The more effectively you report a bug, the more likely an engineer will actually fix it. Useful bug reports are ones that get bugs fixed. A useful bug report normally has two qualities:
These guidelines explain how to write such reports. Generally, follow these principles:
If you have reproduced the bug and no-one else appears to have reported it, then:
How would you describe the bug, in approximately 60 or fewer characters?
The details of your problem report, including:
More detailed restatement of summary.
Minimized, easy-to-follow steps that will trigger the bug. Include any special setup steps. It may help to number the steps. It should allow us to reproduce the bug.
Describe what the application did after performing the above steps.
What the application should have done, or you think it should have done, were the bug not present.
Include the version of BibDesk (from the About window), your version of Mac OSX, and the architecture and type of your computer. If you can, also include a regression range (which versions of BibDesk had the problem, and which didn't).
For crashes, attach crash reports (diagnostic reports) related to your problems. You can find those in Console.app.
Attach console logs related to your problems. You can find those in Console.app.
For hangs (beach-balls), attach a sample taken while BibDesk is unresponsive. To create a sample, open Activity Monitor.app, select BibDesk and choose View > Sample Process, or hit Inspect/double-click and click the Sample button. After the sample has been taken, you will be able to save it.
Any other useful information.