Papers 2 available

[Prion]

For the academics amongst us there is Papers version 2 out now. It is one of the top reference managment programs on the Mac and finally supports manuscript formatting. So if you are on the lookout for an alternative to Endnote and the like have a look at http://www.mekentosj.com/papers/

[howardtheduck]

I can't seem to find the documentation on this new feature but it doesn't seem to support page numbers... Seem to still be far more science-oriented. Beautiful program, but I think humanists (MLA/Chicago users) really have only two choices: Bookends and Zotero (and the later sadly doesn't work well with Scrivener...)

[ptram]

I guess you should add BibDesk and Sente to the list.

Cheers, Paolo

[Prion]

I admit being addicted to Reference Managers, holding licenses for almost all of them .
Sente is not very good at advertising their product but it is almost infinitely configurable. They also have a synching solution up that has worked flawlessly for the last months and I am eyeing it carefully. Currently my favourite but I am not in the humanities either.

[KB]

I think humanists (MLA/Chicago users) really have only two choices: Bookends and Zotero (and the later sadly doesn't work well with Scrivener...)

Does this help?

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11893&p=90054

[howardtheduck]

Thanks KB. Yes, I think this style used to even ship with Zotero or was available on their site. I think it involves something like "{Derrida, 1995, 23}", but it has a number of unfortunate limitations--If my db has two refs for "{Derrida, 1995}" the scan mecanism has no way to easily disambiguate them. (It really needs a citekey type system, I think). As I recall it also can't work with names with accents, nor can it reliably suppress authors (which last time I looked was a major problem with Sente--author suppression is crucial for MLA style).

[danaleighton]

nor can it reliably suppress authors (which last time I looked was a major problem with Sente--author suppression is crucial for MLA style).

I use APA style, and Sente has a form of author suppression for APA, which is "year only" so a % modifier is inserted: {%leighton 2003} would generate (2003). Obviously that is incorrect for MLA format, and there is no comparable modifier for "page only."

[howardtheduck]

What I find most surprising is that this syntax is virtually the same across Sente and Bookends (for example both use % I think for date only) with one exception: placing a "-" before the author's name (e.g. {-Derrida...) results in author suppression in Bookends.

I brought this to the attention of Sente about two years ago when I was thinking of switching but looks like they still haven't fixed this problem.

[danaleighton]

I brought this to the attention of Sente about two years ago when I was thinking of switching but looks like they still haven't fixed this problem.

I posted a message on their forums last night asking about it. We'll see when or if they respond (whether or not they respond to a question or problem on the forum seems unpredictable). I have pointed the developers toward the Scrivener forums as a model for how good developer support looks in a forum environment. I am ever hopeful they are listening and want to improve their support.

[howardtheduck]

Very true about the Sente forums, and about this place as a great model. Beyond the attentive customer support, here there is a community for writerly-scholarly Mac (and now WIndows and Linux) people that far, far exceeds the parameters of the usual software forum. (Reflections on how, with what, where and when we think and write, for example.)