← Contents

Changelog (0.1.1)

This page lists what changed in 0.1.1 since 0.1.0. Everything 0.1.0 could do (writing, the library, reading and notes, exporting a manuscript and so on) is still there. During testing, an upgrade may require rebuilding the library, so before upgrading make a copy with "Export Library Backup" on the Advanced page of Settings.

What changed in this version

More reliable data

  • Closing a window never loses what you typed. When you close a window, close the library tab or switch workspaces, closing is allowed only once the final draft has really been saved, and the closing save is no longer cut off by the 10-second forced close. If a note that was permanently deleted still has an unsaved draft, you can save the draft as a new note, and choosing Cancel really keeps it. Before a reader is closed, annotations that have not been written yet are saved first.
  • Undo no longer removes things added elsewhere afterwards. When you undo a creation or an import and notes, attachments or annotations have since been added under that reference, note or attachment, the whole undo is rejected as out of date instead of deleting them along with it. Undoing a deletion also re-checks this inside the same database transaction that writes the change.
  • A library backup export takes the database and the attachments from the same moment. The database copy and the attachment files in a backup can no longer be one newer and one older.
  • Sync catch-up and history restore. When this device is behind the start of the retention window, attachments are caught up by a three-way comparison of file versions, so a frozen old local file never overwrites a newer file on the remote; versions from before the start of the retention window are restored to the state at that moment.
  • Several checks in the library. In duplicate detection an ISBN counts only for books; Recently Read can clear the reading time of just the selected attachments; the library-wide automatic-tag entries check references, notes, attachments and annotations separately; the context menu of a saved search appears as usual while the full-text index is not ready yet; renaming a colored tag to the name of an existing colored tag keeps the color of the existing tag.
  • Styles and Find Full Text. When installing a style finds that the file name is already used by another style, a different file name is chosen instead of overwriting the other style's file; automatic and manual Find Full Text use separate requests and separate cancellation states, so they do not affect each other.

New features

  • Annotation excerpts in Markdown. Pasting or dragging a text annotation from the reader into the body writes the original text plus a citation marker, as one operation and one undo step. The pictures of image and ink annotations are saved in the workspace, and the body gets ![[picture]] plus a citation marker. Dragging a note from the reference list into the body converts the whole note to Markdown: citations in the note become citation markers and embedded images are saved in the workspace.
  • Links are updated after renaming or moving. After a file is renamed or moved in the file list, internal links in the body that point to it are updated. Settings has "Always update internal links" and "New link format"; when the first is off you are asked each time. A property (frontmatter) whose whole value is a single link is updated too. A new "Use Wikilinks" switch decides what completion after typing [[ writes: when it is off, it writes Markdown links.
  • Paste and drop images and files. Pasting or dropping images and files into the Markdown editor saves them in the workspace and writes the link; a new setting, "Default location for new attachments", chooses where. Dropping a folder does not import it, and a notice says so.
  • Drag from the library into the body. You can drag references, notes and attachments from the library into the Markdown body; when attachments that have files are dragged together with references or notes, all of them are written.
  • Editor display settings. Body width (default, wider, full width, custom), font size (a slider), body font, monospace font, interface font (the local fonts are listed as in Obsidian, can be reordered by dragging, and fonts missing on this machine are marked), line height and paragraph spacing. Paragraph spacing changes only the blank lines between ordinary paragraphs in live preview. There is also "Adjust font size quickly" (Ctrl plus scroll, or a pinch gesture; off by default). The interface font also applies to the confirmation window, notifications, the browse window toolbar, the help pages, the reader page and the note editor page.
  • Reader. For a PDF or EPUB in the workspace that is not in the library, the notice line has "Add to Library", which then goes on to open the attachment now in the library; after "Add to Library" in a reader in its own window, that window switches to the attachment in the library at the same position and size.
  • When Retrieve Metadata cannot identify a file. The failed row in the progress window ends with a "Create Parent Item…" button, which can look up an identifier or let you enter the item by hand.
  • Open the library window at startup. A new setting with three options: same as last time (default), always, never. If the library was last docked as a tab in the writing window, startup no longer opens a separate library window as well.
  • Settings entry and the Sync page. A gear button sits at the very bottom of the left sidebar of the writing window and of the library's left pane; it opens Settings. Sync now has its own page after Account, and the Account page keeps only sign-in and one line of sync status. The Sync page is divided into status, this device, security, and storage and history, and ends with a collapsible Advanced part; maintenance items are collapsible sections that expand automatically according to the state.
  • User Center. The last administrator cannot deactivate their own account in the User Center; the page asks you to appoint another administrator first.

