Bookends 9.0.4 public beta is available

Post by **Jon** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:45 pm

For the adventurous among you, Bookends 9.0.4 beta is available.

Warning: Bookends 9.0.4 makes some internal changes to your existing Preferences and databases (when opened) that make them incompatible with earlier versions. If you elect to try the beta, you should do so with a *copy* of your database (and make a copy of your Preferences file, too, if you have modified it extensively).

The major new feature in 9.0.4 is manual verification of database integrity and automatic database backup (after verification). The Database Maintenance -> Verify function is quite sensitive to minor incompatibilities, and I expect that among those experiencing no difficulties a number will find that the database they are currently using has some problems that this new feature identifies (and offers to correct).

Bookends 9.0.4 also has a variety of minor enhancements that touch many different aspects of the application, and of course bug fixes. The new features and enhancements can be found in this Read Me:

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You can download 9.0.4 beta here:

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Remember, this is beta software, with all that implies...if you are a current Bookends user and want to try it, use it with *copies* of your databases.

Bug reports, feedback, etc. are welcome.

Jon
Sonny Software

ozean · Post by **ozean** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:38 am

erm, when I double click the beta to start it, it tells me "This beta version of Bookends has expired."

That was a short beta cycle!

Post by **Jon** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:34 am

You snooze, you lose!

Sorry, that is of course a mistake. I've uploaded a new beta that should work until 4/20/06. Please download it again, here:

http://homepage.mac.com/jda1/bookends.dmg.zip

Jon
Sonny Software

danzac · Post by **danzac** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:36 am

thanks for adding the group toggle, that's great.

I guess the "adjust to screen when info panel is opened" suggestion is on the backburner?

ozean · Post by **ozean** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:38 am

8. For titles output in Sentence case, the first letter of a word following a colon, period, or question mark will be capitalized.

This works now, thanks!
However, even before this change I was wondering why "Sentence case" does more than just making the first word of a new sentence start with a capital letter. For me it would make much more sense if this would be the case instead of forcing everything in the sentence to be small with the exception of the first letter which is capitalized, resulting in names etc. with small first letters.

13. Added several more post-processing functions to clean up formatted references in which fields are empty.

Neat! Could you perhaps give a few hints on what these are so that we can test it?

â€¦ But if you keep attachments elsewhere, you will have to reattach one file for each folder you have used.

This worked out nicely but was a bit of a hassle because of me having attachments distributed over several foldersâ€¦

Otherwise I did not have any problems yet â€“ seems solid to me. The verification and backups functions are an excellent addition!

Post by **Jon** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:51 am

danzac wrote:I guess the "adjust to screen when info panel is opened" suggestion is on the backburner?

Hi Danny,

I think I mentioned before that this is not part of the Apple HIG. I remember some early OS X apps that did this, but none behave this way now, to my knowledge, anyway. So I'm just going to table this for now.

Jon
Sonny Software

Post by **Jon** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:58 am

ozean wrote:However, even before this change I was wondering why "Sentence case" does more than just making the first word of a new sentence start with a capital letter. For me it would make much more sense if this would be the case instead of forcing everything in the sentence to be small with the exception of the first letter which is capitalized, resulting in names etc. with small first letters.

Because some libraries provide titles in ALL CAPS. Sentence case is how you can make that information usable in bibliographies...

Neat! Could you perhaps give a few hints on what these are so that we can test it?

They're in the updated User Guide (which you don't have, yet). One was space-comma. I forget the others at the moment, but it should be transparent to you.

Otherwise I did not have any problems yet â€“ seems solid to me. The verification and backups functions are an excellent addition!

Thanks.

Jon
Sonny Software

danzac · Post by **danzac** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:38 pm

Ya, I think the only program I have that does this is DEVONAgent (that's where it clicked that it would be good for the List View). DAgent does it for the bookmarks/objects drawer.

thanks, Danny

joewiz · Post by **joewiz** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:41 pm

Hi all. I've been in touch with Jon about this, and he hasn't been able to duplicate the problem I'm having with 9.0.4:

With the 9.0.4 update, my Bookends databases do not retain their window size & position after quitting Bookends. In particular, if I select Window > Zoom (or click on the green zoom button in the top-left corner of the window) and quit and restart Bookends, Bookends will reset the position and size of the window to a fairly short & wide size. Drawer width is not retained.

I'm using Mac OS 10.4.6 on an iBook G4 1.33 Ghz with 1 GB of RAM. I've tried trashing my Bookends preferences (in ~/Library/Preferences/Bookends 9 Preferences). I've tried creating fresh, blank databases. All databases are verified as problem-free. My default view is List view, not Reference view (set in Bookends > Preferences). (Oddly, when I set Reference view to be the default view, the size & position is retained.) My copy of Bookends is registered.

If anyone else is noticing this, please respond on the list. If anyone has suggestions, I'd be happy to try any tests.

ozean · Post by **ozean** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:15 pm

Hm, it seems to remember the window position for me, but it does weird things with the drawer (in list view). When I move the list view window around with the drawer open (no other bookends windows open), the drawer will automatically resize it. Most of the time with somewhat hilarious results. The more I move it around, the stranger the positioning and size of the drawer getsâ€¦

10.4.6, on a Pismo PowerBook w/G4 550Mhz, 768MB RAM, only external 1280x1024 display active at millions of colors. No haxies or such. A few other apps are open.

Post by **Jon** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:19 pm

Hi ozean,

This problem was introduced in Mac OS 10.4.5, I believe. It's at the OS level, and not too much I can do about it at the moment.

The trick is to do wait a second or so before you drop the parent window in its new location. If you do that, the drawer resizing doesn't occur.

This is a cosmetic issue only, and closing and opening the drawer restores the correct positioning. But it is annoying.

Jon
Sonny Software

Post by **Jon** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 7:42 am

Hi all,

Bookends 9.0.4 final is now available.

Jon
Sonny Software

danzac · Post by **danzac** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:11 am

one small thing I noticed. the toggled groups works great, but in the window menu it says the shortcut is command-shift-L, not command-option-G

Post by **Jon** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:29 am

That's not the toggle groups pane command. Command-Shift-L opens the List View with the first Group selected. There is no menu equivalent for toggle groups pane.

Jon
Sonny Software

danzac · Post by **danzac** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:37 am

Oh I see. that makes sense now. Thanks.

Sonny Software

Bookends 9.0.4 public beta is available

Bookends 9.0.4 public beta is available

9.0.4 - window size & position not retained?

weird drawer resizing