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I use BibDesk to record all the academic papers I read. Sometimes I write notes in OneNote about the papers I read. It would be helpful if I could click a link in OneNote to go directly to a publication in BibDesk. Is there some way to accomplish this?

Jim L.
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1 Answers1

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Yes. Like many other apps, BibDesk has a URI scheme, x-bdsk://citekey (where citekey is the citation key of a publication in a BibDesk database) that you can use to create hyperlinks to BibDesk in other apps. But you can also jump to a BibDesk publication from any citekey in plain text just by selecting the citekey in the text and using the macOS service "Show Reference With Cite Key".

Here's a quotation from the Wikipedia article on BibDesk:

References can be cited in any document by copy and paste or drag and drop from BibDesk, or via a macOS service.[21] A custom URI scheme, x-bdsk://citekey, allows hyperlinking to BibDesk references from any other application.[22] In addition, a reference can be opened quickly in BibDesk by first selecting any cite key in a LaTeX document or other text document and then using the provided macOS service "Show Reference With Cite Key" (which, like all services, can be assigned a custom keyboard shortcut).[23]

There are several ways to get the hyperlink for a BibDesk publication:

  1. Control-click or right-click on the publication in BibDesk and then select Copy Item URL from the contextual menu, or
  2. Select the publication and then select Edit → Copy As → Item URL from the menubar, or
  3. Set the default (or alternate) format for copying and pasting in BibDesk's Citation preference pane to Item URL so that when you select a publication in BibDesk and copy it (command-C), the item URL is copied, or
  4. Create a custom template for BibDesk, and then set the template as the default (or alternate) format for copying and pasting in BibDesk's Citation preference pane so that when you select a publication in BibDesk and copy it (command-C), the template determines what is copied. The template could include a BibDesk hyperlink along with a full citation, for example.

Again, the easiest way may be not to create a hyperlink at all but simply to insert the citekey as plain text, and whenever you want to jump to the publication in BibDesk use the "Show Reference With Cite Key" service.

By the way, if you write in Markdown, flavors of Markdown such as MultiMarkdown or Pandoc Markdown have their own format for the citekey (for example, in Pandoc Markdown it's @citekey). So you can just write in Markdown, insert citekeys in the proper format, and whenever you want to open the relevant publication in BibDesk use the "Show Reference With Cite Key" service.

Big Mac
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