Re: [Bibdesk-users] merging two bibdesk files

[Christiaan H. <cmh...@gm...>]

On Sep 24, 2009, at 10:45, Carlos Hernandez wrote:

> Dear All,
> I have two BibTex files (.bib) and in one of them I updated some  
> items (publications) while in the other I updated different items  
> (publications). That is, the same publication may be updated in one  
> file while not in the other.
>
> Is there a simple way to merge these two files and to keep the most  
> recently updated records for each publication in the files?
>
> I'm looking forward your advice and hints.
>
> Best regards,
> Carlos

Open one file (that has the most recent items), and add the other file  
as an external file group (you can drag&drop the file on the groups  
pane below External). Then select this group and choose Merge In  
External File Group from the contextual menu. You can also import  
items individually using the Import buttons (they should be disabled  
when the item is already in your database).

However this does not specifically select the most recent items. If  
you really want to only keep the most recent items you'll have to do  
some manual work and/or write an AppleScript. A way you can do this is  
open a new file, and drop both old files on the main table of this new  
file. Then choose Database > Select Duplicates, and choose Database >  
New Static Group With Selection. You can then try to sift through the  
duplicates in that new static group. Note that, when you've got a  
group selected, you can force items to be deleted from the database by  
hitting Option-Delete (as opposed to just Delete, which only removes  
item from the selected group).

Christiaan