Sonny Software

I currently have a record/article selected in my library, and so the associated preview below and metadata in the sidebar to the right are displayed. Question: how can I de-select a record?

For example, in Finder and many other standard Mac applications (e.g. Mail, iTunes) that display list views one can command-click on a selected item to de-select it. In fact this works in Bookends if there are multiple items selected -- but not when only a single item is selected (in contrast to how Finder, Mail, iTunes, etc. work). So is there a way to de-select a single selected item/record/article in Bookends? Am I doing something incorrectly or is this an interface limitation in the current version of the software?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

So that no references are selected? No, you can't, why would you want to?

Jon
Sonny Software

Item deselection is not a functionality that is desperately needed, but sometimes it can be convenient. A loose analogy might be to an old-school card catalog in a library. One can always have a card (or a box of cards) pulled out at any given time, but sometimes, e.g. at the end of the day, it's nice to put everything back in its place and not have any card showing. In the case of Bookends, if an item/record is selected, a preview of the item is displayed in the attachment viewer pane at the bottom of the library window (at least in my setup), and its metadata is displayed in the sidebar to the right. If I'm done examining or working with a particular item, sometimes I no longer wish to see it (preview or metadata) -- it's a small distraction that I'd like to banish.

For this reason macOS applications have supported item deselection for many decades. As an aside, the version of Messages.app in macOS 12 Monterey had a bug such that conversations could *not* be deselected. Many people complained about this to Apple. Thankfully Apple fixed the bug in macOS 13 Ventura (see for yourself -- fire up your Messages app, click on any conversation to select/read it, then command-click on it to de-select). Item deselection is also a longstanding functionality in nearly every other major Apple app, for example Finder, Mail, iTunes (including its progeny apps Music and TV), Safari (when managing bookmarks), and an a countless expanse of 3rd party applications. It would be lovely for Bookends to join this club. Thanks for your consideration.

I'm not sure if this is something that could be done safely (meaning that it's possible that there are edge cases where deselecting all rows might have cosmetic or functional consequences). Is this something others would like to see (please chime in if you would)?

Also, know that if you want to removed distracting information in the various panes, you can instantly close them all with Option-Command-B (or use the View menu). They can all be opened with keyboard shortcuts, too.

Jon
Sonny Software

Unless I run into unexpected behavior, this will be implemented in the next update.

Jon
Sonny Software

Thank you very much, I'm delighted to hear this. It's a relatively small thing to be sure, but nevertheless consistent with longstanding Macintosh UI standards. I'm sure Bookends users present and future will be grateful for this functionality (even if some weren't ever aware it wasn't present).