Sente; Bookends; a drawer for abstracts etc.

[Eckius]

A just took a look at Sente, Bookends's only real competitor as a bibliographic application for OS X. Like Bookends, Sente seems to me well designed and carefully thought out; therefore, it certainly deserves our attention. In my opinion, a clear difference between the two applications is that Sente was designed especially for research in the field of science (medicine, chemistry, pharmacology, etc.), much less for research in the humanities. Bookends from this point of view seems more 'neutral', more universally applicable. A quick look at the reference windows of both applications will suffice to be sure about this.

But, apart from such fundamental differences, Sente's interface has some elements I would like to see implemented in Bookends. One of them is the drawer appearing to the right of the list window, which shows the abstracts, personal notes etc. pertaining to the selected element in the list. Very handy: this feature makes it possible to take a quick look at the content of a reference without having actually to open the reference window as such. I really do hope this feature will be implemented in a future version of Bookends.

[Jon]

Hi Eckius,

You can use the View Formatted pane for this. We supply a format (ref with abstract, I think) that gives you such a view. You can edit this to taste (add styles if you like), and use this in the List View to see whatever elements of the selected reference(s) you want.

Jon
Sonny Software

[niklas]

Hi Eckius,

You can use the View Formatted pane for this. We supply a format (ref with abstract, I think) that gives you such a view. You can edit this to taste (add styles if you like), and use this in the List View to see whatever elements of the selected reference(s) you want.

Jon
Sonny Software

This is indeed very useful.
May I come with a small suggestion here?

I would find it very helpful if the preview pane would show (and allow me to change) the currently selected format. It is a bit cumbersome to have to go up to the Biblio menu and then choose a submenu to see what format I have selected and to be able to change it.

There does seem to be room for another pop-up down there.

Best regards, Niklas

[Jon]

Yes, I've thought of that. You can do that in the "other" example window (the one that shows when the reference window is in front). I'll see what I can do...

Jon
Sonny Software

[spd]

I missed this feature, which is very important to me. Any chance of moving the window to the side? Vertical space is always at a premium on smaller displays. I was wondering, too, if it's possible to highlight search results?

Perhaps we're getting greedy here, Jon. You've already done an incredible job with BE!.

Thanks again.

[Jon]

Hi spd,

Thanks a lot.

It might be possible to offer a drawer on the side rather than on the bottom, but although drawers work in Carbon apps (see Internet Search), there are some interface glitches I don't like. So I'm not keen on this (for other reasons as well). As for highlighting results -- I'm not sure of what you mean. If you mean show the found words in the reference window view, there is a menu Refs -> Find In This Reference, which will do that. If you mean in the formatted display...no, I don't think so. At least not without adding another layer of code on top, which you would have to invoke...

Jon
Sonny Software

[spd]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the explanation about the sidebar. As to "highlighting," I simply meant using a color to highlight the search results. Something along the lines of what Preview can do. Visually this is useful, but not imperative.

Best,

Steven

PS I "see" now how the "find in this reference" works. But the reference window must be open to do the search, right?

[Jon]

PS I "see" now how the "find in this reference" works. But the reference window must be open to do the search, right?

Right. Would you prefer if you could invoke this in the list view, and Bookends would open the reference window for you and look? Hmm, that sounds reasonable...

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

Thanks for the explanation about the sidebar. As to "highlighting," I simply meant using a color to highlight the search results. Something along the lines of what Preview can do. Visually this is useful, but not imperative.

I see why you might like it. And I could do this in the View Formatted pane. But it would be problematic for many reasons. For starters, you can get references in the List View lots of different ways, often without doing a search. And the List View is non-modal, so there may be no "meaning" to the search words 10 minutes after the search has been done and you are using the list in a different way. So this isn't a "feature issue" as much as an interface one. I don't think it would work well in Bookends (whereas in Preview it is great, because you are dealing with one monolithic document, and there is only one way to search for information).

Jon
Sonny Software

[spd]

Right. Would you prefer if you could invoke this in the list view, and Bookends would open the reference window for you and look? Hmm, that sounds reasonable...

Jon
Sonny Software

If it's not too difficult. Once the reference window is open, it's fairly easy to find what one is looking for (if the abstract is not too long). But this would be a useful addition, I think.

Best,

Steven

[Ni]

I missed this feature, which is very important to me. Any chance of moving the window to the side? Vertical space is always at a premium on smaller displays. I was wondering, too, if it's possible to highlight search results?

Perhaps we're getting greedy here, Jon. You've already done an incredible job with BE!.

Thanks again.

I just wanted to say, I really like the formatted reference on the bottom and not to either side. I don't know if this was said, but I would like to be able to edit a reference in this area too without being forced to go to the reference window always.

[Chris]

It might be possible to offer a drawer on the side rather than on the bottom, but although drawers work in Carbon apps (see Internet Search), there are some interface glitches I don't like. So I'm not keen on this (for other reasons as well). As for highlighting results -- I'm not sure of what you mean. If you mean show the found words in the reference window view, there is a menu Refs -> Find In This Reference, which will do that. If you mean in the formatted display...no, I don't think so. At least not without adding another layer of code on top, which you would have to invoke...

I would like to pick up this old thread again.

It would be great if all matching words of a search (Refs > Find > In Reference...) were highlighted in the "Edit reference" pane. "Refs > Find > In Reference..." only highlights the first occurrence of the search term. It might even be interesting to highlight all matching words when a live search is performed.

I attach a screenshot. I have searched for "repair" in a reference with "Refs > Find > In Reference...". Only the first occurrence of "repair" is highlighted. The match in the abstract is not highlighted.

Chris

[Jon]

Do a Find Again (Command-G) to find the next occurrence of the word you're searching for.

Jon
Sonny Software