Paperpile for Word private beta (closed)

Beta testing
1

Update - get the App here

The app is ready to use. We still call it beta because we are still working on the documentation and do some more polishing. Stay tuned for the official announcement early this fall.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the private beta. :blush:

How to take part

We invite everyone who likes testing beta software and has some time helping us finding and fixing remaining issues: Just send us a quick note via the in-app messenger and we send you further instructions.

We hope we can soon invite everyone from our waiting list. If you have not done so yet please sign up here: https://paperpile.typeform.com/to/FLpa0k

Feedback

Please report errors and suggestions via the in-app messenger or here in the forum.

For general comments and questions about the beta use this topic here.

Features

  • Available for macOS and Windows 10
  • Cite your references from your Paperpile library in Word (Office 2016 or 2019 on Windows or macOS)
  • Sync your complete library to your local computer and work offline.
  • Access Paperpile via macOS menu bar/Windows taskbar, the Word ā€œribbonā€ tab, or the keyboard shortcut option-āŒ˜-P (macOS) or Ctrl-shift-P (Windows).
  • Citation features
    • Add citations in-text, as footnotes, or as endnotes.
    • Automatically create bibliographies in different styles and languages.
  • Collaborate with other users without any conflicts and a sophisticated sharing model

Up Next

  • Convert between Google Docs and Word
  • Windows support
  • Cite references directly from online resources and import to your library
  • Dark mode
  • And much moreā€¦

Updates (Feb 28, 2019)

  • Improved speed of search results and citation insertion for documents with many citations.
  • Updated citation formatting engine to fix several issues with citation formats.
  • Search results from items in the document now also match on year.
  • Reset citation details (e.g. page) between multiple insertions of the same paper.
  • Finish inserting a citation with ā€œEnterā€ also when citation details are shown.
  • Many behind-the-scenes adjustments in preparation of the upcoming Windows beta.
  • Various other bug fixes and optimizations.

Updates (May 2, 2019)

  • Various bug fixes (thanks to everyone who reported those bugs!)

Updates (Sep 24, 2019)

  • Support for Windows
  • Updated the complete design with a more streamlined user interface
  • Convert from and to Google Docs.
  • Convert from other reference managers (Mendeley and Zotero).
  • Edit metadata of references directly without the web app (also offline).
  • Added sharing model for collaborative work. The reference is either stored in:
    • The library of the owner. It will always be up-to-date with the version from the library and only the owner can change it.
    • The library of a collaborator. Only the collaborator can edit.
    • Only in the Word document. Everyone can edit.
  • Change between those options easily in for various scenarios
    • Take ownership of a collaboratorā€™s reference and replace it with a copy from your library (either an existing copy or the reference is imported).
    • Make quick changes specific to the document which do not affect the version in your library.
  • Support custom citation styles
  • Many fixes and small improvements

Updates (Oct 16, 2019)

  • Fixed a network connection problem which triggered many unnecessary sync attempts.
  • Improved handling of corrupt citation fields (one broken citation doesnā€™t crash the app anymore).
  • Fixed an issue with retrieving citation styles on application start.
  • Fixed wrong ā€œDocument not savedā€ error when converting files saved in a network folder (such as OneDrive).
  • Various other bug fixes and optimizations.

Updates (Nov 20, 2019)

  • Improved bibliography generation and styling:
    • Use correct hanging indent size and fixed other paragraph styles of the bibliography.
    • Keep user changes to paragraph and font styles when the bibliography is updated.
    • Fixed a bug with bibliography styles affecting the preceding paragraph.
  • Fixed various issues with special characters causing the app to crash or resulting in search errors.
  • Allow special characters in names for backup files during conversion between document formats.
  • Fixed various issues with the conversion from Google Docs (extra empty lines and citations being duplicated in some citation styles).
  • Various other bug fixes and optimizations.

Known issues

  • Various UI artifacts and performance issues
  • Searching your citations might behave differently from Google Docs or the Web app. Itā€™s work in progress and still has some issues.
  • Changing the citation language does not work for some languages.
11 Likes
3

Please count me in!!!

4

Just signed up and really looking forward to testing it.

My hope is that there will be a desktop app that will eventually let any text editing platform to insert and edit references. Is that planned?

5

Please contact us in the in-app chat if you want to be part of the earliest beta phases (i.e. the one going on now on macOS).

As for supporting any text editor, that is definitely planned, but we want to get Word right first.

1 Like
6

I will sign up. On my phone right now

7

Iā€™m in. Signing up now.

8

Yes, please!

9

Hi paperpile,

Can I ask whether this is designed only for citation insert at this moment? I see the current feature includes

Sync your complete library to your local computer and work offline.

But I could not use it to manage my papers like the web app. Did I over-interpret this? Or did I miss some current features?

Thanks!

10

At the moment, the local library serves only to make the citation process work offline.

11

The Beta seems to work great. Itā€™s very fast! Any suggestions I have are cosmetic, which as you said is something you are still working on. So far so good!

1 Like
12

Iā€™d like to sign up for the beta on macOS. Thanks!

13

Are you designing the Mac plugin/app in a way that it will be possible to have an API that editors could pick up, for example, to add citations into Latex documents via a VSCode plugin? That would be my dream world.

Our current plan is to (eventually) enable the app to place the right ā€œ\citeā€ command in your clipboard. That way, editors will not have to use any API; you press the global keyboard shortcut, Paperpile comes up, you find your reference(s), and then paste the result in your document editor.

A VScode plugin does sound cool thoughā€¦

1 Like
14

We have pushed a new update today. It includes mostly bug fixes and optimizations. For example, adding citations to documents with many citations in them should now be faster. In addition, pressing enter while the cursor is in the citation details pane (i.e. in the ā€œpage numberā€ field) will complete the dialog, so it is a bit faster to add references with page numbers.

Mostly, we have been working towards making the whole thing work on Windows. In theory, the code in this release is stable on Windows with just a couple of tweaks, so if all goes well with this update we will be able to open up the beta to windows users.

Existing beta users: please give this update a try and let us know if you run into any problems or have any requests.

15

Great news! Count me in when you open it for windows!

16

Hey Jason could you add me? I requested through the app but I have heard nothing. Thanks,

17

@plg Please try again via the in-app chat. That is the only place we can actually add people. I also want to keep this thread mostly free of ā€œadd meā€ requests.

18

The chat isnā€™t working, maybe I should open a whole new thread about that issue.

19

Yes that would be a separate issue. You can also email support@paperpile.com, but be sure to use your Paperpile email address.

20

Eagerly waiting for a windows version!