We have just posted one of the final beta versions of Sente 6, including the last new feature for this release: PDF markup.
When you open a PDF in a single reference tab, you can highlight text or a region (just like previous versions) and you have the choice of:
1) creating a note from the selection (like earlier releases), or
2) highlighting the text selection (or boxing a region selection), or
3) doing both at once
This is obviously a limited subset of what Preview or Skim offer for PDF markup, but we suspect that these are among the most commonly used markup commands.
One of the nice aspects of doing the PDF markup in Sente is that, at least for PDF stored in the library bundle, the markup is synchronized across all copies of the library. So if you have a synchronized library, any markup performed on any copy will automatically appear in all copies shortly thereafter. (Because of the size of a PDF file, changes are synchronized only when the single-reference tab is closed; this helps limit the amount of data being sent back and forth between computers.)
The markup that Sente adds to a PDF is compatible with Preview, but not Skim. (Skim uses a non-standard method for storing annotations on a PDF file.)
We think having attachments synchronized across computers is pretty cool, and replicating markup is, well, even cooler. Try out the beta and see what you think.
Michael
It's great to see you moving in this direction. However, I have a few questions/issues. All of this should be prefaced by the disclaimer that I haven't much used the Notes function in Sente before.
John
Hi, I've been testing the beta for some time now. I should say that I am not currently a Sente user. From my perspective, the following points currently keep me and my group from switching to Sente (which is otherwise quite attractive):
- Notes (annotations) collapse each time you restart the program (very annoying, why is this? I need to see all my notes in the customized view right away without further clicking). The desired behavior would be that Sente remembered whether the notes were collapsed or expanded (as it does with Collections) and also syncs this over the network. Or at least include an option to by default expand all annotations.
- There is no easy and quick way (double-click or a single mouse click on a button) to open a PDF in my favorite application (e.g., Adobe Acrobat)
- I cannot see all the collections that my reference/PDF is contained in in the customized view in the right column. Although there is a field "collection" this does not return the collections contained.
- It should be possible to assign star ratings with a single click on the stars themselves (e.g. as in iTunes), not just through the context menu
- It should be possible to flag a document (put small flag in front of document as a reminder)
- The colour coding in Sente is nice. However, a big limitation is that the user is forced to use the pre-defined categories "get full text" etc. - I doubt that these categories correspond to the workflow of the majority of users. Desired behavior: User-definable colors and category labels.
- There is no fulltext search in PDFs (Spotlight type of search)
If all of these points were addressed, I would very likely adopt Sente as the reference manager for my research group. The networking / syncing capability is a killer feature much desired by us!
I think the issues mentioned are mostly usability related or related to providing the user with a quick workflow and not so hard to implement. But addressing them would mean a big improvement for me and I think other users too.
All the best, and I think you are on the right track with Sente 6. For us, not reference but PDF management is what counts and Sente 6 has improved significantly in that area.
Marc
@marc
In answer to your 2nd comment:
"There is no easy and quick way (double-click or a single mouse click on a button) to open a PDF in my favorite application (e.g., Adobe Acrobat)
"
If you double-click on the tiny document icon in the library view, it will open the pdf of the reference in your default pdf viewer.
I set Preview as my default PDF viewer in Finder, so double-clicking takes me to the document in Preview.
I have not yet tested whether, if I marked the document with Notes,the notes would be saved in the Sente version of the pdf.
@marc
"I cannot see all the collections that my reference/PDF is contained in in the customized view in the right column"
If you open a new tab for a given reference, in the bottom left corner of the tab, there is a 'folder' button. If you click on it, it will show you in which collections the reference is placed.
' It should be possible to assign star ratings with a single click on the stars themselves (e.g. as in iTunes), not just through the context menu'
I guess it's a bug in the beta. In Sente5 it works as it should
'It should be possible to flag a document (put small flag in front of document as a reminder)'
Workaround: I have a special keyword I use for papers I want to give more attention to. You could use a quicktag "Flagged"...
'The colour coding in Sente is nice. However, a big limitation is that the user is forced to use the pre-defined categories "get full text" etc. - I doubt that these categories correspond to the workflow of the majority of users. Desired behavior: User-definable colors and category labels.'
The Status labels in Sente5 are user-defined. Those that you find with a brand new install of Sente6 are just demonstrative labels. I think they will be back to user-defined as soon as the ThirdStreeters iron out the Beta.
Fulltext Search: If enough of us will ask for it... On the other hand, I would prefer some smart solution to present both reference and full text searches without interfering with each other.
silvo
@marc
- I cannot see all the collections that my reference/PDF is contained in in the customized view in the right column. Although there is a field "collection" this does not return the collections contained.
Tags (along with automatic smart collections) may be a more powerful classification alternative to static collections in Sente 6 — just a thought. Be sure to check out the tags video. I think the team at Third Street Software has responded to the fact that a lot of scientific and other academic users work with deeply nested classification hierarchies, and have designed tags to be more flexible than static collections in this regard. For example, if you put a reference into 2 collections, one nested 5 levels deep and the other 6 levels deep, then all the parent, etc. collections are also applied, so now the reference is contained in 11 collections! With a tag hierarchy, when you assign those two nested tags, the superordinate tags are "implied" and get highlighted in blue in the tag (er, "QuickTags) palette, but you can later un-assign one of those tags without leaving the reference orphaned in those superordinate categories as was the case with static collections. I'm looking forward to switching over, though of course YMMV.
