanted. It would be exciting to see what you could do...
Jon
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Jon »

I'm thinking of a right-click option to "Sort Notecards By Page Number" that would sort only notecards in the database (the PDF annotations are already sorted by page number). The sorted order would be saved. I'll have to see if there are any negative side effects.

Jon
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Per
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Per »

That would be brilliant! Fingers crossed that it works out. Bookends is already far better than all other competitors, and in the last year, you have really managed to sprint ahead. This would be another functionality that would set bookends entirely apart.
Per
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Re: PDF annotation changes -- comments

Post by Per »

Jon wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 9:08 am I'm thinking of a right-click option to "Sort Notecards By Page Number" that would sort only notecards in the database (the PDF annotations are already sorted by page number). The sorted order would be saved. I'll have to see if there are any negative side effects.

Jon
Sonny Software
I just downloaded the latest update, and I am equally impressed and happy to find this functionality implemented. This combination of responsiveness to user needs and amazing coding skills is why Bookends is so far ahead of its competition. Thanks again for the amazing software!
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