Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Groups

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corrado33
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Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:54 pm

Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Groups

Post by corrado33 »

Hi,
I have a very small feature request.

I've recently been going through my library and manually assigning groups (even though smart groups work fine!) and I've been using keyboard shortcuts (aka apple-1, apple-2 etc.) however, if you are looking at the main list view of bookends, then assign a reference to a group by using a keyboard shortcut, the "focus" shifts from the list view (where the references are) to the group pane (where the list of groups are). Therefore, if I was using arrow keys to work my way through my references, I have to click onto the list view to activate it again, so I can continue using arrow keys to work my way through the list. The focus shift is useless, although I suspect it's simply a gimmick of the programming. The group pane was interacted with so therefore it is now the "focus". Compare this to how finder works, if you drag a file to the left pane it doesn't shift the focus, and you can still use the keyboard to navigate files in the folder.

It's not a problem, and there are probably many other things to focus on (no pun intended), but it's just annoying when trying to manually organize references (even though I could probably just add all of the references I want to the hits list, then drag them over to the group I want all at once). Still, I try to avoid using the mouse if possible! I wonder if there's a keyboard shortcut to add to hits list... EDIT: Not that I can find :? EDIT2: Found it, shift-command-M (although it's not listed in the pull down menus like most shortcuts are!)

I guess I could write an iKey script to click where the mouse is after I push the shortcut. That'd work well enough! (And by "write" I mean click a few buttons! But hey, it's the closest thing to autoit or autohotkey Mac users have!) Wow I'm off topic.
Jon
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Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by Jon »

For the first issue -- did you assign a CommandKey - # combination to the groups in Bookends? If so, you should be able to add references to groups without the focus leaving the reference list (it doesn't do that for me).

For the second, there is no menu shortcut shown for "Make Hit" because, well, there is no menu for that. That's why it's mentioned in the user guide.

Jon
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corrado33
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:54 pm

Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by corrado33 »

Jon wrote:For the first issue -- did you assign a CommandKey - # combination to the groups in Bookends? If so, you should be able to add references to groups without the focus leaving the reference list (it doesn't do that for me).

For the second, there is no menu shortcut shown for "Make Hit" because, well, there is no menu for that. That's why it's mentioned in the user guide.

Jon
Sonny Software
First: Yes, I assigned the command key - # combination in bookends by clicking to the right of a group then typing in a number. See the attached screenshot (you have to scroll down as I'm working with groups in the "Electrolyte" folder and the forums cut off half of the screenshot). The second screenshot is what bookends looks like after I use a key combination to add the reference to a group. The reference isn't blue anymore (not active) it's grey which means when I push up and down on the keyboard I just get the Mac error sound.

The bookends application stays active (frontmost application) but the reference list becomes inactive.

EDIT: Just realized this is weird behavior, neither the group pane nor the reference list is active. Generally if you click in the group pane the group pane become active (selection becomes blue), but when I use the shortcut both panes' selections go grey. I'm using 12.1.1 by the way. If I drag a reference with the mouse to a group, the reference list stays active.
Screen Shot 2014-03-30 at 1.52.31 PM.png
Screen Shot 2014-03-30 at 1.52.31 PM.png (154.56 KiB) Viewed 7392 times
Screen Shot 2014-03-30 at 1.53.00 PM.png
Screen Shot 2014-03-30 at 1.53.00 PM.png (171.04 KiB) Viewed 7392 times
Second: Yes, I realized there is no menu item for make hit. I think it'd be a useless menu item because it'd take more clicks to get to it than just to click the box! Regardless, I found the shortcut!
Jon
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Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by Jon »

I see you have lost the focus (I don't see what *got* the focus), but that doesn't happen for me. The focus stays with the reference in my hands, I can't reproduce what you are seeing. I've tried with all panes open and all closed, no problems. So I'm guessing it may be something on your system that's doing this (of course I can't say what it is). You might try installing in a Guest account and seeing if it still happens, and even better try another Mac if you can.

Jon
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corrado33
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:54 pm

Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by corrado33 »

Will do. I'll post my results. I thought maybe there was a system shortcut the was doing something when I hit command-1 but I couldn't find anything in system prefs.

EDIT: The same thing happens on the guest account on my computer even though bookends has never been opened on that account. I'll try another mac.

Well, the other mac in the lab isn't updated past 10.6, so I can't try 12.1.1. I have no idea where the focus is going, it doesn't seem like ANYTHING is active. Do you have anyway to know what's active?

Well, if I hit command-# to assign a reference to a group, then hit command-different#, the right pane tab changes. (Aka if I hit command-2 second then the "notes" tab opens)

If I close the right pane then try the same thing again I just get the mac error sound.

I found a way to replicate the "loss of focus". Basically you can get both the group pane and reference list "inactive" by clicking anywhere on the right/bottom pane or in the search box. However that doesn't explain why this problem would persist once I close all of the other panes. I also tried typing letters in this "inactive" state (after a key combination) but text doesn't appear anywhere.

So, if I'm in the inactive state, switch spaces (mac spaces) or applications (click on finder) then back to bookends, the reference list is active once again. Since focus seems to stay in place when switching applications (aka if I have text selected in the search box it'll stay selected even through an application change) it seems to indicate the the reference pane IS still active... somehow. But bookends is still active. Other shortcuts work (like command-Y) and if I hit tab it'll cycle through the search box and stuff in the right pane (that's normal behaviour though).
Jon
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Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by Jon »

I can replicate the loss of focus issue with Bookends 12.0.7. However, I don't see it with the current build I'm using (which will be the basis for the next update). I think this issue was fixed as a byproduct of fixing another issue a user reported with the focus. So expect this to be fixed in the next update (but you'll have to upgrade the OS to Lion or later).

Jon
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corrado33
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:54 pm

Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by corrado33 »

Jon,
Thanks for the update. Like I said previously, this isn't a huge issue, just something I noticed, there are other ways of doing what I wanted to do since Bookends is so flexible.

I really appreciate the quick response I get from you though. I honestly didn't expect to hear anything back until at least today (Monday).

I secretly laugh when my coworkers complain about Endnote. Unfortunately most of them are stuck in the "Endnote has been used for years and it's the only way to do references ever" mentality.

Now, if I could just find the Bookends equivalent of Word... I'd be happy. I always look forward to the updates for Bookends, even though most of the time the updated features of fixed bugs don't even affect me.
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Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by Jon »

You should check out Mellel. It takes a while to understand its approach to styles, but for many things it's better than Word. And the integration with Bookends is the best of any word processor/ref manager combination out there.

Jon
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corrado33
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:54 pm

Re: Focus change upon using keyboard shortcuts to assign Gro

Post by corrado33 »

I will try it. From watching a few video tutorials it looks like what Pages SHOULD be. It looks 100x better than Word. I'll attempt to write a paper with it to see what happens. It's so hard to find a replacement for Word because even though it's bloated and runs like crap, it has EVERY feature you could ever need. And more importantly, it has CERTAIN features that many smaller word processor programs (namely Pages) don't have (captions for one), making it the only real choice for people that need those features (although captions BARELY work in Word for Mac). However, after using LaTeX for my most recent proposal, it may be difficult to go to back to ANY word processor. GUIs are nice, and you MAY be able to control things more easily, but nothing makes documents look as good as LaTeX does. And honestly, googling for how to change things in LaTeX only takes me a few minutes. Wow, I'm very long winded today, apologies.

Anyway, thank you for the suggestion, for the longest time I thought Mellel was another referencing program from reading posts on this forum.
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