Version History
Version 15
November 2, 2024
Dynamically adjusting PDF toolbar
Bookends automatically adjusts the PDF toolbar height and appearance to suit its contents. There are up to three different levels: the base controls (action pop-up menu and highlight marker), the optional file tag bar, and/or the optional PDF tab bar. Automatically adjusting the the toolbar to its smallest possible height allows you to see as much PDF content as possible without scrolling, which is especially useful for small screens.
Maintain a light appearance for the Bibliography Window when the system is in dark mode
This option is available in the Settings Scan & Bib tab. Among other things, maintaining a light appearance in dark mode may make it easier to copy and paste formatted references into other apps whose text windows also maintain a light appearance.
Updated the display of PDF search results for macOS 15 Sequoia
In addition to fixing problems caused by bugs in Sequoia, the output is now cleaner and easier to read.
Improved group management and badges
Bookends will periodically perform a "sanity check" on your groups and silently repair any problems it may find. Static group badge numbers no longer count references that are in the trash, and will dynamically update when you add or remove references to/from the trash.
More flexible AppleEvent SQL searches
The query can contain "intrash=false" or "intrash=true", which will let you find references that are not in or are in the library trash. If an "intrash" value is not specified, Bookends will only find references that are not in the trash.
If a timeout occurs while trying to download multiple PDFs at once, Bookends will simply move to the next reference
Previously, a timeout would put Bookends in an unresponsive state or cancel the entire process.
Use formats to create temp citations when using Floating Citations
Only formats with names beginning with "Temp Cite" will be available.
Fixes
Fixed an error that could occur when importing and linking references from the Inspector.
Fixed a bug where an error during the PDF download process could put Bookends in an unresponsive state.
Fixed the detection of clicks on disclosure widgets in a PDF table of contents.
Fixed an issue where the width of the groups pane could be inadvertently changed.
October 5, 2024
New retracted reference detection and user notification
Retracted references found on PubMed, CrossRef, or OpenAlex will be marked with red flags in all of the online search options (e.g. the online search window, the Bookends Browser import sheet, Autocomplete Paper, etc.). In addition, "RETRACTED:" will be added to the title. Retracted references that have been imported will be marked with a red flag in the library window as well. To check the retracted status of a reference you already have, perform an Autofill From Internet (the reference must have a DOI or PMID).
When a PDFs is first viewed after launch, it will automatically be scrolled to the page you were viewing when it was closed
Previously, the scroll position was only remembered during a session.
Attach a PDF in the Finder with a right-click
Right-click on the PDF and select Open With -> Bookends to bring Bookends to the front with the attach dialog showing.
Worked around a bug in macOS 15 Sequoia that prevented Bookends from extracting notes associated with PDF highlight and underline annotations
The style output option menus have been reworded to make it clear that ASCII, UTF-8, and UTF-16 all output plain text
Fixes
Fixed a bug that could prevent the PDF page indicator from updating.
Fixed a bug with groups that could prevent the library from opening.
Attached files that are bundles are no longer displayed as folders with content.
Fixed a bug were replacing a PubMed advanced search with another of the same name could cause an error.
September 7, 2024
Examples of each CSL style's output for each reference Type are shown in the Formats Manager
Prevously, examples were only available for Bookends formats.
When scanning a Mellel document with a CSL style, the each citations's "no enclosing punctuation" setting will be honored
The text in numbered bibliographies generated by a CSL style will be left-aligned when the style requires it
When installing Bookends for the first time, the default font sizes have been increased for better readability
They can be altered in Settings.
The default PubMed.fltr now imports full author first names, not just initials
The filter's note field explains how to alter this and other import options.
Small cosmetic improvements
Fixes
Fixed a cosmetic bug in Copy Citation with Modifiers where the example didn't update when Exclude authors and title was selected.
Fixed a bug in CSL scans where having quoted text at the end of a temp citation wan't handled properly.
Fixed a cosmetic bug in the Copy Citation with Modifiers window example when Mellel is the default word processor.
Fixed a bug where the floating citation window wouldn't be reopened with a Control key double tap after closing it by clicking the red button.
Fixed a bug where the hanging indent setting in formats and styles wasn't honored when scanning Mellel documents.
Fixed a bug that caused unnecessary initializations of CSL styles.
Fixed a bug in Biblio -> Bibliography when using a CSL style where references are meant to be output in their hit-order.
Bibliographies created with a CSL style in scanned Mellel documents will correctly show superscripted and subscripted characters.
Fixed an error that occurred when trying to add a notecard or quote from a PDF in the standalone reference window's Attachments tab.
The smart SQL group Retracted search is case-insensitive.
Fixed a number of cosmetic issues in the display of the results of a Semantic Scholar search.
