Manage your PDF library on Mac OS X

Posted by Vincent | Filed under Mac OS X, Software

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As a grad student, I have to deal with a LOT of pdf files: lecture notes, papers, assignments, ebooks, etc. Fortunately, there are a lot of solutions for managing your pdf files on Mac OS X, and some of them are free. Here is a list of those I know of, depending on the type of solutions

PDF Library Managers

Some software are made for one main goal, which is to manage pdf files:

  • Yep (Shareware, 34$): A full fledged pdf manager. This is the one I personally use on a daily basis, well worth 34$ (even better if you got it for cheap like me during the MacUpdate Promo). Features include smart collections (like smart playlist in iTunes), tag support and a nice fullscreen view.
  • papers (Shareware, 42$): Another pdf manager with features such as stoplight search, iTunes-like rating system and a strong PubMed integration.
  • iPapers (OpenSource): A simple pdf library manager with PubMed integration.

Bibliographic Managers

Bibliographic managers can also be of use to manage your pdf files. These programs are made to manage bibliographic entries, but they allow you to link the files to their bibliographic entries.

  • BibDesk (OpenSource): A BibTeX manager. Supports tags, smart groups, online database integration and it keeps your pdf files organized (in a way similar to iTunes). This is the one I use for bibliographic references.
  • JabRef (OpenSource): A cross-platform reference manager. Exports to BibTeX and OpenOffice.
  • EndNote X1 (Commercial, 110$): The reference for bibliographic management. The feature list is impressive and it is virtually your only choice if you work with Microsoft Word. To me the price was too high compared to BibDesk (free!) especially since I exclusively use LaTeX for writing.

Other solutions

Another quite unusual solution for pdf management is to use iTunes:

And what about me?

I use two of those softwares in my setup: Yep and BibDesk. I use Yep for my ebooks, the papers I want to read and everything related to school work (lecture note, assignments, etc). The smart collections of Yep (similar to smart playlists in iTunes) allow me to keep my library ordered with no extra work as long as I put my files in the right folder in Finder. Screenshots:

As for BibDesk, I use it exclusively to manage papers that aren’t associated with any specific course or that I might want to cite in a paper or in my thesis. The neat thing about BibDesk is that it generates a BibTeX file for your library that you can include in all your LaTeX documents. Furthermore, you consolidate your library automatically (à la iTunes) so your files are kept in order, which is pretty useful if you want to have a smart collection in Yep for your BibDesk library. Screenshots:

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Comments (8) | January 27th, 2008

8 Responses to “Manage your PDF library on Mac OS X”

  1. Dennis Says:
    December 18, 2008 at 4:19 am

    Ey thanks for the info! I was looking like crazy for apps for my PDFs.

  2. Conan Albrecht Says:
    December 22, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    BibDesk actually does work with Word. I posted an integrator that connects the two programs at http://warp.byu.edu/BibDeskToWord.

  3. Murad Says:
    April 5, 2009 at 6:32 am

    Thank you for the information! You could add ugly but very useful calibre (http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/) to the list.

  4. L. ren Says:
    December 7, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    Thanks very much for your information, and as time goes by, I found there are more latest doc management software released for mac:
    devthink
    new yep,
    and my favorite, the iDocument: http://www.icyblaze.com).

    I think you should probably renew the list.

  5. TD Says:
    December 8, 2009 at 4:55 pm

    The love this. It worked on my mac. The downside is I canNOT see any PDF files on my iPhone :( !

  6. julian Says:
    December 16, 2009 at 9:56 am

    hey,
    great article
    thank you!
    you made me lean towards buying the macupdate bundle

  7. kocoman Says:
    December 31, 2009 at 1:16 am

    How do you download iDocument? Its still says “ready soon”, and http://www.easy-mac.com/+%22iDocument+1.0.dmg does not work

  8. Kyle Says:
    February 13, 2010 at 9:20 am

    What about Devonthink?

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