January 24, 2008
Bibdesk 1.3.13 apparently is superstitious
(Mac Only) Just a quick post today. For those of you who are Bibdesk users and are still using Tiger, a small warning. Bibdesk 1.3.13 appears to break some things. I can’t do a simple drag and drop file addition/auto-filing in 1.3.13. There seems to be some serious changes to the code and new preview windows etc., in the item info screen. These changes are nice, but I can’t live without drag and drop file addition/autofiling and simple click opening of PDFs into preview (or skim). So, I’ve deprecated to 1.3.12 to get back to the working system I had before my update. Hopefully 1.3.14 will fix things. Guess the number 13 was a bad one for Bibdesk.
searching4arcadia 
adam maxwell said,
January 24, 2008 at 2:56 pm
One of the BibDesk developers here. If you find bugs, the best thing to do is file a bug report using the Help menu, so we can be sure they get fixed! It’s quite likely that the latest nightly builds (link on BibDesk’s homepage) fix your problems; the latest one is stable, and the only thing holding up the release of 1.3.14 is an updated localization.
a11en said,
January 25, 2008 at 4:05 am
Hey Adam,
Thanks for dropping in! I love Bibdesk and Skim, BTW. [Bibdesk is my first love, though.] I saw some related bugs in the tracker- particularly the one about having to quit for the added item to be recognized in the preview pane. I was able to get the preview-pane to properly load the pdf I *think* (I’d have to try it again)… but it still didn’t auto-sort and didn’t change the name or allow a local URL addition to the bibitem. I’ll have to check out the latest build and see what it’s like. Glad to hear .14 is in the works. I’ll definitely be checking out that build for sure. [but I’ll still be keeping .12 safely tucked away- it works quite well for me… 🙂 ]
My hat’s off to you guys for your amazing work. Bibdesk is something I tell all my fellow grad-students about!! 🙂
-Allen
Christiaan said,
January 25, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Here’s another BibDesk developer. Version 1.3.14 is out. But your comments actually made me guess it’s not the bugs that gave you problems, but the fact that you did not adapt to the new layout. Fields are not used anymore to link files and URLs, that’s deprecated, so auto-filing won’t work for those anymore. You should use the icon view on the side to link your PDFs instead. It fully supports drag and drop and much more! After a while I’m sure you will appreciate the improved functionality this allows.
rensenieuwenhuis said,
June 29, 2008 at 5:15 am
Just wrote my personal impressions on the combination of BibDesk and SKim (http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl/archive/academic-reading-without-paper-the-bibdesk-skim-duo/) and must say that I just love that combination. Presently at .17, Bibdesk did not give me any of the problems you mentioned, fortunately.
a11en said,
July 5, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Hi Guys!
I wanted to let you know that what I was describing was exactly what Christiaan said it was. It’s not a bug, it’s a change in how BibDesk works.
@Christiaan:
I’ve been able to cope with the new manner of doing things. One thing that’s a bit confusing is the icon for the URL link that used to be there (deprecated as you say, which is correct). It would be wonderful if you could populate that icon with the first pdf (or a selection from the file view)… I used to double-click that icon to open my pdf’s from the main view, as well as instantly tell which citations I was missing a full e-text for. So, now, I can’t have both the detailed view on the items and the pdf view on the items (the icons don’t help me much to be honest… a small icon tells me about as much as a large icon), as well as know which files have pdf’s attached and which don’t.
Just the other day, I went searching high and low for an article I thought I didn’t have, but was actually in the icon view. Just wasn’t showing up in the main view as a mini-icon in the table. [If that description describes this properly.]
I’m sorry I haven’t gotten around to posting this suggestion yet, but it’d be wonderful to allow a user to select a double-click to open pdf from the icon view that populates the mini-icon in the main view for ease of use and determining which articles we have in our library, and which we don’t at a simple glance.
I don’t know if this makes sense.
@rensenieuwenhuis (wow that’s a long name)- Thanks a ton for the post here! I appreciate your readership and link to your page. 🙂 I love your post! Detailed and fantastic images also! Great work, man!! 🙂 [My new blog hopefully will be able to be closer to what you’re able to do there… this one is a bit minimalist…] Love your work and writing!
I’ll re-iterate- I love Bibdesk, and I love Skim! 🙂 Absolutely two wonderful programs!
Chat with you guys soon! And please always feel free to drop in!
-Allen