August 3, 2024
Improved extraction of PDF annotations to individual files
Each file will be named in a fashion similar to temporary citations (e.g. Author, Date, Unique ID; Author, Date, PMID; Content). You select which to use in the extraction configuration window. The maximum length of these automatically generated names will be the same as that of renamed attachments, which is specified in Main tab in Settings. If two or more extraction files have the same name, a number will be added to distinguish them. Previously, each file had a generic name and distinguishing number.
Changes in the selection of formats used to create tempoary citations
Bookends has three built-in configurations for creating temporary citations used by Copy Citation: Content; Author, Date, Unique ID; and Author, Date, PMID. You can also create a format for this purpose. Creating an appropriate format takes a great deal of care, however, and should only by undertaken by experienced users. Previously, Bookends allowed you to select any enabled format, including those intended for creating finished publications, which are inappropriate. To prevent this, in the Scan & Bib section of Settings, Bookends will only offer enabled formats whose names begin with "Temp Cite". If you currently use a format to create temporary citations, please edit its name in the Finder and enable and enable it in the Formats Manager.
Bookends Browser's automatic detection and downloading of PDFs works with more than a thousand additional journals (downloading requires access privileges)
Reference detection on the JSTOR web site has been updated to deal with changes made by JSTOR
Other updates restore importation of reference URLs from JSTOR.org.
Semantic Scholar search results now include the journal's volume number, the article's page range, a link to an open access PDF if available, and an AI-generated article summary, if available
Many small UI improvements
Fixes
Fixed a problem where some attachments with names containing Unicode characters could not be detached via menu commands.
Fixed a crash on launch when running in macOS versions prior to Catalina.
Accented characters in title words will not intefere with preserving the case of words in the "don't change" list in the Settings Scan & Bib tab.
The number of DOIs on a web page that Bookends will try to locate in PubMed has been reduced to 50 to conform with their limitations.
Fixed a problem where the Bookens Browser display of references available for import failed to highlight in yellow the references you already have.
July 6, 2024
Bookends will not open libraries stored in a file-sync service folder such as Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, iCloud Drive etc.
Use Bookends cloud sync, which is faster and safer.
Restrict searches to first author or last author
Live search has options for three different author searches: Any, First, Last.
Improvements in Autocomplete Paper reference discovery and identification
If the Title field of a PDF's metadata has content, Bookends will check to see if it is likely to be accurate, and if so will automatically insert it into the Title or Any Text field. If there is more than one match, Bookends will use this information to rank the most likely matches at the top of the list rather than in the order they were returned. Note that not all PDFs have title metadata and, if they do, have entries that do not exactly match the actual title of the paper and will therefore not be used.
If a DOI is used when Autocompleting a paper, search terms in any other field will be ignored
DOIs are unique identifiers, adding additional search items such as the title cannot help and may actually result in a failure to find a match.
Imported EndNote XML Types Letter and Unpublished Manuscript are mapped to the Bookends Letter and In Press Type, respectively
Improved handling of potential punctuation conflicts in final citations when scanning using Cited Pages
Selecting text in a locked PDF will bring up the annotation popover window with markup options disabled
This allows you to copy a deep link, import to notecards, etc. even when you cannot modify the PDF itself. Previously, the annotation popover would not appear if the PDF was locked.
Term Lists will not include content from references in the Trash
Cosmetic tweaks
Fixes
Fixed a problem where adding a duplicate reference via AppleScript and Quick Add resulted in an error.
Fixed a crash that occurred when uploading two libraries to the cloud in the same session.
Bookends will attempt to resolve iCloud sync errors silently and only report them to the user if that fails.
Creating a subject bibliography when scanning a Word document works again.
Fixed a bug where manipulating a Term List in the standalone window while the same Term List is also showing in the library window.
June 1, 2024
The Library of Congress joins Google Books as a source for ISBN searches in Autofill From Internet and Quick Add
This applies to both text and barcode searches. Your preferred souce can be specified in the Settings Internet tab. If the ISBN is found in the first site the search stops, otherwise the second site will be searched. Bookends uses Books ISBN.fltr to determine which tags are imported and into which fields the metadata will go.
When you perform a Quick Add or Autofill From Internet with a DOI, Bookends will try to obtain the metadata from PubMed first
If it is not available on PubMed, Bookends will use Crossref. PubMed has richer metadata and includes the abstract, PMID, and PMCID.
Updated Journal Glossary with new features
The search field is now a filter, and only journals that have a match in any column are shown. Four search options can be selected via a click on the magnifying glass: Match Contains, Match Begins With, Match Whole Word, and Exact Match. Attempts to enter a non-unique abbreviation will trigger a prompt asking you to enter another. Right-click and select Add to add a new journal or Delete to remove the selected journal. Other UI improvements.
