Automatic Renaming of Attachments when using "find loca

[bluloo]

Hi,

When using the CM on a new reference to choose "find and attach local pdf", I noticed that the attachment is not (always?) renamed to the author - year format.

When using the attachment inspector it offers to rename the pdf.

I am copying (not moving) the pdf to the attachments folder.

I apologize if this is simple, but can a preference be set to automatically rename the attached pdf, regardless of the method of import? (assuming I didn't miss an existing pref).

TIA

[Jon]

Bookends will offer to rename a pdf when attaching/copying it. But that's not what you are doing -- find and attach local pdf leave the file name alone.

Jon
Sonny Software

[bluloo]

Would it be possible for BE to have a "copy/move and rename" option in the prefs for use when using the "find local pdf" function?

The auto-locate feature is certainly a time saver.

thanks

[Jon]

Bookends assumes that since you already have the pdf it is named as you like. If it renames it automatically, you'll have two copies of the pdf (the original and the moved copy) with different names. I'm not sure that's a great idea.

Jon
Sonny Software

[bluloo]

Bookends assumes that since you already have the pdf it is named as you like. If it renames it automatically, you'll have two copies of the pdf (the original and the moved copy) with different names. I'm not sure that's a great idea.

Jon
Sonny Software

When using the attach pdf (via the attachment inspector) this is precisely what BE does. It offers to rename it and copies it to the attachment folder. The result is the original pdf in one place, with one name, and the renamed pdf in the BE attachments folder.

Unless I am missing something, I thought the request would simply add existing functionality to the auto-find feature.

thanks

[Jon]

They are similar, but not identical in practice. I expect the attach function to typically be used right after a pdf is downloaded or received from it's primary source. Hence the offer to change the name to something intelligible. The Get PDF -> local hard drive, on the other hand, is used to collect pdfs the user already has filed somewhere. At least this was my expectation, and thus the file is not renamed.

Jon
Sonny Software

[bluloo]

Would it be possible or would you consider adding such an option in the future?

For example, I cannot access EBSCO directly via BE, I must log in to my University and use a browser to search and copy each article to a saved, temporary folder on their site.

In order to be efficient, I have all checked articles emailed to me and I export the references in single text file.

This means that I may save 20-40 pdf files, from mail, at one time.

I'll import the references to BE and then try to use the auto-find feature to grab the appropriate pdf from my downloads folder.

I use BE's find local pdf function on this group of pdfs.
When Spotlight behaves, BE finds and matches each of these pds with the appropriate reference. This is a big time saver over performing the same function on each file manually.


If BE cannot find a match, I'll review each of them individually, looking for a specific BE reference, using drag and drop to mate a reference and pdf. Using this method, BE offers to rename the file. I also have offer to copy the file set in the preferences.

I understand that BE uses Spotlight data to match a reference with a pdf. Interestingly, BE cannot often find a local pdf even though I can open it in preview and perform a full text search. I assumed that if spotlight couldn't read text, then BE couldn't get a match.

Do you think, for pdf+text files that BE cannot "match", it is due to Spotlight, BE or some other factor?

Is there something else I might try to improve accuracy?

Thanks again for your prompt replies.

BE is a very nice app!

[Jon]

There are two different issues here:

1. Should Bookends rename files found via Spotlight. I'm not necessarily against this, but I'm suggesting that you will be asked 20 times for 20 pdfs to agree/not agree. There could be a Preference to turn this off and make it automatic, of course.

2. As mentioned in the release notes when we added "find on local drive", Spotlight isn't terribly good when there is lots of text to be matched. Bookends has to use a sufficient amount of information to avoid spurious matches (as well as selecting pdfs that *cite* the pdf being attached), and Spotlight isn't always up to the task. Perhaps things will improve in Leopard. But for now, the hit rate is pretty good (for me, at least) but not 100%.

Jon
Sonny Software

[bluloo]

There are two different issues here:

1. Should Bookends rename files found via Spotlight. I'm not necessarily against this, but I'm suggesting that you will be asked 20 times for 20 pdfs to agree/not agree. There could be a Preference to turn this off and make it automatic, of course.

I would think a global preference would work best, with a concordant preference to move or copy the file as well.

Also, to clarify, what I was suggesting was to rename the file after it was copied to the BE attachments folder, leaving the original intact.

For example, none of the original pdfs that I located using the attachment inspector were renamed (i.e. the original file names in the Finder are the same, but the copied pdfs in the attachments folder are renamed). This works quite well.

2. As mentioned in the release notes when we added "find on local drive", Spotlight isn't terribly good when there is lots of text to be matched. Bookends has to use a sufficient amount of information to avoid spurious matches (as well as selecting pdfs that *cite* the pdf being attached), and Spotlight isn't always up to the task. Perhaps things will improve in Leopard. But for now, the hit rate is pretty good (for me, at least) but not 100%.

Jon
Sonny Software

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

I thought it might be a Spotlight issue. Yes, let's hope it is more mature in Leopard.


cheers