Tips_and_Tricks

Hidden Preferences

BibDesk has a few advanced preferences that are not accessible through the UI. Some of these are intended for debugging, while others may be features that aren't ready for public consumption, or shouldn't need to be changed in general usage. Some are described in the manual. You can set these from the command line in Terminal.app. To change these preferences, make sure you quit BibDesk, open Terminal.app, type the defaults command with the appropriate arguments, and hit Enter. Typically, the command and arguments look like this:

defaults write -app BibDesk <Key> -<type> <value>

If this fails with the message "Couldn't find an application named "BibDesk"; defaults unchanged", you can use

defaults write edu.ucsd.cs.mmccrack.bibdesk <Key> -<type> <value>

For dictionaries and arrays you can use -dict-add and -array-add as well, as in

defaults write -app BibDesk BDSKTableHeaderImages -dict-add Citeseerurl "/Users/YourName/Library/Application Support/BibDesk/CiteSeer.png"

To reset a preference to the default, you can use

defaults delete -app BibDesk <Key>

Below is a list of the hidden preferences BibDesk currently recognizes. Be aware that these keys are considered to be private. Default values and keys can change or be removed at any time.

Preference Key	Type	Default Value	Note
BDSKRemoveExtendedAttributesFromDocuments	bool	false
BDSKDisableDocumentExtendedAttributes	bool	false
BDSKDisableExportAttributes	bool	false
BDSKFieldsToWriteIfEmpty	array	()
BDSKShouldUseSpotlightCommentForURL	bool	false
BDSKDisableRemoteChangeNotifications	bool	false
BDSKSharingServerMaxConnections	integer	0	Ignored if < 20
BDSKDisableTypeAheadSelection	bool	false
BDSKDisableBackgroundColorForGroupTable	bool	false
BDSKScriptMenuDisabled	bool	false
BDSKAnnoteFieldName	string	-
BDSKDefaultAnimationTimeInterval	float	0.25	Set to zero to disable
BDSKTableHeaderImages	dict	-	Filenames ending with Template are dynamically colored
BDSKTableHeaderTitles	dict	-
BDSKTableCellImages	dict	-	Filenames ending with Template are dynamically colored
BDSKGroupFieldSeparatorCharactersKey	string	";:,"
BDSKDefaultGroupFieldSeparatorKey	string	"; "	Note trailing space
BDSKShouldShowWebGroup	bool	true
BDSKEditorFormShouldAutoCompleteKey	bool	true
BDSKAdditionalFieldsToComplete	array	-
BDSKReadExtendedAttributesKey	bool	false	Read BibTeX written by BibDesk when importing files
BDSKShouldUsePDFMetadata	bool	false	Reads standard PDF info
BDSKAddISIXMLStringToAnnote	bool	false
BDSKDisableISITitleCasing	bool	false
BDSKDefaultArrayJoinString	string	"/"	Used by componentsJoinedByDefaultJoinString
BDSKShouldParsePDFToGeneratePubMedSearchTerm	bool	true	Parse dropped PDFs for DOIs
BDSKShouldUsePubMedMetadata	bool	true	Treat filename as possible PubMed ID
FVWebIconMaximumNumberOfWebViews	int	5	Set to zero to not load web content
BDSKDownloadsDirectory	string	-	By default, uses the default Downloads folder
BDSKDefaultBrowserKey	string	-	This should be a bundle identifier
BDSKISISourceXMLTagPriority	array	()
BDSKISIURLFieldName	string	-
BDSKSaveLinkedFilesAsRelativePathOnly	bool	false
BDSKSaveLinkedFilesAsArchivedData	bool	false	Linked file format before BibDesk 1.6.17
BDSKSaveLinkedFilesAsAlias	bool	false	Legacy alias, only 1.9+
BDSKSaveLinkedFilesAsBookmarkData	bool	false	Modern alias data, not on 1.9+
BDSKEnableGoogleScholarWebParser	bool	false
BDSKMatchAuthorNamesExactly	bool	false

Alternate Menu Items

BibDesk has various alternate menu items in its main menu that you may not be aware of. Alternate menu items are menu items that normally are related to a normal menu item, but are hidden behind them. They have the same keyboard shortcut as the normal item except for the modifier keys. Typically it has an extra Option modifier, but this may also be Control or some other modifier or combination of modifiers.

For example, the Edit menu has a normal "Delete" item, with shortcut the Delete key. However this item has an alternate "Delete from Library" menu item, with shortcut Option-Delete. The difference between the two items is that the normal item removes the selected publications from the currently selected group when a custom group is selected, while the alternate menu item will delete the selected items from the database. Similarly, there is an alternate "Cut" menu item that combines copying the items with the alternate "Delete from Library" action, while the normal "Cut" would behave as a combination as "Copy" and the normal "Delete" item. There is also an alternate "Copy" item that uses the alternate copying as set in the preferences.

You can see the alternate menu item, including its shortcut, when you show the menu by clicking its title, and then hold down the appropriate modifier key. Now that you know this, try this with the various menus in BibDesk's main menu. Happy hunting!

BibLateX Types and Fields

Normally BibDesk contains type information for standard BibTeX types. However, these do not suffice of you are using BibLaTeX instead of BibTeX. To support the standard type information for BibLaTeX, you can edit the types and fields in the Default Field preferences. As a shortcut, you can also download the following TypeInfo for BibLaTeX file. To use it, make sure you quit BibDesk, and save the downloaded file as ~/Library/Application Support/BibDesk/TypeInfo.plist. Be aware though that BibLaTeX adds a lot of optional fields, which may overwhelm the detail editor, YMMV.