Bookends for Mac

New Smart Folder behavior

• Previously, smart folders were simply folders that had a built-in default search, which is the equivalent of a normal folder containing one smart group. Selecting it would perform that search as well as those of its subitems. With this release, smart folders have a new and more useful logic. When selected, a smart folder will perform only its built-in search and not those of any subitems. If you select a subgroup or subfolder inside the smart folder, that item's search will be executed plus the smart folder's search. You can nest anything inside a smart folder: static groups, smart groups, SQL smart groups, folders, and even other smart folders. If you have one smart folder nested inside another, selecting one of its subitems automatically adds the searches from both smart folders in the hierarchy. As always, the "multiple selection search" right-click option tells Bookends to do an AND or OR search when multiple groups/folders are involved. When you select a subitem in a smart folder, any smart folders higher up in the hierarchy will be highlighted in a gray that is a bit lighter than that of the selected item. This is done to remind you that Bookends is combining the selected item's search with those of the indicated smart folder(s).

Import references from an existing bibliography using Apple Intelligence

• Bookends has two means of importing references from an existing bibliography, but both rely on unique identifiers like a DOI or PMID. Now there is a third option that uses Apple Intelligence to extract and import metadata from any source, including books, dissertations, and articles that don't have a unique identifier. To do this, use File -> Import Existing Bibliography -> Using Apple Intelligence and paste the bibliography into the ensuing window. When the Extract button is clicked, the bibliography will be submitted to Apple's local on-device LLM for processing and a list will be populated with the results. The process is slow, but it is non-blocking and you can continue working as it progresses. Selecting an extracted reference shows you exactly what was submitted to the AI and, below that, the details of what was extracted. The results can be edited to correct mistakes. When satisfied, select the references you want to import (Command-A to select all) and either click the Import button or drag and drop them onto a Bookends library window. Note that Bookends tries to identify and submit individual references to the AI, but this relies on heuristics that can fail. If that happens, the text will be submitted to the AI in unparsed blocks of text. Finally, remember that although using Apple Intelligence can save a lot of time and effort, it may miss some data, misinterpret some data, and even hallucinate and give results that weren't in the original text. Requires a Mac capable of using Apple's on-device LLM and macOS 26 Tahoe or later.

Automatically Autofill references extracted by Apple Intelligence after import if they contain unique identifiers

• This can be very useful because metadata from online sources is usually of better quality and more complete than that extracted by the AI. Automatic Autofill works with references extracted from web pages, PDFs (Autocomplete), and existing bibliographies. It is enabled or disabled in Settings -> Metadata (enabled by default).

Use Apple Intelligence to suggest keywords

• There is now an Apple Intelligence button to the right of the keywords field in the edit pane. If the reference has a title and abstract, clicking on it will bring up a popover that displays a list of the suggestions. If the reference already has a keyword that matches a suggestion, it will be listed but disabled. If a suggested keyword is already in the global Keywords term list, a checkmark will appear in a second column. These keywords are especially useful because their use helps create a coherent global keyword architecture. If a suggested keyword is close to but not exactly what you want, you can slowly click on it twice to edit it before importing. An Add button lets you import the selected words to the reference's keywords field. Requires a Mac capable of using Apple's on-device LLM and macOS 26 Tahoe or later.

Any whitespace, such as a trailing space, will be removed when items are added to Term Lists

• This means that when two entries that differ only in that one has trailing whitespace and one does not, both will be found if you perform a search or replace in a Term List.

Remove a reference from multiple groups at once

• When you are in a static group and select a reference, pressing Delete or choosing the right-click menu option Remove from Group deletes it from that group. Now, if the selected reference is present in other static groups, you will be presented with a list from which you can mark which groups to modify (only the group you are in is marked when the list first appears). This option will not be available if you have selected more than one reference to remove.

Auto-sync linked BibTeX/CSL-JSON text files when a library opens

• This option can be enabled in the Settings BibTeX tab. The file can also be updated at any time using File -> Sync Linked BibTeX/CSL-JSON file (Shift-Command-L).

New AppleScript command to sync a linked BibTeX or CSL-JSON text file

• The command "sync linked file" will initiate the sync. It will return false if a sync file doesn't exist or can't be found, otherwise it returns true.

Google Books searches have been restored

• They were broken because of changes made by Google.

Populating the note stream with PDF annotations is much faster

• The more annotations you have, the more obvious the improvement.

The badge value for the number of references a smart group contains is now cached

• This prevents the UI from bogging down when you have are showing smart group badges and there are hundreds of smart groups that need to be updated. The caching is temporary, so after a short interval following the last update, when the groups pane is next refreshed the number of references per smart group will be recalculated.

Bookends will remove the comma when a formatted title ends with ?, or !,

The automatic backup function is now threaded, which means you'll gain access to the library more quickly while the backup is being made

There is a new factory-supplied format, Ref with Abstract & Link

• This format outputs the reference title as a hypertext link that points to the reference. It may be especially useful when used in conjunction with Edit -> Copy Formatted to insert the results into your word processor. This format can also serve as a template to be reconfigured to suit your specific needs.

UI improvements

Fixes

• The reference list sort direction is remembered between launches.
• Bookends will now collect file tags from PDFs in ad hoc attachment folders on launch, not just the default folder and subfolders.
• Newly added folders in Bookends for iOS are properly synced via Wi-Fi.
• Bookends will present a clearer error message with instructions on how to proceed if you exceed your quota on iCloud Drive while syncing.
• Sorting by a reference list column that contains numbers will once again use their natural order, meaning that 5 will sort before 10.