The formatted reference pane is instantly updated when you change the output format or style using Biblio -> Default Format & Output Style
Create hypertext links that display the linked object's citable name
If you right click or double-tap the link trigger key (Control is the default) when editing a field in which text is not selected, Bookends will offer to use the author-date citation of the targeted reference or the name of the targeted group as the link text. In the former case, you will see an editable preview of the link text. As before, if text is selected when you create the link it will be used as the human-readable text.
Rate selected references via a right-click contextual menu
This allows you to set ratings for a group of references with one action.
Fixes
Fixed several issues where incorrect punctuation was inserted when a non-BibTeX format was used and the markup style was set to BibTeX.
Fixed a bug where the bibliography wasn't added to a scanned LibreOffice .odt file.
Fixed a bug in formatted references containing hypertext links that caused them to fail in Word.
Barcode scanning requires macOS 10.15 Catalina, and will not be offered as an option when running in an earlier OS version.
Fixed a bug where some PDF attachments whose file names contain accented characters could not be detached in the attachment display pane.
Fixed a bug where the wrong font size could be shown in the Settings pop-up menu.
Fixed a problem with downloading PDFs from some sites accessed via OVID.
Fixed the reference list right-click Show With Chapters option.
Fixed a bug that prevented Live Search from matching certain special characters within quote marks.
May 4, 2024
Barcode scanning
You can use your device's camera (Mac or iOS) to scan ISBN barcodes and import books and cover art. To do this, perform a Quick Add and click on the barcode scan icon at the upper right. A window showing the camera's field of view and containing a popup menu listing the available cameras will open. Hold the book's barcode in front of the camera. If an ISBN is detected and found in Google Books, the metadata and cover art will be shown in a dialog window. If the book was correctly identified, click the Import button to add it to your library. If the book is already in your library, the metadata will be highlighted in yellow and a link to the existing reference will appear. If you want to scan more than one book in a session, tick the "Scan multiple books" checkbox. Note that Bookends uses Google Books as its source, and some legitimate ISBNs may not be found or may match with the wrong book (or version of the book). In such cases you can copy the ISBN with a right-click on the dialog and search for it in your browser. Barcode scanning requires macOS 10.15 Catalina or later.
Automatic initiation of cloud sync for new libraries
When you create an empty library, Bookends will offer to sync it for you. If you decline, you can still sync it later via the cloud pop-up menu. If you don't want to see this dialog when you create new empty libraries, tick the "Don't Ask Again" checkbox.
Create multiple timestamped library backups automatically and on-demand
The frequency of automatic library backups and the maximum number of backups per library are specified in Settings. The options are Daily, Every Other Day, Every Third Day, Weekly, and Never. When a backup is performed, Bookends will Verify the database's integrity and, if it passes, save a copy to a library-specific subfolder in /Username/Library/Application Support/Bookends/Backups/. The file will be zipped (compressed), and its name will contain the date and time it was created. When the number of backups for a particular library exceeds the maximum allowed, the oldest will be moved to the Finder Trash. You can also create a backup on demand using File -> Backup Now. A notification will report its success or failure. Previous versions of Bookends used the Backup folder to store one backup per library. If you have such a folder, each file in it will be moved to its library-specific subfolder and handled as above.
New backup menu selections. File -> Backup Library has two submenus
Backup [Library Name.bdb] Now makes an immediate verified backup to the library-specific subfolder. Show Backup Folder in Finder takes you to the current library's backupsub folder. If one hasn't yet been created, you'll be taken to the Backups root folder.
Added Cited By and Cited In toolbar buttons
These provide convenient access to these Inspector functions. Right-click on the toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar to add one or both.
The date part separator for SQL searches is a slash (/), regardless of the OS language settings
This means that the default searches for references added or modified in a particular interval of time (e.g., in the last 2 weeks) will work regardless of your local language settings. Note that users who have modified SQL smart searches by changing the date to 01-01-1904 or 01.01.1904 will need to return them to the factory default 01/01/1904.
Fixes
Fixed a cosmetic bug in full screen view when the PDF display pane contained an image.
Fixed an error caused by double clicking on an empty reference list while the Inspector was open.
Fixed a hard crash that could occur when pressing Command-C while the PDF annotation popover was open.
Fixed a Rebuild error that could occur if a PDF that had been Wi-Fi synced had an apostrophe in its name.
Bookends will not attempt to open the recently used library if it was moved to the Finder Trash since last use.
The text size of format-generated Summary content will be that specified in Settings. Fixed the font size list options in Settings.
April 6, 2024
Halt PDF downloads when importing many references at once (batch downloading)
The download progress window now has a Stop button in additon to Skip. This may be useful if, for example, Internet access is slow or you have mistakenly triggered the search and download process for many references at once.
