Release Notes

• Current Version - Version 0.80 beta (http) (~ 3.2 MB)
  • Release Notes
  • New features
    • RSS feed output
      • there is now a preference pane for RSS
    • custom cite-strings drawer
      • configure this in the "Citation" preference pane
    • columns are configurable now
      • no longer in the preferences, configure this using the contextual menu of the table.
    • outline view-by-author
      • you need to configure the toolbar and add the "Change View" toolbar item to your toolbar to evaluate this feature
      • NOTE: dragging from the outline only works if you click in the leftmost column.
    • preferences window changed
    • viewing and editing parse errors and warnings now possible from within bibdesk
      • a preference selects whether to automatically show warnings
      • errors are always brought to your attention.
      • click on the error
    • cite-key field won't allow you to type cite-keys that confuse the parser.
  • changes to old ones
    • quicksearch is more flexible
    • some speed improvements in previewing
    • saving preserves file order (for CVS)
    • many GUI tweaks
  • Known Bugs
    • Hitting escape can sometimes close a window without allowing the chance to save its contents.
    • Reconfiguring toolbar items can cause BibDesk to crash when in outline (View by Author) mode.
    • Using .bst files in the local texmf tree may not work
    • Opening the preferences can take a long time occasionally
    • It can still take too long to save - This seems to be a problem with the code for translating between Unicode and TeX accented characters. I will continue to look for the cause of this problem.
    • It's still not very good at dealing with macros. If you use a lot of macros, you might not be happy with BibDesk right now.
• Version 0.71 beta (http) (~2MB, Includes a mini-manual)
  • Release Notes
    • Abstract is actually saved now
    • tex binary path is actually used now
    • preview window remembers if it was showing now
    • now multiple entries can be dragged around.
    • you can peek in on the first page of a PDF file ("peek" in the editor window) to make sure you spell things right.
    • you can change the font the browser uses - look in the preferences.
    • you can change whether you see just the annote or the whole bib in the preview - prefs again.
    • you can clear the quick-search field (handy)
    • there is an auto-check for updates feature now - it's under the prefs menu item, which doesn't have a key equivalent anymore because the old one conflicted with spell-checking.
    • ! - can drag a file from the finder and have it create a new pub
    • ! - drag a file to a pub edit window and it will set the local-url drag a URL (say, from OmniWeb - not IE yet) into the edit window, and it'll set the Url field - drag one pub onto another and it will set the empty fields (synchronize!)
    • specifically, it sets the fields that exist, and are empty - or the fields that don't exist and aren't empty in the dragged pub.
    • some important efficiency and memory leak fixes
    • opening non ASCII filenames now works
  • Known Bugs:
    • It still leaks some memory (surprise!) - I'm working on this. A lot of this is related to the previewing feature, so If you are very concerned with memory usage, turn that off.
    • It takes too long to save - This seems to be a problem with the code for translating between Unicode and TeX accented characters.
    • It's still not very good at dealing with macros. If you use a lot of macros, you might not be happy with BibDesk right now.
    • It's still not good at recovering data from parse errors (it throws out entire entries and doesn't let you edit it without going to an external editor)

• Version 0.7 beta (http) (~2MB, Includes a mini-manual)
  • Release Notes
    • Now it can handle translation of some common 8-bit characters
      • for instance, if you type ü in BibDesk, it will be saved as {\"u}, and when BibDesk reads that in, it will display ü again.
      • there is a dictionary file called CharacterConversion.plist inside the application package if you want to add any conversions. Please send me any additions so I can include them in the next release.
      • The file should be edited using the XML Property List editor from the Developer Tools. (it's in UTF-8 encoding)
    • Complete citation service - major change
      • First, it's in its own menu (in anticipation of more services)
      • it allows searching in keys, not just titles, now:
        • "foo" and "Title = foo" search for "foo" in the title
        • "Author = Baz & Title = foo & Month = Jan" searches for those constraints.
    • GUI changes
      • The edit window for publications now no longer has 'save' & 'cancel' buttons - instead it uses the window close button and marks it as changed if it has been edited, just as in regular documents.
      • to maximize useful window space
      • to provide menu (and key) equivalents for toolbar items
      • windows remember where you put them
    • Drag and drop works between documents now.
      • (dragging into the same document just duplicates it.)
    • There is now a template file, containing some propaganda for me, but it could be useful for you.
      • it's written at the front of every saved file.
      • i've included a macro to show what it could do. see above for how to get macros working
    • you can specify a string to replace "cite" in drag/copy/paste etc...
    • You can add and remove fields from individual entries now
    • You can specify a set of your favorite fields that are included by default on every new publication (and when you open a new file, they'll all get added)
    • To accommodate cross-referenced entries, there is now no output for empty fields.
    • Now the files used for previewing are put in ~/Library/Application Support/Bibdesk/
      • this lets you look at them (and print & copy them) easier
      • but mainly, it allows you to run bibdesk from a directory you don't have write access to.
  • Known Bugs:
    • Edits to the Abstract field are not saved along with the rest of the entry.
    • There are problems opening files that are contained in folders that have non ASCII characters in their names. (this has been fixed in the version under development now)
    • It leaks memory (surprise!) - I'm working on this. A lot of this is related to the previewing feature, so If you are very concerned with memory usage, turn that off.
    • It takes too long to save - This seems to be a problem with the code for translating between Unicode and TeX accented characters.
    • It's still not very good at dealing with macros. If you use a lot of macros, you might not be happy with BibDesk right now.
    • It's still not good at recovering data from parse errors (it throws out entire entries and doesn't let you edit it without going to an external editor)