Allow right click (to copy citations) when Bookends in background

[happycatmachine]

Hi, first time poster here.

I've searched the forums as best I can with the search tool, but I might not have found something due to that tool's limitations. Apologies if this has already been raised. This issue interrupts my flow in a small but constant way and this thought occurs to me every time I do this so I'm finally mustering up my courage to bring this up.

I'd like Bookends to accept right-click when its in the background. If I'm writing a document and I need a citation quickly and I can see the Bookends window but it is not the active application then right-clicking does nothing. I have to bring Bookends to the front, then I can copy the citation, then I have to reactivate the document that I'm working on.

Other applications that I use (DevonThink, in particular) allow for these things (I can copy links to items in my DevonThink database by right-clicking in the inactive DevonThink window to paste anywhere in my active application.

If there are some items in the right-click menu that would not be compatible with an inactive Bookends window, then an application can have a different right-click menu for inactive windows than an active window (DevonThink does this, for example you can't delete (Move to Trash) items in DevonThink when the window is inactive.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

[Jon]

I'll think about this and how it might be approached.

But for now, I suggest that you check out Floating Citations (see User Guide for details, or our video tutorial). It's designed for working with Bookends without leaving the app in front (typically a word processor). While in another app, double tap the Control key while Bookends is running and the floating citation window opens, letting you copy citations, read attached PDFs, and much more.

Jon
Sonny Software

[DrJJWMac]

All right. I am ... impressed ... coming across this for the first time. Can the floating citation window also allow for restrictions to specific fields (as per the search in BE)? Why? I am using tags such as #why or #result in note fields. I would like to use the floating citation window to search for those words but *only in the notes field*.

BTW, as a separate comment, one cannot search for a hash-tagged word such as #result in the main search in BE. The search seems to balk at the hashtag. Escaping the hashtag (i.e. \#result) only results in searches for the word following the hashtag. The same seems true of the floating citation window. If this issue were fixed (if one could search All Fields for hash-tagged words), my request for floating citations to search only on the notes field might not be necessary because I use hash-tagged words only in the notes field.

Thanks!

[Jon]

To your second point -- The live search uses indexes, so punctuation like # is ignored. If you enter the term in between quote marks, however, the search will not use indexes and will match whatever is in between the quote marks. The search begins when the closing quote mark is entered. So "#notes" works and won't match "notes".

As to the search in floating citations, it's not as detailed as the library live search, and doesn't have the option to use non-indexed searching. But it did, it would find your tagged references without ambiguity if you only used them in Notes.

Jon
Sonny Software

[DrJJWMac]

> As to the search in floating citations, it's not as detailed as the library live search, and doesn't have the option to use non-indexed searching. But it did, it would find your tagged references without ambiguity if you only used them in Notes.

OK. I tested the "#result" search directly in BE. It works to find only the hash-tagged in Notes.

I return then to my suggestion to have the floating citation search either be restricted in which fields. Perhaps All or Notes is sufficient.

Thanks!

[Jon]

I'll add that to the requested features list.

FYI, you can set up smart searches to ignore indexes, too, and search for "characters", which includes punctuation. Not to mention SQL smart searches.

Jon
Sonny Software

[happycatmachine]

That floating citations thing wasn't something I was aware of. My first trials of it felt very clunky, far clunkier than just bringing Bookends forward with a click, right clicking, and copying the citation. Then again, every 'new' thing has the high potential to feel clunky until we get used to it. Also, I might be able to do something with keyboard maestro or something to make it smoother for me.

Again, thanks for all of the thoughts here. Nice to see such an active community.

[Jon]

If you have already selected the reference you want to cite in Bookends, then it's a duplication of work. But if you haven't, which is often/usually the case, it's less work to use Floating Citations. In your use case, what would make it less "clunky"? Perhaps a keyboard shortcut that would insert the temp citation of the already-selected reference? So the workflow would be select some reference in Bookends, switch to word processor, and when you want to insert, it double tap Control and press the keyboard shortcut? Would you (or anyone else) find that useful? Or do you have another suggestion?

Jon
Sonny Software

[happycatmachine]

I think the word processor integrations are spot on. Between Nisus, Mellel and Word (I prefer Scrivener to these but nevermind) I think things are good. I'm not using these citations right away though, I'm using them with my own system to track the quotes and paraphrases as I synthesise information in Obsidian. The citations make a great, unique, recognisable identifier for every instance of a quote. Once I get it on the clipboard and into Obsidian as a property, I don't really need bookends until I compile the final paper. Bit of a mischaracterisation there because Bookends is in constant use, but only that use, as I gather new papers or other sources.

It's probably not all that unconventional, but this workflow has evolved to suit my habits more than anything. The issue I raised in the original post is most frequently encountered during a literature review but becomes less an issue as the work develops, naturally, as the number of new sources coming in diminishes.

Thanks again. (Oh, and thanks for 15)

[suavito]

Once I get it on the clipboard and into Obsidian as a property, I don't really need bookends until I compile the final paper. Bit of a mischaracterisation there because Bookends is in constant use, but only that use, as I gather new papers or other sources.

As a Bookends, DEVONthink, and Scrivener user myself I dare to suggest that you add a clipboard manager to your workflow. Mine is Paste, it has pinboards designed to a specific purpose. And one of my pinboards is for Bookends references only. It's great to have the last copied references right there with just a keyboard shortcut on the Mac or on Paste's keyboard on mobile devices.

My note-taking app is Drafts and I have created an action that holds the Bookends reference of the book I'm presently reading, allows me to enter the page, then to choose between writing, dictating, or scanning the quote, and adds the reference as a proper Markdown footnote, all tagged "excerpt", which allows DEVONthink to sort it properly.

Sorry, if this was too off-topic. I just wanted to corroborate what you said: Bookends is in constant use, even if it is technically not running. And version 15 indeed is another great update.

[happycatmachine]

As a Bookends, DEVONthink, and Scrivener user myself I dare to suggest that you add a clipboard manager to your workflow. Mine is Paste, it has pinboards designed to a specific purpose. And one of my pinboards is for Bookends references only. It's great to have the last copied references right there with just a keyboard shortcut on the Mac or on Paste's keyboard on mobile devices.

Hey suavito, thanks for the recommend. I do have a couple of clipboard managers (Alfred and Keyboard Maestro) but I've never really seen much personal value to them. Thanks to your suggestion, I can see now how I could use these to do batch work faster. Thanks for the tip! I might try to incorporate one into my workflow!

PS: Sorry I've not replied until now, it doesn't occur to me to visit software tool forums frequently. Again, thank you.

[happycatmachine]

I'll think about this and how it might be approached.

I can see that with the latest release of bookends that I can right-click with the window in the background for a menu. Thank you. I only just tried this now and was blown away when it worked (so used was I to just bring the app to the front).

One follow-on issue that I encountered, and this may be a nothing-burger.

1. Right click on an item
2. Choose Export Attachments without attachments
3. The Save/Export window opened behind the window I was working in and I didn't notice that had happened.

This may be one of the reasons DevonThink doesn't offer ALL commands in the right-click-on-inactive-window menu. For example, I cannot delete files with that menu in DevonThink when the application is not in front.

Anyway, thanks so much for adding this, sorry if it causes issues like this.