Version History

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 10.14 Mojave 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.

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.

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.