Sonny Software

Hi,

I am a new user of Bookends and have a few questions / comments.

I have just move away from Endnote and was looking for a good ref manager. The main purpose is to build bibliographies for scientific articles and browse articles.
So far I have found BE a great improvement over Endnote for both.

On the second day of use I had a problem: Some of the groups i had created disappeared. I went through the forum and found that others had had the same problem. The "solution" was to rebuild the library, it worked but I lost all my groups and searches so in a way it did not work. I would have been really angry if had put a lot of efforts into building those groups. What was bizarre is taht the groups that were supposed to be in a folder still appeared on the folder (the small number next to it) but were not in the folder. Similarly if I tried to create a group with the same name BE would tell me that it already exists...
Now I feel reluctant to make a complex organization of my library in fear that it would happen again. Is there anyway to make sure this won't happen again? Is there a way to backup the metainfo of a library (static and smart groups, folders, searches etc...) and that if it bugs again I could replace an existing one?
A similar question: If I change computer or that it change the location of the attachment folder or simply that I want to change the attachment folder location, is all the grouping info able to reapply to the new location?

I have by default allowed the automatic daily backup of the library, what does this do exactly and for what purpose?

Tags: I was trying to find a way to tag papers in BE besides putting them in a group. Initially I made smart groups which worked really well for some strings however there are tag category that i want to see in the library that just cannot be done as smart groups. It seems that the only option is to put them manually in a static group. The problem I have with this is that in the main window, there is no quick way of knowing whether a paper you are looking at is in a particular group (or is there?). I was wondering if there is any way to apply tags to references that is both and versatile in the way it is done and highly visible/accesible (a feature similar to what Sente developped). Having the ability to tag or put ref in groups would be great. Having smart tags would even be greater!

Thanks!

Hi,

First, if something happens to your groups the solution is *not* to rebuild your database. Actually, if you go back to the original database and Rebuild (Keep User Info) you won't lose your groups. But they won't be fixed.

If there is a problem with the internal group structure you should use "Flatten Groups Hierarchy". This will list all the groups in alphabetical order, and you can reorganize them as you like.

I'm not sure what your question is regarding groups and attachments. They are completely separate.

As for backup -- it Verifies the database, to make sure it's OK, then create a backup copy in /Documents/Bookends/.

There are two easy ways to quickly see if a reference is in one or more groups: (1) any group names would be shown in the concise view, and (2) the group name will highlight in yellow if you hold down the Shift and Option keys simultaneously.

Bookends has keywords, if that's what you mean by tags, and you can use Global Change to add keywords to multiple references at once. I'm thinking of way of using the Term List to quickly add keywords to multiple fields at once, too, but so far nothing has been implemented.

Jon
Sonny Software

Hi Jon,

Thank you for your prompt reply!

I am going to try the flatten group hierarchy command.
The question about group and attachments: I meant to know whether the group hierarchy and content is saved in the same backup file as the library backup so that in theory you can export to another computer running BE? A related question is if you open a library on a different computer than the one where your attachments are but you bring along those attachments in a single folder on that new computer, will BE automatically link these attachments to the references assuming you show it where the folder is?

I'll check the concise view and highlighting later since i am not in front of my computer right now but it sounds like it would work for me.

About the keywords, I'll to explore that option, i knew there should be something to tag ref. I'll see if it is easy to use and retrieve.

Thanks for the help!

S

The backup contains a copy of the entire database and its contents, including groups. So you can move it (or the original) to another computer in the Finder. Or use Bookends Sync.

Yes, it will automatically link the pdfs if you tell it that folder is the default.

Please take the Bookends Tutorial (about 30 minutes) and check out the User Guide for specific topics -- there is a lot of information there you would find useful.

Jon
Sonny Software

Just to chime in on the claim about database maintenance and losing groups. I've used Bookends for years with a lot of references and have had to rebuild the database many times, but only once needed to rebuild without keeping user settings as far as I can remember (it wasn't recently). So having to lose and recreate groups is a very rare event if my experience is anything like typical.