Endnote Web and Word

As you would expect, Endnote Web integrates with Microsoft Word. You can, in fact, switch between the two.

In Word 2010 (and, indeed, Word 2007; Word 2003 inevitably works a little differently), switching between the two is done from the Endnote tab. Click on Preferences.

The Cite While You Writer Preferences dialog box will open. Click on the Application tab.

On this tab, choose Endnote Web from the drop down box and, if necessary, fill in your subscription details.

Click OK. You will need to select a style from the drop down list, and then use ‘Find Citations’ to enter a reference.

Enter the item you need to insert in the drop down box and click Find. All the possibilities will be displayed in the central text box (in the above case there is only one). Select the correct entry and click Insert.

The reference will be inserted into your document.

Downloading from Firstsearch Databases

If you conduct a search on a database run by Firstsearch (e.g. ERIC or ArticleFirst), you might have hit a snag.

Suppose we have run a search on ERIC and this is the result:

To export the bibliographic information into Endnote, click on the ‘Export’ button.

Select Endnote from the options and click Export.

Endnote will then show the Import Filter Selection Dialog:

You need to select the appropriate filter for the database. In this case the name is ERIC with OCLC as the Information Provider.

Click on Choose and the record you require will be imported.

Linking Endnote Web to Endnote Desktop

One of the advantages of Endnote Web is that it links seamlessly to Endnote on a desktop PC.

This allows you to have the same items in both places, and hence your Endnote library is accessible via a web link at all times.

It is also a handy place to back your library up and also, as I’ll explain in another post, to share your library among students or co-workers.

To transfer items from Endnote Web to your desktop library, you need to establish the link between the two. This is done from Endnote desktop, using Edit | Preferences | Endnote Web.

This might have been populated if you inserted your Endnote web details when installing Endnote desktop in the first place. If not, fill in your email address and password, and in necessary, the Endnote Web URL. Click on OK.

To link to Endnote Web, click on the ‘transfer…’ group in the Endnote Web group set on the desktop user interface. This will display the transfer dialog.

Note that references can be transferred to and from Endnote Web groups, while you can transfer all references from a desktop library.

When you are ready, click on Transfer.

When the process is finished, you will get a confirmatory dialog, and the references will be in your All References group, and in a Endnote Web group of the same name as the one the references were transferred from.

Searching On Endnote Web

To search for items using Endnote Web, go to the Collect tab, and select the database to search. In this case we will use Web of Knowledge itself.

Click on 'Connect' when you have selected your database.

Once connected, you will arrive at the search screen. Enter your search terms in the boxes, remembering to select the search type (Author, Title or whatever) in the drop down boxes.

Click on Search, and the search will run (this may take a few moments) and the results will be displayed.

Now, you need to store the items you need as the results will be discarded when you close the page.

To do this, mark the items of interest using the checkbox to the left of them, and then click on New Groups on the ‘Add to group’ drop down box.

The New Group dialog will be shown. Name the group and click on OK.

The new group will be created and your marked entries moved to it.

To view the items, click on the link to the new group under My Groups.

Google Scholar

I get a few calls about how to set Google Scholar up to download references directly to Endnote.

It is not difficult, but it is slightly obscure.

Google Scholar can be found at scholar.google.co.uk, and, at the time of writing, looks like this:

Click on ‘Scholar Preferences’, the second link down on the right by the search button.

This gets you to the preferences page.

Scroll down to the foot of the page.

In the bibliography manager section at the foot of the page, select the ‘Show links to import citations into’ radio button, and choose ‘Endnote’ from the drop down menu.

This should ensure that links under Google references called ‘Import to Endnote’ appear. Click on the links to download the references directly to Endnote.

Endnote Web Introduction

This is the first of what is planned to be a series of posts about Endnote Web.

The first questions to ask are ‘what is Endnote Web?’ and ‘how do I find it?’ This might be quickly followed by ‘why should I use it?’ I’ll try to answer these questions here, before moving on to how Endnote web can be used.

Endnote Web is, as the name suggests, a web based version of Endnote. It lives on the ISI Web of Knowledge site. I think that the Endnote Web is less powerful than the stand alone desktop version of Endnote, but it is rapidly increasing in capability. Best of all, at the moment, it is free to get an account and start using Endnote.

As mentioned, Endnote Web is to be found on the Web of Knowledge site, in the links at the top.

To start off, you will need to create an account on WoK. Click on ‘Sign In’ and then on the ‘Register’ link.

Having an account on WoK also allows you to save searches and retrieve them for later re-runs. You do not have to use your Durham email address for your user name, as long as you remember which address you did use. You also need to choose your password carefully, as the site has rather complex and pedantic rules for passwords.

Once registered, sign in to WoK and click on the Endnote web link. A new tab should take you to the Endnote Web interface.

