Bookends for Mac

Smart groups can now include searches performed by other smart groups

• Previously, they could only include the contents of static groups.

Use a format to create custom names for files containing extracted PDF annotations and notes

• This option is enabled if you are saving one file per reference, and allows you to generate file names relevant for the reference's content. You can use any format whose name begins with the words "Extraction File". The name will conform to the constraints, such as length and use of underscores for spaces, that apply to renamed attachments in Settings. This option should only be used by experienced users.

New AppleScript command to sync a library

• Cloud sync must be set up and configured as usual. Once done, you can use the AppleScript command "sync library" to initiate the sync. If the library window isn't named, the frontmost library will be synced. You might use this, for example, if you want to sync the database before using an AppleScript to save a linked BibTeX or CSL-JSON file. It will not change the UI. Changes, if any, will be reflected when the UI is refreshed by some user action.

ISBN Quick Add ISBN has been updated to work with changes made by Google Books

Add "associated keywords" to a reference

• If you right-click in the keywords field, a hierarchical menu will include the option Add Keywords, which lets you select from a list of all keywords in your library. This release includes a smarter way to select keywords, one that takes into account whether the keyword is known to be associated with the one(s) already in the reference. To do this, Bookends searches the library for all references that contain all of the keywords in to the selected reference. Any other keywords those references contain are "associated". If any are found, the Add Keywords hierarchical menu will have two parts: the top will contain the associated keywords, the bottom will contain all keywords. Take this simple example: if a reference has the keyword "dog", and another reference has the keywords "dog", "cat", and "goldfish", right-clicking on the first will offer "cat" and "goldfish" as associated keyword options. Associated keywords are particularly useful, because with them you can create consistent groups of keywords that let you define exactly which references belong in the same cohort.

If a displayed PDF is synced from Bookends on iOS or another Mac, Bookends will show the changes when the reference is selected again (refreshed)

• Previously, the changes would appear only after a different PDF was displayed and then the original reference was refreshed.

The first row of an exported tab-delimited file will contain the field labels

• The labels will be that of the default Type. This should make it easier to understand the data in a spreadsheet or other app. If re-imported to Bookends, the first row will be ignored. Which metadata are exported, and their order, may change from one version of Bookends to the next, so reimporting is only guaranteed to work if you export/import from/to the same version.

Updated all AI functions to work better with changes introduced in the macOS 26.4 Tahoe Foundation Models

• They may improve the performance in earlier versions of macOS 26 Tahoe as well.

Increased the timeout limit for fetching data from OpenAlex

• OpenAlex provides the cited in, cited by, and times cited information, among others. Although usually quite responsive, on occasion it can be slow. Increasing the timeout limit means that Bookends will wait longer for the reply before terminating the request.

Fixes

• Using a format when renaming attachments works again.
• Fixed a bug in Autofill from a PDF using AI when a PMID was found.
• Modified how edit pane fields are sized to try to address rare reports that they were not drawn correctl.
• When attaching in batch and a PDF belongs to an existing reference that already has a PDF attachment, the PDF will be left in place and not moved or copied to the default attachment folder.