- It should be possible to assign star ratings with a single click on the stars themselves (e.g. as in iTunes), not just through the context menu
You can do just that in the reference editor that shows rating (the default one is "Rating, Status,...", but you can customize a view to show rating along with any combination of other summary or non-summary fields you want). I suspect you mean, however, assigning star ratings in the Reference Table itself, which would indeed be nice.
- It should be possible to flag a document (put small flag in front of document as a reminder)
I'd like this too, although I guess that's what Status labels are all about, i.e., instead of one "Follow-up" mark, you can create a "Follow-up" status plus any number of additional statuses ("Follow-up today," "Follow-up next week," etc.) which brings us to...
- The colour coding in Sente is nice. However, a big limitation is that the user is forced to use the pre-defined categories "get full text" etc. - I doubt that these categories correspond to the workflow of the majority of users. Desired behavior: User-definable colors and category labels.
Already available. Those pre-defined status labels are just examples offered as a starting point. Go into Setup > Statuses and you'll be able to define any number of your own statuses, assign them colors of your choice, delete the pre-defined entries if they're not helpful, etc.
- There is no fulltext search in PDFs (Spotlight type of search)
Totally agree! Seems that it may be coming: Sente 6 allows Spotlight indexing of references and attachments (Setup > Spotlight) although that seems (so far) to be just for Spotlight searching in the Finder. Sente should tap into that Spotlight index and allow searching by PDF content under its Find command. But *optionally*, please, perhaps as another choice in the Find menu (i.e., the scope menu in the Find field) like "Search full article content too." Otherwise, Find may often end up being too inclusive to the point of uselessness, especially as terms will now be found even in articles' reference sections.
Hope these tips help you get acquainted with Sente.
Mark
P.S. Re "YMMV" — is there an international equivalent for a largely metric world? ;-)
Thank you everyone for your quick and detailed responses! I have indeed missed some features there.
But why did I not see them?
I didn't notice the "Setup" section in the left pane but rather expected all settings to be located under Preferences. This would seem more logical to me. Ok, I get the point, it is supposed to be a library-specific setting, not a general setting. Still, the left pane is a very uncommon place for any settings. Conforming to common expectations is always important in an interface. But at least the option is there :-)
Btw, I just noticed that changing the text of a status label removes the label from all references. Is this the intended behavior? I guess people could be shocked if this happened in a library with many labeled references !?
The "open PDF in external program" feature is actually easy to use - if you know how. For me, this works fine now but how is the average user supposed to ever find out about this? More likely, he will conclude the functionality is not there. I would consider implementing the functionality either in a more obvious way (e.g., separate button at the bottom next to the search loupe) or to offer a setting to let the user choose what happens when double clicking the whole line. I guess most users will either want to use Sente-internal markup only or external program markup only.
@silvvv: "If you open a new tab for a given reference, in the bottom left corner of the tab, there is a 'folder' button. If you click on it, it will show you in which collections the reference is placed."
I noticed that. But it is too complicated that way. I was rather thinking of a straightforward way to see all collections the document is contained in, much the same way that a display of all tags can give you a quick first impression of the content of a document. I currently use Yep for my scientific papers (not a reference manager but very good at tagging and some other things). That program displays all tags associated with a document in the right pane for the document currently selected in the middle pane. I know, Sente 6 can do the same with tags, but why not with collections, too? The benefit would be to be able to use a hierachical folder structure (collections) while still being able to get a quick first impression of the document.
Or maybe I actually didn't get the concept Sente 6 tries to follow here. People are supposed to use collections AND tags at the same time, right? Isn't that a bit complicated? What for would I use a collection, and what for a tag? hmm.... @Marc: I understand your point on deeply nested tags... Still, I would like to have at least the possibility to see all collections the doc is contained in in a more straightforward manner (i.e., in the right pane). What is the purpose of the "collection" field in the right pane anyway?? Anyone? You can type something there and the typed stays. But it seems to be unrelated to the collections in the left pane.
@Mark: Concerning star ratings: I didn't notice it's possible to click on the stars and change the rating in the reference editor pane. That's a good workaround. Still, in other Mac programs, the same can be done in the file column (reference table).
I guess, after all your explanations, the only remaining real showstopper for me is the annotations constantly collapsing in. It is so essential for me to see them at first glance. I often use the up/down arrow buttons to go through a number of documents (say, 20 docs) and I find the right one by quickly scanning the comments I left behind (often a long time ago). This is not possible if I need to click on each single comment's arrow to see the comment. Also, my collegues (in a potential future networked / synced environment) should see all comments made by others right away. If the comments are not visible at first glance, they will often be overlooked. I just know that this will happen.
--> @Third Street: My strongest (and easy to implement) feature request! Sente should remember the open/closed state of comments or show them all opened by default. Indeed, this is what currently keeps me/us from switching, so consider implementing it being rewarded with $250 (academic workgroup licence) and a new Sente disseminator ;-)
.. oh right, and fulltext PDF searching from within the program would be very nice too!
All the best,
Marc
I know this post is over a year old, but I wanted to reiterate that " Sente should remember the open/closed state of comments or show them all opened by default." This is crucial for me as well, and I can't imagine it would be too difficult to implement.
Like Marc, I need to be able to visually scan my notes. If I knew this were possible, I would purchase Sente immediately as it does everything else I want!