Sort in List View

lidador · Post by **lidador** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:46 am

Hello!
In list view I can have authors sorted, but the references of the same author are not sorted by date (I have author-date-title) in list view. I work with a growing list of 1313 references and have authors with many references. I sorted list in the reference menu and I also have chosen sort in the preferences. I read everything sort related in the .pdf manual. I am using version 9.1 in Mac mini Intel system 10.4.8, but I had this problem in previous versions.
This must be that way (names are sorted on the list, but authors with many books have them sorted with dates randomly distributed), or am I doing something wrong?

Post by **Jon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:12 am

When the list is opened, Bookends will sort by author and date. The date sort is alphanumeric, though, based on the entry in the database. So for dates that includes more than the year, the sort won't be by actual date, e.g. February, 2006 will sort before March, 2000.

Jon
Sonny Software

lidador · Post by **lidador** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:32 am

CanÂ´t be that easy because I only type the four numbers in the date field, nothing else: like 1823, 1976, 2006, and so on. I also checked date fields and author fields to see if there was blank spaces, but no, everything is ok. Also yesterday I even exported my database to another bibliographic software, to test, and my problem was also there, even after all the trouble I had to manage that particular export. Any ideas?

Post by **Jon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:37 am

Then it should sort correctly by year when you open the list (if you click on a header, like Authors, it will sort only by that column, and ignore date).

If that's still a problem, create a small database that demonstrates the issue and send it to me (zipped) so I can examine it.

Jon
Sonny Software

lidador · Post by **lidador** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:07 am

It can't sort by author and then by date, for the titles of the same author? If it can't, its not that important, but since the sorting by author-date-title is what we do in publishing and reports I assumed It would be done by default in the specialized software.

Post by **Jon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:17 am

To be clear:

List View:
1. Default on open is sort by author-date. If no author or editor, the title is used.
2. Click on a header, sort by that column only
3. To do more complex sorts on the hits, you can turn OFF sorting in preferences and "manually" sort the hits by anything you want (3 levels of sorting). This is probably not something you would want to have as default behavior, but it is an option.

Bibliographies:

1. Sort by author-date-title, author-title, first author-date-other authors.
2. As above, sort the hits any way you like and send bib to Bibliography Window.

lidador · Post by **lidador** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:24 am

Problem reside here:

List View:
1. Default on open is sort by author-date

It sorts by author, but when the I have many refrences with same author its not sorted by date inside the same author.

Post by **Jon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:26 am

To quote myself:

"If that's still a problem, create a small database that demonstrates the issue and send it to me (zipped) so I can examine it."

Jon
Sonny Software

Post by **Jon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:34 pm

For those following, the resolution of this issue was that some references but not others had an extra return character after the author's name. That caused Bookends to sort what seemed to be the same author as different authors, hence the apparent nonsort by date. When the author's name was made uniform throught the references, the secondary date sort worked as expected.

Jon
Sonny Software

eleuteruiz · Post by **eleuteruiz** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:23 pm

Now I understand a little bit of the sorting puzzle. My db gets indeed sorted by author-date in list view when I open BE.

NOW: Many times I need to rearrange the list view sorting (when inserting several references in the same footnote we have to use date-author order), so I use the date header. In that case, how can I go back to author-date ordering? Only by closing-reopening the db? (if I use the author header, dates are not taken into account any more).

Thank you.

Post by **Jon** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:27 pm

Yes, you can close-open. When you click on a header you get a single sort by that header (no secondary sort).

Jon
Sonny Software

jadrain · Post by **jadrain** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 1:32 pm

eleuteruiz wrote:Now I understand a little bit of the sorting puzzle. My db gets indeed sorted by author-date in list view when I open BE.

NOW: Many times I need to rearrange the list view sorting (when inserting several references in the same footnote we have to use date-author order), so I use the date header. In that case, how can I go back to author-date ordering? Only by closing-reopening the db? (if I use the author header, dates are not taken into account any more).

Thank you.

Hi - Once you've clicked again on Author, a faster way to restore the author-date sorting than closing and reopening the database is just to switch to the Hits list (command-S) then immediately switch back to All (command-L). When I requested it, Jon even made it so that you end up back with the list pane active when you do this (used to be the Groups pane). So you just need to do a couple of quick keystrokes to restore the sort.