Here's a proposal, tell me what you think: organize and display reading lists / syllabi from within Bookends itself.
Obviously, this can be done using a word processor in combination with Bookends. But, for organizing PDFs, personally I think it's valuable enough that it deserves to be in the program itself.
Possible features:
1. Ability to drag and drop references within a group to ORDER them (akin to establishing a play order or "track order" in iTunes) in a logical (e.g. not just alphabetical, or temporal) way
2. Add the ability to toggle the display of a short note (say, in italics) under each reference that can provide a short summary of the article
3. Ability to rate references (1 to 3 stars) in terms of their importance
Example display output:
[Group: DNA replication]
***1. Watson, J and Crick, F. A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (1953). Nature, 171: 737-738
Proposed helical structure of DNA deduced from crystallography patterns
***2. Franklin, R and Gosling, R. Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate (1953). Nature, 171:740-741
Experimental evidence supporting a helical structure of DNA
To be clear, the point of this isn't just to be able to generate such a list in a word processor with the help of Bookends. The point would be that this could be displayed in a useful working format WITHIN bookends itself, to help organize my thinking about what are important papers in my field.
Feedback appreciated!
Tim
New feature idea: Generate annotated syllabi/reading lists
Re: New feature idea: Generate annotated syllabi/reading lis
Where would you want to see this list displayed?
My thought is to use the same window display as is used currently, with three exceptions:
1. References can be dragged to reorder them however you see fit
2. You can toggle an option to "display notes"; when on, a notes field would become visible and would be displayed below each reference.
Eg, in the current display:
[ ] authors | date| title |
[ ] authors | date| title |
[ ] authors | date| title |
With a "display notes" feature turned on:
[ ] authors | date| title |
blurb one
[ ] authors | date| title |
blurb two
[ ] authors | date| title |
blurb three
3. References can be rated according to their importance. Ratings would show up in a separate column as one, two, or three stars (in my opinion, 5-stars requires too many subtle distinctions - keep it simple). Alternatively, an important paper could be colored, and a critical paper could be colored and bold.
1. References can be dragged to reorder them however you see fit
2. You can toggle an option to "display notes"; when on, a notes field would become visible and would be displayed below each reference.
Eg, in the current display:
[ ] authors | date| title |
[ ] authors | date| title |
[ ] authors | date| title |
With a "display notes" feature turned on:
[ ] authors | date| title |
blurb one
[ ] authors | date| title |
blurb two
[ ] authors | date| title |
blurb three
3. References can be rated according to their importance. Ratings would show up in a separate column as one, two, or three stars (in my opinion, 5-stars requires too many subtle distinctions - keep it simple). Alternatively, an important paper could be colored, and a critical paper could be colored and bold.