Updated Journal Glossary
The Journal Glossary window is no longer modal and follows the conventions of nomal document windows, including Command-S to save and Command-W to close. Use a right-click contextual menu to remove a journal. Clicking the plus button to add a journal creates an empty row for you to fill. Move from column to column by pressing Tab (forward) or Shift-Tab (backward).
Edits to a journal glossary will take effect immediately
Previously this required an app relaunch.
Search all fields or individual database fields (e.g. Authors, Title, etc.) while using Floating Citations
Click on the search field magnifying glass to select a specific field.
A right-click on controls in the library window will open the appropriate contextual menu even when it is in the background
Change the font size of the Summary pane via a right-click contextual menu
The same size will be used for notecards.
Bookends will not let you create a new library in a file sync folder (e.g. Dropbox, iCloud Drive, etc.)
Such services can corrupt databases. Synchronization should only be done by Bookends cloud sync, which syncs the data, not the file.
More information in provided when checking for updates
Cosmetic improvements
Fixes
Fixed a bug where PDFs imported from the watch folder weren't renamed if they were attached to an existing reference.
Fixed a bug in the Journal Glossary window were Edit -> Paste did not insert text into the search field or list cells.
Fixed a bug when attaching multiple PDFs at once where a PDF could be attached to the wrong reference.
A question mark at the end of an imported title will be preserved.
Removed mentions of the Web of Science from the UI.
Fixed a bug when using a CSL style where only the first initial was output when the authors name contained two or more initials in a row.
March 9, 2024
Citation Style Language (CSL) style support
CSL styles are analogous to Bookends formats — templates that describe how reference metadata should appear in citations and bibliographies. Individual styles are available from the CSL project, Zotero.org, and other online sources. Their content cannot be viewed or edited in Bookends, but there are apps and online sites where this can be done. As a rule, we recommend that you use Bookends native formats rather than CSL styles. Formats are faster, easily and endlessly configurable, and have many useful capabilities unavailable in CSL styles. CSL styles, on the other hand, are not easily created or edited, may yield imprecise results because not all Bookends and CSL fields are equivalent, and have no Bookends-specific functionality. Having said that, if you need a format that isn't included with Bookends and can't find another that fulfills the bibliographic requirements and don't want to create one yourself, you may find a CSL style that meets your needs. There are some Bookends-specific features for which CSL styles cannot be used: renaming attachments, generating citekeys, and creating a format catalog.
Download and install CSL styles within Bookends
Use Biblio -> Find & Import CSL Style to download CSL styles from the Zotero Style Repository. Style files will be imported into the Custom Formats folder and enabled for use. You can install and enable CSL style files you already have by dropping them on the library window. Alternatively, you can move them in the Finder to the Custom Formats folder and enable them in the Formats Manager.
Upgraded database engine
Libraries created or opened in Bookends 15 or later cannot be opened by older versions. When you open a library made with an older version, Bookends will offer to create a backward-compatible copy with the same name plus the word "previous", then proceed to update the database and open the library. The backward-compatible copy will be created in the same folder as the library.
Improved PDF annotations
A sixth color option has been added, and underlines will have the color that is selected in the annotation popover. If "no color" is selected, the underline will be red.
Customize the punctuation that separates multiple grouped citations in the final scanned result
In addition to the factory-supplied citation separators available via a pop-up menu, you can use any combination of punctuation and spaces you indicate in the format's Citation Options -> Common Settings tab. This applies to author-date and custom citations.
Improved journal glossaries
The UI for entered and editing journals has been updated, and the speed of journal name retrieval is much faster.
Added a new journal glossary: Medline
This glossary, which contains over 19,000 journals, replaces the Concise Medline glossary, which contained only 830. If you have been using the factory default Concise Medline glossary, please reset the selection in Windows -> Journal Glossaries to Medline.gloss.
The height of the Abstract viewing area in the Citation Inspectors and the My Publications window is adjustable
The database .journal file is now kept in Application Support -> Bookends
This file, which records database transactions and is used to restore them in case of a crash, was previously created in the same folder as the library, which caused clutter and confusion as to its purpose.
The About Bookends window has been refreshed and contains more information
If a Crossref DOI search returns an article number instead of page number, the article number will be imported into the pages field
The Web Of Science direct search filter has been removed
Use Bookends Browser to search and obtain references instead.
Fixes
Multiple temp citations in a group will be separated by semicolons when created for Mellel, regardless of how this is specified in Settings.
Fixed a renaming bug when adding a format by drag and drop, the format already exists, and Keep Both is pressed.
Bookends will not strip a trailing hyphen from DOIs and URLs on import.
Fixed an infinite error loop that could occur when viewing the note stream of a corrupted PDF.