Clicking on the ‘Show Getting started Guide’ towards the top right will take you to the relevant parts of the interface for doing different tasks within Endnote Web.

Endnote Web does evolve fairly quickly, but the basic user interface has been stable for a while. If things look a bit different from the pictures here, let me know and I’ll see if anything significant has changed.

Word Style at the End of a Document

Sometimes when an Endnote reference is inserted into a document, the reference list at the end picks up an odd underlying Word style, and you land up with something that looks like this.

This can be fixed in a fairly straightforward manner.

Firstly, unformat the Endnote references, using the tools on the Endnote tab.

This removes the immediate, visible problem.

The underlying style at the end of the document needs to be changed from, in this case Heading 1 to Normal. This is done on the Home tab of Word 2010.

Once this is done, the bibliography can be reconstructed from the Endnote tab.

The text may still not look right, but this can be changed using the usual Word tools to change the font and the text size, on the home tab.

The text can be made to look like the rest of the document.

The best way to avoid this is, of course, to check that the underlying Word style at the end of the document is the normal one.

Where to Put Extra Styles

As you hopefully already know, Endnote styles control the output of Endnote in the document.

You probably already know that you can modify styles, using Edit | Output Styles from the Endnote interface.

You can also download updated files from the Endnote styles page on the Web:

http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp

You can also, often, download the latest style from a journal web site. The more recent the style, obviously, the less likely your references are to need editing before submission.

The problem is, if you download a style, where do youput it so Endnote can find it for you?

To find out where Endnote looks for additional style, chose Edit | Preferences.

Then select Folder Locations from the dialog box.

Additional styles are stored in the folder whose path is outline in the ‘Style Folder’ area; this is unlikely to be the on your system as shown above, but make a note of the path to the folder.

Additional style files can be placed in this folder, as can filters in the filter folder and similarly with connection files.

This folder is also the folder to look in if you need to move a style file (for example to move a style from your desktop to a laptop Endnote version). Endnote style files have a .ens ending.

Disappearing Page References

Probably the second most frequent problem I get asked about (after the one to which the answer is “hold down the Alt key and press F9”) is along the lines of:

‘I put the page references in and they disappear’.

So, what is going on here?

This is, in fact, a style issue. Now, as you probably all know, Endnote has a large number of built in styles. Not all of them, however, have the space reserved in them to insert page citations.

To see if your style has space for page citations, go to Edit | Output Style | Edit “output style name”.

This brings up the modify style box:

Assuming that your style is an in-text style, click on Citations | Templates.

We now need to insert a field into the template to make the room for the page citation. This is done from the Insert Field button. The field we require is ‘Cited Pages’.

Click on this and the field will be inserted into the template. You can now save the style and use the Edit Citations button on the Endnote tab in Word to insert the actual page numbers you are referring to.

Further information can be found in the Introduction to Endnote manual: http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/its/info/guides/92Endnote.pdf

The main places for information are section 4.4.1, sections 4.7 and section 4.8.

Transferring References from Word to Endnote

One of the most depressing questions I get asked, often during training sessions is along the lines of:

“I’ve typed my bibliography in Word. Is there an easy way to transfer it to Endnote?”

The reason that this is depressing is because the answer is simple: No.

The problem is this. There are hundred of styles in which references can be presented. The full install of Endnote contains hundreds (probably thousands, I’ve not counted them) of styles, each of which have the bibliographic information for the references arranged in a different order.

All of this information has to be read into the different fields (e.g. Author, Journal Title, Chapter Titles, etc.) in Endnote references. Already this is starting to look like a bit of a problem; there is no way of processing this information, from an arbitrary style into an Endnote reference.

This is a known difficult to solve problem in computing known as a many to one problem. We have information in many possible places, and we want to put it in one given place. There is no general solution to this problem.

So, what can be done?

The best solution is to use Endnote from the start, so you do not have this problem at all. However, real life is not always that simple.

The next best solution is to hope that you can find all your references on the web, and start searching for the books and articles on the library catalogue or Web of Knowledge. This should sweep up most of the less obscure stuff and, of course, allows you to download immediately the references to Endnote. (If you are unsure how to do this, consult the Endnote manual: http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/its/info/guides/92Endnote.pdf).

Thirdly, you can try using some of the techniques that are suggested on Duncan Branley’s web site http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/duncan/. The Endnote stuff is at the foot of the page. It looks a little old, but does, I believe, still work.

Finally, you can just type the references into new Endnote references in the software.

Whichever of these ideas you use, I’m afraid they still cause work. The best solution is to start by using Endnote, and then it will not arise.

Full Install of Endnote Files

It is a mildly annoying fact that, upon a new Endnote install, not all the files are installed. I think this is because, some versions back, Endnote decided that a full install was too much work (or took too long), and only a sub-set of the full range of connection files, filters and styles were made available.

