Sonny Software

I would be interested to know how others here work with (static) groups. Do you keep and collect the groups of your work in folders and subfolders, do you delete them after the associated project is completed, or do you store them externally in some form?

I am accumulating groups that I have created for my projects and where there is a possibility that I will work with them again. So far, I've stored everything in an archive group, but that's getting a bit confusing.

I would like to outsource groups to keep the left column clear. However, if I want to continue working with them later, it would be nice if I could import or activate the outsourced groups again. I would like to suggest this as a feature to Jon, but would it be of interest to others?

> I would like to outsource groups to keep the left column clear. However, if I want to continue working with them later, it would be nice if I could import or activate the outsourced groups again. I would like to suggest this as a feature to Jon, but would it be of interest to others?

I recommend that you consider the most recent change to Bookends, whereby you can copy an entire static group from one library to another. In your case, suppose that you have a library MyLibrary with a static group GroupA. Here is a process you might undertake.

* Create a new blank library called MyLibrary-Archive
* Open the blank library and the MyLibrary
* Select the static group GroupA
* With the option key held down, drag + drop GroupA from MyLibrary into MyLibrary-Archive

The references are copied. If you are using sub-folders to store attachments (rather than the default where all attachments are in the Attachments folder itself), you must consider an additional note. The attachments to the references remain resident in the primary attachments sub-folder for MyLibrary. You will need to carry out a separate set of steps if you want to move the attachments from the sub-folder associated with MyLibrary to a different attachments sub-folder (e.g. the one associated with MyLibrary-Archive).

As your interest dictates, I can dig up an AppleScript that I have that was designed to take attachments residing in one sub-folder and duplicate them into a different sub-folder, remaking the links accordingly. Essentially, the script takes a source to make a duplicate as below.

Source: .../Attachments/MyLibrary/AttachmentA.pdf --> attachment for reference XYZ in library MyLibrary
Duplicate: .../Attachments/MyLibrary-Archive/MyLibrary-Archive_AttachmentA.pdf --> attachment for reference XYZ in library MyLibrary-Archive

> I would like to suggest this as a feature to Jon, but would it be of interest to others?

I would be interested in a menu option that would do the create+(drop+drag) steps in one step, e.g. "Extract Selected (References/Groups) to New Library". It would also be nice to have a menu option that would "Archive Selected (References/Groups)", whereby I use the term "archive" as a reference to a fully self-contained (library+attachment sub-folder) assembly. Extraction is particularly useful to me now as I am in the process of creating a publication that uses only a fraction of references from a main library. I am doing a drag+drop of an >inbox Static Group in my main library to collect the relevant references into a library solely for the publication. Archiving will be important to me later to create a self-contained dossier of the resources used in a publication that can be recalled in its full state even after the sources themselves may have been altered.