CORINNA  Bookends can be a great time saver after climbing the learning curve. My only wish is that it were more tightly integrated with NeoOffice. You can scan RTF documents created in NeoOffice, but this doesn't allow me very much control. I have started using Mellel mostly due to better integration with Bookends. When your biblio software causes you to change word processors, that's a hint that your biblio software is pretty important.   
(Version 10.4.4)

CTURNER  I have kept up with Bookends updates for a number of years now. It gets better and better, with lots of customization now that can adapt to the needs of academic researchers. Excellent use of incorporating PDF documents linked to references. A long list of academic/medical servers for downloading references, or you can easily create your own and use the embedded Search for online work. I use Nisus Writer Pro with Bookends and they work very well. Also, Scrivener is a good addition to this workflow. I've found the developer of Bookends to be very responsive and the forums are very active. I have a large database, sub-divided with smart and manual folders and have no problem with speed of input or output.

At this price point and with these features, Bookends is well worth a long look if you need citation and reference help.  
(Version 10.4)

MARTINBB  On the advice of the developer I have rebuilt the database file. This seems to have solved the problem. My thanks to him for the rapid response.  
(Version 10.4.3)

MARTINBB  Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz 1 GB, OS 10.4.11 latest patches.

I downloaded a trial a couple of days ago and imported 15 references from my Endnote library. Bookends "quit unexpectedly" within minutes and has done so several times when attempting to quit the application normally. More seriously, it has just crashed while I was simply moving the pointer from one item in the menu bar to the next. I have also been trying out Sente, and so far it has been completely stable. I haven't yet used the two applications enough to make any other useful comments about them.   
(Version 10.4.3)

KOBADOG  My new macbook pro was a dream...until the day that I discovered that endnote was not compatible with mac office 2008. Never fear....Bookends is here! This program is top notch, and worth every penny. I was easily able to transfer my reference database from endnote (several thousand references), and I've been rolling ever since. I think Bookends is just as cable and more user friendly than endnote, and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. The tech support is excellent as well.  
(Version 10.4.3)

SAMPLER  I owned BookEnds awhile before I started to seriously use it. So, I decided to compare it to Sente before investing a lot of time in setting up my reference data bases (which I link to Devonthink Pro, by the way.)

I found the user experience with BookEnds far superior to that with Sente. In Sente, the main reference window was badly designed and took up too much room for the amount of information it contained. Switching to a reference's notes required clicking on a tiny tab. Just getting around the reference was frustrating. With BookEnds everything was easy.

After a few hours with each app, I made the decision: I've been happy with BookEnds ever since. Every update contains some new refinement. It's clear that Jon is fine tuning his code.  
(Version 10.4.3)

JOELDI  I have used Bookends for almost two years and now have well over 2,000 references in my database. While I've not used other reference manager programs, I am very impressed with Bookends. It is fast, flexible, and very easy to use. A recent upgrade added the ability to link references so that you know what worked cited another, for example. This allows you to move up and down a "stream" of research very quickly. It's awesome! Updates are frequent, but not too frequent that they are annoying. And... the support is superb! Joel  
(Version 10.4.2)

MACSAILOR  This is one of the must have applications on my MBP. Together with Mellel, Bookend has been a really good friend and helper through my studies. The support from Jon has been outstanding. The application is worth every penny!  
(Version 10.4.1)

ODYSSEUS  I think Sente 5 has gone beyond Bookends:

1. Sente appears to have the cleanest, best-designed interface. For example, you can do *all* your work in the main library window - no need to open up a reference window, switch between tabs within that window, etc.

2. Sente is unique in that it doesn't force you to use arcane character codes and field names in order to produce working formats -- it's all done in a graphic interface, with popups and checkboxes.  
(Version 10.0.3)

ODYSSEUS  Bookends is currently the most full-featured bibliography program available for the Mac (others, such as Sente, are close behind, however, and may surpass it in the future), and its developer is obviously very committed to it and updates it very regularly. Version 9 was a miracle of improvements and the developer didn't even charge an upgrade for it from version 8, which is just amazing. Some may disagree, but I and others feel that version 10 is a much more modest change from version 9, but the developer is obviously deserving of his reasonable $29 upgrade fee.

That being said, I have a number of reservations about the program and its developer. First of all, the program itself doesn't feel very responsive, and there are reports from several users that it bogs down with databases of several thousand references or more, even when the cache is increased (and one could argue, why should a cache require manual adjustment?). This may be due in part to the fact that Bookends is written using a development environment and language called RealBASIC, which appears to impose many constraints in terms of how the program "feels" and looks. Indeed, in terms of UI, this program is a far cry from the best-of-breed OS X programs. Furthermore, some of the early UI decisions, such as a non-configurable reference entry window with fixed-size fields that require individual scrollbars or otherwise button clicks to view their entire contents, is becoming a handicap now that the program handles many more fields: in version 10, the reference window had to be broken down into tabs, and as evidenced by a long discussion forum at the Sonny Software site, many users are upset with the limitations that it imposes, such as the move of the "Abstracts" field from the primary to a secondary tab. The developer promises a workaround, but I wonder how long he can keep everyone happy, and there is always going to be a compromise with this approach.

A couple of other notes. The developer of Bookends is also one of the most mercurial fellows I've ever dealt with, and while he is devoted to those who constantly praise him and his program, he doesn't handle criticism very well and even resorts to deleting users' posts and identities from his forums without evidence of bad behavior. However, he himself openly criticizes the competition, namely EndNote, which is bad form. Contrast this with the forums of DEVON Technologies, where I actually mentioned alternatives to DEVONThink Pro; the moderator expressed gratitude at the existence of competition.

For those who criticize EndNote: I too have expressed disappointment with the pace of development, but it's a myth that the company (Thomson Scientific) doesn't care about its customers. First of all, the program has improved much more rapidly under Thomson's direction than it ever did under its original owner, Niles and Associates. Second, users need to remember that the development of a cross-platform application (for Mac and Windows) is a much more complicated affair than a single-platform app such as Bookends. Indeed, because EndNote's user base is so much larger, and includes government clients, EndNote has to comply with complicated regulations such as US Government Accessibility Guidelines that the developer of Bookends can simply ignore. Lastly: while more costly than Bookends, EndNote looks and behaves much more like a well-designed OS X program, it's fast, and it handles thousands of references with aplomb. I've been using EndNote since 1991 (version 1), and I've never had an instance of database corruption, whereas I've observed it several times in the year or so that I've been using Bookends (although I've not yet lost any data)  
(Version 10.0.1)