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Using Attachments |
BibCompanion can attach an e-mail, an URL and files to a bib item. Those information is stored as normal BibTeX fields of ‘email’, ‘url’ and ‘file’ respectively. You can edit them in the [Links] tab of the detail information panel as shown below.
You can set an e-mail address to the ‘email’ field. When you press the [Create E-Mail] button, the default e-mail software is launched and a new message to the address is prepared.
You can set an URL to the ‘url’ field. You can also set an URL by dragging an address bar icon of web browser to the [Drop URL] button as shown below (only Safari is tested).
When you press the [Open URL] button, the URL is opened by the default web browser. You can also open the URL by choosing [BibItem - Open URLs] menu.
As same as other fields, you can type a file path into the ‘file’ field, but it is not a practical way. Usually, select files/folders in Finder and drop them onto the [Drop File] button as shown below.
The attached items may be copied, moved or aliased, depending on the attachment action settings. There are two cases, the first is dropping one item, the second is dropping plural items. By default, dropped file is copied into the folder named “Attachments” in the database folder, and the path to the copy is set into the ‘file’ field.
Refer to the database properties for more detail. Attachment action setting here is connected to the setting in the database properties, therefore, all changes are reflected each other.
When a file (or files) are dropped on a bib item which already has an attachment, BibCompanion asks you to choose append or replace. If you choose <Append> and existing attachment is a file, new folder is created and existing file moved to the folder, dropped items are copied/moved/aliased into the folder depending on the setting. If existing attachment is a folder, dropped items are copied/moved/aliased into existing folder depending on the setting. If you choose <Replace>, existing attachment is move to the trash and dropped items are processed in normal way.
BibCompanion can show you a small preview of attached files. To open the file view panel, click on a small triangle button at the top right side of the main window. If you select a bib item with an attached file, a preview of the file is shown in the file view panel as follows.
Only PDF files and image files can be previewed, otherwise, file icon will shown as a preview. You can not zoom the preview, however, you can change the width of the panel by dragging the drawer width handle. The panel height is defined from that of the main window. The preview is expanded as large as possible to fit in the panel. When you double click on the file view panel, the previewed file is opened by its default application.
You can change pages of a PDF file using [Page Up/Down] button, page navigator or scroll wheel of a mouse (if you use a scroll wheel mouse). If plural files are attached, [Prev/Next File] button navigates you to other files. In addition, you can use a context menu shown by pressing <ctrl-click> (or right mouse button if possible) on the preview panel. The order of files are defined by their names (sorted by alphabetically). If the linked folder contains a nested folder, contents of the included folder will not appear in the file list.
In addition to double clicking on the preview, you can also open an attached file by choosing [BibItem - Open Attachments] menu or click the [Open File] button in the links tab. Those opens an attached folder by Finder if plural files are attached to the item.