Interface and motion

  • Expanding and collapsing now animate. The sections of the right pane, the sections of the Sync page and the advanced options of Document Preferences expand and collapse smoothly; when a notification leaves, the cards behind it close the gap smoothly; the citation dialog has a small transition. Both the "Motion" setting (On, Off, Adapt to system) and the system's Reduce Motion setting are respected, and a change while the app is running takes effect at once, including in the reader and note editor pages.
  • Dialogs and the confirmation window. The confirmation window, notifications, the browse window toolbar, the help pages, the reader page and the note editor page honor the Motion setting and use the interface font chosen in Settings.
  • Spacing in the Settings window. The line before the Help button at the foot of a page is gone, and the vertical spacing of rows, group titles and collapsible advanced sections follows one scale; the gap from the "This device" heading on the Sync page to the next line of text no longer has an extra bit, and a group heading that follows a table, banner or button row is at least 23.1 pixels from the line.
  • Light/dark toggle moved to the bottom left. The toggle now sits in the bottom row of the left sidebar, to the left of the gear button; the right end of the top row keeps only the tab list, Open Library and the right sidebar toggle, and the tab area is one button wider.
  • Top-row buttons. The Tab order of the top-row buttons now matches their order from left to right.

Fixes

  • Advanced search. A new condition no longer offers "Annotation Author" (annotations in a personal library have no creator, so nobody can be selected); a saved search that already contains the condition still shows it and can be edited.
  • The font list could not be read. Choosing a font sometimes failed to read the list of local fonts; the permission check and the request now use the same test, and an empty list is no longer cached.
  • Recovery code notice. When the sync space has been created but the recovery code is not yet confirmed as saved, the banner no longer mentions "cancel creation".
  • HTML in a Word manuscript. HTML written directly in the source (superscripts and subscripts, line breaks, links, tables, lists, headings and so on) is converted to the matching content in the manuscript; what cannot be converted is reported in the export completion notice.
  • Images and embeds in callouts. For images inside a whole callout, dragging to resize and clicking an embed now write back to Markdown correctly.
  • Inline code. The text rendered for inline code drops one space at each end and turns line breaks into spaces, as in Obsidian 1.14.4, and the manuscript does the same.
  • Reader tabs come back after a restart. Reader tabs that were open when the app closed are saved in the layout and restored at the next start; a tab whose attachment no longer exists is not restored.
  • Style preview and style editor. The style preview window now uses citeproc's HTML output, so italics and similar formatting show; the style editor asks first when you close the window or change the style with unsaved changes.

Notes

  • Equations in Word. Equations the converter can handle become editable Word equations; those outside its supported range or whose conversion fails stay as images, and the completion notice reports how many of each.
  • Retrieve Metadata relies on the DOI or arXiv number printed on the first pages of a PDF. A PDF whose first pages print neither (scans of older literature, books, dissertations, most Chinese manuscripts) is not recognized; use "Create Parent Item…" to create the entry by hand.
  • Chinese and Korean books are often not found by ISBN lookup. When a book is not found, enter it by hand.
  • Network services. The retraction list, and style and translator updates, contact Zotero's services (retraction checks send the first characters of DOI hashes and the first digits of PMIDs, updates send the list of installed styles); open-access full-text lookup asks OpenAlex by default. What is sent is described in the privacy note on the website.
  • A password-protected PDF has no preview.

Installing and allowing the app

  1. After downloading, unpack the zip by double-clicking it in Finder (or ditto -x -k CiteDesk-0.1.1-internal-darwin-arm64.zip target-folder), then double-click CiteDesk.app to open it.
  2. The first time you open it, macOS may say it cannot verify the developer and block the app. Allow it in one of three ways:
    • System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll to Security and click "Open Anyway" on the CiteDesk line;
    • in Finder, right-click (or Control-click) CiteDesk.app > Open, then Open again;
    • on the command line: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /path/to/CiteDesk.app.
  3. Data lives under ~/Library/Application Support/; the exact location is shown in Settings > Advanced, and the Help menu has Open Data Folder.