Sonny Software

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie in BE reference manager. For now I'm testing the 'demo' version (12.7).
After some tests, I have some questions, suggestions and problems reports.
First of all, I need to contextualize my approach to BE. I'm a PhD student and I started my reference management with EndNote (EN). At this point I have a large library with many completed references (metadata, attachments, etc.).
At one point, however, when it was necessary define a workflow (particularly "how to work with the literature review"), I found myself exploring a new world - yes, I'm a pc user moving to mac (never too late!). So, in this new world I found Devonthink (DT) and interesting features for my workflow. From here, I need a good reference manager with good interaction with DT (particulary the hability to use 'links' in both ways). In this context, EN isn't the answer! So, I'm here testing the BE and his features.

Problems

1. Import from EN
Using yours indications - http://www.sonnysoftware.com/bookends/t ... mport.html-, I opted for the second method due to the problem of the accented characters (latin languages, so...!)
In this process I have identified some problems. I'm not talking about the Reference Types and eventual inconsistencies in the field labels during the import process (a matter that I need to explore more). I'm talking, mainly, about the attachments.
With the import from EN, there isn't a apparent rule with attachments. Using the same method, I found three different situations: a) EN attachments are copied to the "EndNote Attachments" folder in the default Bookends attachments folder; b) some references with multiple attachments import only one of their; c) some references don't import any attachment.

2. PDF's view
Most of my attachments are scanned documents and 'OCRing' with Abbyy FineReader 12 (pc version). I know that this files are more 'heavy' than normal pdf (journal articles, etc.). That is why when I open the attachment view pane, some apps are a bit slow in preview all the document pages - some slower than others (I have tried BE, EN, Papers, Acrobat, etc.).BE is a bit slower (problems with retina display?) but the main issues occurs when use the zoom or/and the automatically resize option: blank pages; partial pages; anything; the original background image missing, showing only the 'ocr' text; etc (see indexed screenshots).

3. Crashes
Some unexpected crashes (see indexed crash reports)

Suggestions / Limitations

1. Full Text Search
One of the identified limitations is the issue of the search: the ability to search inside all the documents. In the main search field, we can search general data about the documents but not the text inside the pdf files (or others). We are limited to search inside documents only when we select one pdf (in the attachment view pane). The full text search inside documents is a feature present in other reference managers. I think this is a issue to consider...

Questions
1. Any academic discount?
2. Sync from iCloud and Automatic Backups only works with libraries, not for its attachments?

Thanks

1. Please contact tech support (support@sonnysoftware.com) about any tech issues, like import from EN. I'll need files from you.

2. The PDF issue is known, and is due to bugs in OS X 32 bit PDFKit. As you know, if you show at Actual Size the display is correct.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3814

3. The crashes are occurring in OS X APIs. If you can reproduce them, please report how to do that.

Question 1. No.
Question 2. Attachments are synced via a file-sync service of your choice (e.g. Dropbox). Please see the User Guide (Help menu, p. 27) on how to set up sync for attachments and for custom folders.

Jon
Sonny Software

I missed one of your points -- full text pdf search. You can do that in Bookends in a smart group or with Command-F (Refs -> Find). Enter the PDF text you want to search for in the field "Spotlight Text". You can also search PDF tags in these dialogs.

Alternatively, you can use Live Search in the main window and select either Spotlight or Tags from the pop-up menu (the magnifying glass).

Jon
Sonny Software

Thanks Jon for your replies.

1. About the issue "import from EN", already send a email to tech support contact.

2. About the PDF issue, I realized that the same problem occurs with EN (for mac) but not with Papers 3 (a different system?).

3. About the full text pdf search, I followed your suggestions but I didn't get any result, none. A demo version limitation? Some problem with my Spotlight index?

Regards

UPDATE:
Maybe the problem with Spotlight occurs in consequence of the EN import issue: some of the attachments remain stored on EN folder and not in the default BE attachment folder.

2. The bug is in the 32 bit APIs, which Bookends uses. We plan to migrate to 64 bit as soon as that's possible (there are dependencies we'll have to work around first), and when we do I anticipate the problem will go away.

Update: yes, that's likely it. To be found, the attached PDFs must be in the default attachment folder (or a subfolder therein). You can more them (or copies of them) into the Bookends default folder in the Finder.

Jon
Sonny Software

BTW, I haven't received an email at tech support yet. It may be hung up on a server somewhere, but please check and make sure it was sent to

support@sonnysoftware.com

Jon
Sonny Software

Thanks Jon.

Waiting for the tech support answer.

Just more one question: Is there a way to import Reference Types from EN or we need to change/create them manually on Preferences?

Regards

Jon wrote:BTW, I haven't received an email at tech support yet. It may be hung up on a server somewhere, but please check and make sure it was sent to

support@sonnysoftware.com

Jon
Sonny Software

Yes, I sent it to that email contact.
I'll resend it right now.

Your email was quarantined by our ISP as possible spam, I have it now.

Bookends will import all the standard reference Types. If you defined your own in EndNote you'll have to do change them yourself. Note that you can set reference Type in batch with Global Change.

Jon
Sonny Software