If Bookends Plus 5.0 offers elegance and simplicity, it also offers flexibility. Not only can we manipulate our data using the Choose option from the floating palette, we can also do a Search. While the Search option is a little slower than the Choose option, the relatively small database I used to implement my search appeared on my screen almost instantaneously. Searching through a much more extensive database would obviously take a little longer, but, given the flexibility of Bookends, this can hardly be considered a drawback.

In many ways the Hits List is the heart of the program. It provides the user with a platform from which to manipulate smaller, more manageable packages of information. From here, it is possible to move through these subsets to select specific references in any one of several convenient ways. All of them are simple to execute and should save a substantial of time for the user. For example, selecting the Choose option from the floating palette (see View 1)activates a menu which will allow the selection of references by identification number (see View 2).

Alternatively, a search by topics or subject matter may be implemented by a simple click on the small icon in the title bar of the Keywords field. This will bring into view a complete Term List of all the keywords and the number of times each has been used in the relevant database (see View 3).

From here the user may identify the subject matter required and then further refine his/her search (see View 4).

This information may be sorted by author, date or title.

The user may search the entire database, or just the Hits List by "word" or "word beginning with." Criteria may be joined logically with AND, OR, and NOT. With a little practice the user should be able to find information with little difficulty.

Information may be entered into the Hits List in yet another way: by using the Marked Button. By simply toggling this button, the user may add or delete any reference required.

Once the references required have been inserted into the Hits List they may be sorted on primary, secondary and tertiary fields.

Formats

The formatting function of Bookends Plus 5.0 is excellent. Anyone who has ever tried to turn authors, titles and page references into a precise and accurate format will appreciate the simplicity of this feature. With this function the user can take the raw data of the references as we have seen them and adapt that information to the specific formats required by individual journals or publishers.

The Bibliography / Format Bank menu item takes us to this screen (View 5).

It contains a list of 100+ pre-defined formats ranging from Advanced Cancer Research through MLAandThe New England Journal of Medicine to Virology. Of course, in keeping with the flexibility of Bookends Plus 5.0, the user may define his/ or her own format, as well as use the Create New Format button on the Bibliography Formatter. Fonts may be changed universally through the Preferences menu.

It is an easy matter to access the Bibliography formatter from the floating palette and from there to enter the View/Edit This Format screen where a large variety of options is presented to us. Let us use the MLA format as a pattern.

In this example (see View 6) references will be arranged in the pattern: author, title, journal, volume and date, page numbers. The appropriate instructions for punctuation and spacing are also included automatically. Authors’ names may be presented in a variety of ways, depending on the selection made in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. In this case, the surname precedes for both the first author or editor and subsequent ones. The user may specify Full Name, Surname Only or Surname Plus Initials and set the punctuation from the Name Options box immediately below. A cursory glance at the rest of the information on the left will reveal further possibilities for inserting punctuation and the use of "et al." The Bib & Document Options offer even more flexibility:

Bookends Plus 5.0 is compatible with all QuickTime 3-supported formats It is possible for the user to attach documents (PICT files, bitmapped graphics, QuickTime movies, etc.) and read them directly from within Bookends. Simply click on the Attach Document button in the upper right-hand corner of the Formatter (Figure 1 above) and select the graphics file to be displayed. Without leaving Bookends, we can view, print or save the document we have just imported.

From the Format bibliography menu we can now create our bibliography and send it either to a window on the screen, or, if it is larger than 30,000 characters (100-200 entries), to a disk where it can be opened in a word processor. If necessary the references now displayed on the screen can be modified without difficulty. This information may now be printed or copied and saved.

Microsoft Word Add-In

One new feature is worth the price of the upgrade: the addition of a Microsoft add-in which allows direct and immediate access to Bookends from either Word 6 or Word 98. Even those who love to hate Microsoft might want to consider using Word again, once they see the convenience of this feature. Again the simplicity of Bookends is evident. Searching, scanning and unscanning are now just a click away. In Word 6 the Tools menu offers the following possibilities: Go to Bookends; Find Citation; Scan Document; Unscan Document. In Word 98, these same choices can also be accessed from a floating palette. Mine now sits in the upper row of my toolbar where it is always at hand.

The user simply enters the flashing cursor where the reference is to go and selects Find Citation from the palette. Citations may be pasted into a document automatically, if desired, as long as this option is turned on in the preferences menu. Now we enter the author’s name, hit the Copy Selected button and all the information necessary for the final formatting is inserted.

