Version History

Bookends 15.0

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.