Sonny Software

There are a few things I would really like to be able to do that I don't think Bookends currently allows. So here's my wish list

1 - It would be very nice to be able to select text within attachments in Bookends.

2 - If text selection was possible, then a feature like Pages' "match" feature, which automatically searches PubMed for citation information based on text you've highlighted in the pdf, would be incredible. (You can fill various search fields - like title, author, etc - with selected text, and then do the PubMed search.)

3 - Sente now has the ability to search Web of Science - that could only improve the Bookends experience.

4 - In the list view, which is where I tend to do most of my work, it would be good to be able to independently zoom the notes field (as you already can with the attachment). I tend to shrink the list field to a tiny bar, and have the attachment and the notes taking up almost half the screen each, but in order to take advantage of all that notes real estate, I have to change the text size, which isn't really ideal.

5 - A right-click context menu in the notes field would be great - I tend to change the text color quite a bit, to highlight especially important notes, and it's just easier to be able to do that in the field itself.

6 - I suspect this is not going to happen, but might as well shoot for the moon. Some sort of ability to manipulate attachment locations from within Bookends. My trouble right now is that I've put all the attachments from about 5 different databases into a single folder (I know, I know), and it would be great to be able to go into a database, somehow select all the associated attachments, and move them into a new folder, automatically updating all the links within the database. The ability to move single files would also be sweet.

7 - This isn't a request so much as a question - are attachment links absolute or relative? If the latter, I could presumably just copy my Bookends folder to another hard drive and all the attachments would remain attached?

So there you have it. Anybody else have any thoughts?

Hi,

Without going into a lot of detail: selecting text within pdfs can't be done the way the pdf viewer is implemented. Note, though, that you can select text in attached text files -- and there will be a major improvement here in the next update.

The links to attachments are neither fixed or relative. Bookends keeps track of the attachment folder you have used, and searches them for the attached file (that's why you can't have to attachments with an identical name). The advantage of this approach is that you can move Bookends to another hard drive and, if you set the default attachment folder to the folder with attachments (and subfolders with attachments) Bookends will find them. If you have move attachments that are outside of the default location, all you need to do is reattach one file from each folder and all the attachments you have will be found.

Jon
Sonny Software

Just to confirm, then:

If I go into my attachment folder now, and reorganize it as I see fit with new subfolders, this should not create any problems for my current database?

None at all. Of course, a little test with moving one file to a subfolder and seeing Bookends still finds it would seem in order...

Jon
Sonny Software