When the time comes to scan the document, i.e., to create the final manuscript, the user simply clicks the Scan Document button and selects the format from the dialog box which appears on the screen. Bookends proceeds to do what it does best: Within seconds, there appears a final document in which the temporary citations have been replaced by numbers, and a bibliography-in perfect formatting-has been added. This experience alone is worth the price of the program. Watching Bookends do its work is actually fun! [Er, Don, let's not get carried away! -Editor.]

Of course, further changes may be made to the document after scanning. It can be rescanned, or "unscanned" at the click of a mouse. This latter process allows the user to restore a previously scanned document to its original form.

Control of Subsequent Citations

There is also an interesting new feature which may appeal to Humanists in particular. I refer to the increased flexibility in the use of citations. A secondary citation form, accessed by means of a pop-up menu, allows us to format a reference in a specific way, and then, subsequent to this initial citation, to modify that format. The choices we have are:

• Names same as primary
• Surname only
• Use 'et al'
• Surname only & 'et al'

Other Citation Features

If you are using a format such as Author/Date e.g. (Smith, 1998) you can ask Bookends to replace the temporary in-text citation with the date only by making use of the % symbol. Thus {Smith, 1998; %Smith, 1997; %Smith, GLL, 1995} may appear as (Smith, 1998, 1997, 1995).

Lists have also been enhanced to be more useful, with the number of occurrences shown, and now unlimited numbers of items per list (plus a new, less cluttered approach with one window instead of four).then be rescanned.

Bookends and the Web

Bookends Plus 5.0 will allow the user to publish bibliographies on the Web and allow anyone on any platform to access the database by means of the Internet. These users may then enter and even edit references (password protected, of course) in the original database.

Bookends can also return hypertext references to itself. A click of the mouse will command Bookends to retrieve and then format the desired information. It will return a list of formatted references, each containing a hypertext link to its own abstract. Even images may be retrieved.

At the present time the features associated with this aspect of the program may be better suited to scientists or social scientists than to humanists, but since new reference sources are appearing online almost daily, it won’t be long before humanists, too, will want to take full advantage of the possibilities Bookends 5.0 has to offer in Web browsing.

For the scientific community, in particular, there is improved integration between Bookends and the Web. The user can bookmark reference sites on the Web and later access them directly from Bookends. Useful references may then be transferred directly from the clipboard as we have indicated above. Many scholars will find the ability to import references directly from Evaluated Medline to be a valuable addition to the program.

Do you need information from a particular website for your research? Bookends can take the tedious process of copying and pasting out of your hands forever. Using a web browser, you can access any URL, such as PubMed, which will allow you to search a database for the latest information in your field. Many disciplines offer such databases, although, again, the practice is probably more prevalent in the sciences than in the humanities. In any case, this is the wave of the future and Bookends Plus 5.0 is there. Once the user has accessed the website in question and found the references applicable to the particular topic being searched, the information may be highlighted, copied to the clipboard and imported into a Bookends database with a minimum of fuss.

It is also possible to generate a bibliography in HTML-encoded text. Essential for this process is Web server software such as MacHTTP or WebStar. In addition, of course, the user must have an internet provider which will allow the hosting of a website. By following a few simple steps, the user will access the format required and then enter the Bibliography Formatter. The references which are revealed on the screen will show an HTML format with the name of the journal in italics and the volume number in bold print. This information can then be viewed in a browser:

We have already indicated that one of Bookends’ real strengths lies in its flexibility. It should come as no surprise then, that the user also has the possibility of generating HTML-encoded bibliographies in order to speed up the sending of large amounts of data. The manual offers a clear and concise example of this process.

Other Features

There are other useful features in Bookends Plus 5.0-too many to discuss in detail in this review, but here is a short list of just a few of them. A visit to the Sonny Software website will reveal a host of others.

Bookends 5.0 will:

• use Navigation Services to open and save files (must have Navigation Services installed on the Mac);
• allow virtually unlimited database size;
• "proofread" to eliminate ambiguous scans;
• import references from other sources saved as ASCII files;
• automatically detect duplicate references and removes them automatically or manually;
• allow optional data validation for authors, editors, keywords, journals;
• offers instant on-screen of changes made to bibliographic formats;
• read and write RTF files and preserve styled text (bold, underline, super- and subscript, etc.);
• readily import Cambridge/Medline, Dialog. Knowledge Finder, Medline/Medlars, Silver Platter and STN/Chemical Abstracts;
• do Boolean searches;
• alphabetize authors, editors, keywords in a database;
• and many others.

But it is not only "what" a program can do that measures its value to the potential user. Equally important is "how well" it does job. In this, Bookends Plus 5.0 stands out in two ways: it offers simple and elegant solutions to the tasks at hand, and it is extremely flexible. And it saves time. What more could you ask?