Bookends for Mac
Reference management and bibliography software.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
Bookends overview
Bookends is a full-featured bibliography/reference and information-management system for students and professionals.
- Bookends uses the cloud to sync reference libraries on all the Macs you use. Access the power of Bookends directly from Mellel, Nisus Writer Pro, or MS Word (including Word 2016): Bookends allows you to scan your existing word-processor files and automatically generate finished manuscripts with properly formatted bibliographies. You can also scan Apple Pages '08, '09, and 5, Manuscripts.app, and LibreOffice/OpenOffice 4 files, or RTF files saved from any word processor.
- Bookends allows you to share your references over the Internet with anyone, on any platform. And with Bookends, you can directly search and import references from numerous sources:
- PubMed
- Web of Science
- JSTOR
- Google Scholar
- Amazon
- Library of Congress
- arXiv
- and hundreds of other online sources
- Bookends also offers a robust assortment of file attachment features:
- Attach any file (such as a PDF) to a reference and view or open it instantly.
- Automatically rename and organize PDF files on-the-fly.
- Automatically download and attach the PDF of an article from the Internet if you have access permission.
- Automatically locate and attach PDF's on your hard drive.
- Annotate and markup PDFs and have the information instantly accessible in notecards.
- Sync your library with Bookends for iOS on your iOS devices, so that you have your references and PDF's with you wherever you are.
What’s new in version 15.0.3
- The Library of Congress joins Google Books as a source for ISBN searches in Autofill From Internet and Quick Add. This applies to both text and barcode searches. Your preferred souce can be specified in the Settings Internet tab. If the ISBN is found in the first site the search stops, otherwise the second site will be searched. Bookends uses Books ISBN.fltr to determine which tags are imported and into which fields the metadata will go.
- When you perform a Quick Add or Autofill From Internet with a DOI, Bookends will try to obtain the metadata from PubMed first. If it is not available on PubMed, Bookends will use Crossref. PubMed has richer metadata and includes the abstract, PMID, and PMCID.
- Updated Journal Glossary with new features. The search field is now a filter, and only journals that have a match in any column are shown. Four search options can be selected via a click on the magnifying glass: Match Contains, Match Begins With, Match Whole Word, and Exact Match. Attempts to enter a non-unique abbreviation will trigger a prompt asking you to enter another. Right-click and select Add to add a new journal or Delete to remove the selected journal. Other UI improvements.
- The formatted reference pane is instantly updated when you change the output format or style using Biblio -> Default Format & Output Style.
- Create hypertext links that display the linked object's citable name. If you right click or double-tap the link trigger key (Control is the default) when editing a field in which text is not selected, Bookends will offer to use the author-date citation of the targeted reference or the name of the targeted group as the link text. In the former case, you will see an editable preview of the link text. As before, if text is selected when you create the link it will be used as the human-readable text.
- Rate selected references via a right-click contextual menu. This allows you to set ratings for a group of references with one action.
- Fixed several issues where incorrect punctuation was inserted when a non-BibTeX format was used and the markup style was set to BibTeX.
- Fixed a bug where the bibliography wasn't added to a scanned LibreOffice .odt file.
- Fixed a bug in formatted references containing hypertext links that caused them to fail in Word.
- Barcode scanning requires macOS 10.15 Catalina, and will not be offered as an option when running in an earlier OS version.
- Fixed a bug where some PDF attachments whose file names contain accented characters could not be detached in the attachment display pane.
- Fixed a bug where the wrong font size could be shown in the Settings pop-up menu.
- Fixed a problem with downloading PDFs from some sites accessed via OVID.
- Fixed the reference list right-click Show With Chapters option.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Live Search from matching certain special characters within quote marks.
Bookends for Mac
$74.99
In English
Version 15.0.3
What users say about Bookends
Try our new feature and write a detailed review about Bookends
(92 Reviews of Bookends)
Comments
User Ratings
Aug 11 2023
Version: 14.2.2
I am a journalist on a deadline, and I need to add a considerable number of footnotes and endnotes to a manuscript. I read the reviews and bought Bookends.
I have gone through the video tutorials and read through the users guide and these are my thoughts, take them for what they are:
My book is on an old espionage case that was extremely complex. I would say it's about half as difficult to figure out than Bookends. There is no step by step tutorial for someone unfamiliar with this type of software, no quick start guide to get you through the basics. The tutorial reads like it's written for people who already know how it works.
I don't know if there are better programs out there, but if you are on my level, good with tech but new when it comes to footnote/reference software you risk losing your sanity with this program. In thirty years on a Mac, I don't think I've ever seen a more obtuse application (Scrivener was a snap compared to this). This has me ready to take an Alzheimer's test.
I respect and admire anyone who finds Bookends to be easy. I feel the same way about the creators of it, good for them. For a lot of people this is terrific, but for me, on a deadline, it's a disaster. I keep thinking that according to the Bible, God created the Earth in Seven days. I think even he (or she or they) would be scratching his head after ten days with Bookends.
Jan 15 2022
Version: 14.0.4
I really wanted to use this in combo with Mellel. No dice. Bookends is a non-starter for serious doctoral academics. Pls correct me if this is factually inaccurate - but Bookends does not allow for any importation of necessary style guides - you get what's there, end of. Zotero has them all by default. (Bookends has one Harvard style, when at least 75 exist). If you need a specific style for your university.department, you are forced to suddenly become a code editor to tweak the one that's there --- if I were interested in doing all that, I'd just learn LaTex to begin with. Also: scanning workarounds for citations on a 250,000 word dissertation is not an option when Libre + Zotero do it seamlessly, albeit they are not as good for the word processing. --- When Mellel ("By academics for academics"), Bookends, or both choose to accomodate flexibility and realistic options, I'll gladly try again - and happily pay for the luxury. They are onto something here, I need a viable alternative to MS Word and the other litany of stuff out there - not headaches, endless forum searches, etc. completing my PhD. C'mon folks! There really is a market out there if you want us! peace.
May 24 2021
Version: 13.5.4
tried it recently with Microsoft Word, works seamlessly and make work so much easier 100% recommend
Apr 5 2021
Version: 13.5.3
Wow, finally "Set the font and font size for PDF comments in Preferences" Am legally blind so this is much valued fix.
May 27 2019
Version: 13.2.3
Great app. Use it with my Word docs and works flawlessly. Been around forever.
