I'm currently cataloguing my library, and I've noticed a couple of things I don't seem to be able to do: I wondered if anyone could help?
1) If I have entered several books by the same author, although they appear correctly in the alphabetical list, they don't appear in the order of publication. So, for example, if I have 5 books by John Smith, published in 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904 and 1905, they will not appear in that order unless I actually enter them in that order. It would be really helpful if Bookpedia automatically recognised the date of publication. Or am I missing something?
2) A REALLY useful feature to me would be able to multiple highlight a selection of books from the Library and export the list as a text file to use as a Bibliography: is this possible?
Many thanks for any help/advice.
Bookpedia questions...
Re: Bookpedia questions...
1) Bookpedia considers the previously selected columns for the sub-sort. It sounds like date added was the previously selected column after author. To change this select the release column and then the author column again, now when the author matches the release date will be the next sort criteria. The sub-sorting goes 6 columns deep and can be stacked when they are fields that have a high probability of being the same (not the case with release date).
Another possibility is that the author is not exactly the same (one could have a space at the end). To check this select all the books by the author and select "edit book", from under the edit menu. The multiple edit window will come up and the fields that are the same will be filled, the author field should contain the author's name, if this is not the case enter the author to update all the books to the same exact value.
2) Select the books and under the edit menu use "Copy as Bibliography" and paste into any text document that can handle italics (TextEdit). The shortcut is to drag and drop the selection over to a test document while holding down the option key (without the option key, links to the books in Bookpedia are created).
Another possibility is that the author is not exactly the same (one could have a space at the end). To check this select all the books by the author and select "edit book", from under the edit menu. The multiple edit window will come up and the fields that are the same will be filled, the author field should contain the author's name, if this is not the case enter the author to update all the books to the same exact value.
2) Select the books and under the edit menu use "Copy as Bibliography" and paste into any text document that can handle italics (TextEdit). The shortcut is to drag and drop the selection over to a test document while holding down the option key (without the option key, links to the books in Bookpedia are created).
Re: Bookpedia questions...
OK, great, thanks for that.
Answer 1 solves that for me, many thanks. I just needed to play around a little more:)
Answer 2: I have a problem selecting multiple books that are not listed immediately following each other: pressing Shift and selecting only allows me to select a bunch that are together not 'select one, miss two, select one, miss three' etc... how do I do this, please?
Finally, one other thing I don't understand: When I add the date of a book's publication, BookPedia automatically adds a month to that date, e.g Dec 2008, when I only typed in the year. In several cases where I do actually know the month of publication, BookPedia is wrong. Why does BookPedia even add a month at all, and can I turn off this feature?
Answer 1 solves that for me, many thanks. I just needed to play around a little more:)
Answer 2: I have a problem selecting multiple books that are not listed immediately following each other: pressing Shift and selecting only allows me to select a bunch that are together not 'select one, miss two, select one, miss three' etc... how do I do this, please?
Finally, one other thing I don't understand: When I add the date of a book's publication, BookPedia automatically adds a month to that date, e.g Dec 2008, when I only typed in the year. In several cases where I do actually know the month of publication, BookPedia is wrong. Why does BookPedia even add a month at all, and can I turn off this feature?
Re: Bookpedia questions...
Use the command key for multiple separate selections, shift is for a continuous selection from one click to the next.
The way the date fields behaves on the Mac is that they are specific to the second. So when you enter only the year, everything else is assumed to be the present date. However if you are only interested in the year, open Bookpedia's preference and change the date format of release to just "%Y". The date will continue to be stored to the second but only the year will be relevant and displayed. (If you do know the month do type it in, use "Jan, Feb..." to avoid confusion whether it is a day or month).
The way the date fields behaves on the Mac is that they are specific to the second. So when you enter only the year, everything else is assumed to be the present date. However if you are only interested in the year, open Bookpedia's preference and change the date format of release to just "%Y". The date will continue to be stored to the second but only the year will be relevant and displayed. (If you do know the month do type it in, use "Jan, Feb..." to avoid confusion whether it is a day or month).
Re: Bookpedia questions...
Great, many thanks for your patience 