Sonny Software

Blackwell Synergy allows export of reference details in several formats. Using the Endnote format and importing into Bookends using the Endnote filter produces good results. So far so good.

Unfortunately the process is a bit more laborious than it could be because the downloaded reference files have the extension .enw and I can't get Bookends to recognise this file-type -- it is greyed out in the Import file dialogue until I change the extension in the Finder to .txt.

Am I missing some setting that will tell Bookends to recognise .enw as signifying an Endnote file? Ideally, any of the following would work:

1) Bookends would not grey-out .enw files in the import dialogue. So it could be easily imported that way.
2) I could import the reference by dragging and dropping it on the Bookends Finder icon or dock icon.
3) I could doubleclick the file and Bookends would open it and import the reference. (I don't have Endnote, so I'm happy for Bookends to own this file-type.)

I haven't been able to get any of these to work. It's not a huge problem, because I can go on changing the file extension manually, but life could be a bit easier...

I forgot to say that I know that I can drag the file onto an open Bookends window and that will bring up the Import dialogue. But this too only works if I have already changed the file extension to .txt. If I try it with the original file, Bookends offers only to attach the file instead.

Hi nicka,

Bookends provides a solution for that -- drag and drop with the Shift key held down. This causes Bookends to consider the file you drop a Text file, and it will offer to import it.

Jon
Sonny Software

Thanks Jon!

I see that in the manual now that I know what to look for. I should have found it before.

Any thoughts about the other possibilities I mentioned? I think it would be nice to be able to double-click the file or drag it onto the Bookends dock icon, although these are hardly priority features.

They won't work for a number of reasons. First, the extension belongs to EN, not Bookends, and we shouldn't try to highjack it. Second, drag and drop is used for attaching as well as importing, hence the current behavior.

Personally, I much prefer drag and drop to using the menu for importing. In this case, holding down the Shift key is pretty convenient I think (better than making you add .txt to the file name).

Jon
Sonny Software

Fair enough.

What about dragging to the dock or application icon though? That doesn't seem to do anything at the moment.

It would be great if dropping a pdf or doc (etc) file on Bookends in the dock would make a new reference and attach the file, just as dropping on Mail's dock icon makes a new message with the file attached.
Then, since no one would want to attach an Endnote file to a reference there would be no harm in modifying the behaviour for.enw files so that Bookends offered to import the references when they were dropped on the dock icon.

Perhaps there are other problems I have overlooked, though.

Byy the way, I agree that shift-dragging onto a Bookends window is an elegant solution. I am just suggesting that being able to drag to the dock icon might be an extra convenience.

Making a new reference with a drop isn't really what many would want, though. For example, I always create the reference first (import, manual, etc.) and then add the attachment.

Dropping on the dock might simply be like dropping on a database, though. I'll think about that.

Jon
Sonny Software