We are pleased to announce the beginning of the public beta testing period for Sente 5.

Sente 5 is a major update to the software (the biggest Sente update ever, in fact). Here are the highlights:

GENERAL FEATURES

• Completely re-designed main window. The new main window includes two versions of the reference editor (one horizontal at the bottom of the window, and the other vertical at the right side), which can be set to display two different views of the reference at one time. The new main window also includes a redesigned browser tool, and overall updated look-and-feel.

• Highly-configurable, embedded reference editor. The new reference editor consists of any number of user-definable views, each of which can include any fields, in any order, to make it the most configurable reference editor in any reference manager. And it is designed for easy keyboard navigation to better support people who enter references manually.

• Reference libraries. Prior to Sente 5, all data was kept in what was conceptually a single library. Now, Sente supports multiple libraries, and includes new searching and filtering capabilities across an entire library.

• Trash. Each library includes a Trash collection and all deleted references are automatically placed in this collection, in case you want them back.

• Temporary library. Each time Sente 5 is launched, a library called "Temporary" is created for searches that you may not want to keep around. When you are performing exploratory work, just create the searches in Temporary; when you find references that you want to keep, or search definitions that you like, just drag them into whichever other library you want, where they will be retained. The eliminates the need to delete searches that you do not want hanging around.

• Very large libraries. Sente 5 can now handle very large libraries. In general, you should be able to work with a library several times as large as your current library, with similar or better performance.

• Smart collections (aka, filters) can now be created to consider all of the references in a library, not just those in a particular collection. Find can also be used to locate references across an entire library.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

• Sente 5 will include significantly improved versions of APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard bibliographic formats. In this first beta release, we have begun the improvements to APA and MLA. We will be very actively updating these formats and posting updated versions over the course of the next couple of weeks. We will make it clear in the release notes for upcoming beta versions when we consider each of these formats to be "done" and we will be soliciting detailed feedback at that time.

• More bibliography formatting options. Sente 5 includes new features such as the ability to specify one format for the first time a reference is cited in a document, and one for all successive occurrences. Sente can also now properly distinguish between a single and multiple editors (translators, compilers, etc.). These new features (and others not listed here) were all needed to improve our support for the formats mentioned above.

• Sente 5 can now scan generic RTF documents, properly formatting citations and bibliographies, so it can be used with more word processors than before.

• Citations in footnotes. RTF scanning supports citations in footnotes.

OTHER FEATURES

• Easy web citations. Sente 5 makes it easy to create citations to web pages. Simply drag the URL proxy from the Safari address bar onto the appropriate collection, and Sente will automatically create a new reference for the web page and download an archive version of the page so you will always have an accurate version of the page. (Dragging a URL onto a particular reference still adds that page as an attachment to the reference; the operation here depends on dropping the URL on the collection rather than a reference.)

• Multiple notes per reference. Sente 5 now enables you to add any number of notes to a reference, and each can include page numbers, a quotation from the reference, and your own notes.

• Improved duplicate detection and avoidance. Sente 5 includes improved algorithms for detecting duplicate references. When importing references, a report on duplicates is provided to the user for review to ensure that the correct actions were taken.

• Sparkle. Sente 5 now uses the Sparkle framework from Andy Matuschak for downloading and installing updates.

KNOWN ISSUES

The following issues are already on our list to be addressed before the official release of Sente 5.0:

• The fly-over author editor (in the reference editor) is not dismissed properly if the underlying window is closed;

• The open state of libraries is not remembered from one launch to the next;

• Custom fields cannot currently be shown in the main reference table;

• In the browser, selecting a blank year value will not yield the correct results;

• Bibliography styles such as MLA, Chicago, etc. do not yet include formats for all built-in reference types;

• There is no user manual.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The beta version of Sente 5 can be downloaded here: Sente 5 Beta

Please send feedback and bug reports to feedback@thirdstreetsoftware.com

Sente 5 will automatically obtain a 30-day demonstration license when you first launch it (even if you have used a 30-day demo of an earlier version of Sente before).

When it is officially released, Sente 5 will be free to everyone who purchased Sente 4. People who purchased earlier versions of Sente will be able to purchase Sente 5 at a reduced price.