This may be fine for some large organisations, but is irritating for those of who are, for example, in an institute which is too small to qualify for the list, such as Durham University.

In order to install the full set of connection files, filters and styles you have to, at least on a Windows machine, modify the installation of Endnote.

To start, go to Control Panels | Add or Remove Programs, and wait a while whilst your computer generates the list.

Scroll down the list until you find your Endnote install, and click on it. Click on Change.

The Endnote installer will launch, and you should get to the Application Maintenance dialog.

Select Modify and click Next. The Select features dialog should appear.

The three components of interest here are the Additional connections, Additional Filters and Additional Styles bits. These are marked with red X’s to show they are not installed.

To install, click on the drop down by these additional features and select Entire Feature will be Installed….

Do this for each feature (it is best to do all of them) and click next. Click Next on the next dialog box and the features will then be installed. It may well take a few minutes before this is completed.

If your Endnote is delivered via MDS, all the available files will be deployed.

If you are uncertain which files are installed, go in Endnote to Tools | Online Search

In the Choose a Connection dialog, scroll down to see if Durham U is present.

If it is, you have the full set installed. If not, than you may wish to follow the procedure outlined above.

Which Version of Endnote?

There are, now, a significant number of versions of Endnote around, and some very old CD-ROMs floating around the university.

Every once in a while, people ask me why their version of Endnote is not working with a given word processor.

The compatibility details are given here:

http://www.endnote.com/enword2k7.asp

I will summarise below, starting with Windows machines.

Word 2010: Only Endnote X5 and Endnote X4 will work with Word 2010.

Word 2007: Endnote X, X1, X2, X3, X4 and X5 are all compatible with Word 2007. Earlier versions are compatible but may need some fiddling about by the user to make them work properly. The details are on the web site above. It is not recommended that versions earlier than Endnote 8 are used.

Word 2003: Endnote 5, 6 and 7 are (more or less) compatible with Word 2003, but there are some issues, so they should only be used with caution. None of these versions are supported either but CIS in Durham, or the producers of Endnote, so it is probably worth upgrading. Later versions are compatible with Word 2003.

Now, Apple machines:

Word 2011: Endnote X4 is compatible with Word 2011, but Endnote X3 and earlier version are not.

Word 2008: Endnote X1, X2, X3 and X4 are compatible with Word 2008. Endnote X and earlier are not compatible with Word 2008.

Word 2004: Endnote X1, X2, X3 and X4 are compatible with Word 2004.

Word 10.*: These are not compatible with versions later than X1.

Should you upgrade?

I think that if you have a version earlier than X1, upgrading would be a good option. Similarly, if you have or will soon move to Word 2010/2011, then you will need X4 or later.

Unless you would like some of the more advanced tools available in the later versions (such as groups, full text download), if you have X1 or later, it works, and you do not intend upgrading in the near future, sticking with what you have is probably a good plan, at least for the moment.

Endnote on Networked Drives

A problem that I’ve just found the solution to is one where the Endnote library is stored on a network drive, and suddenly stops working.

This is not something I’ve seen or heard about very often, but it does happen. I’ve seen it maybe twice in the last year, and it has never happened to me, even though my libraries are on the university networked drive.

I think two things can happen. Firstly, you network drive can fill up, either because you add some more files (for example, saving the document), or because when Endnote talks back to the drive the network connection is briefly lost, and so is a bit of the library.

Either way, the next time Endnote open the library, you get a message informing you that the library is damaged and needs repairing.

Recovering the library is done from Tools | Recover Library. You need to select the original and the destination library, and Endnote attempts to copy one to the other.

This does work, but Endnote does not seem to like doing this with the libraries on a networked drive.

If you are in this position, take a back up, move the library (and the [libraryname].DATA folder) to a non-networked drive (say c:) and do the recover from there.

If nothing else can convince you to take regular back ups of your Endnote library, that should.

Cutting and Pasting While Using Endnote

One of the things that people have complained to me about is that Endnote sometimes messes the references up; it misplaces them and they are then off by one reference.

This has caused me a great deal of puzzlement until recently, when a user contacted me with such a problem.

Based on the description of what happened, I managed to track down the issue (I think):

What happens is that when you cut and paste some text with formatted Endnote references attached, Endnote can indeed, mess up in the way described. Presumably this is something to do with Endnote having to reformat the references and bibliography when the cut and paste is carried out.

The way to avoid this is, before the cut and paste is done, to un-format the citations in the document you are cutting from. This is done from the Endnote tab, Convert Citations and Bibliography button on the Bibliography group.

Then you can paste the section of text you want into the other document. If necessary, you can then use Update Citations and Bibliography to reformat the references and add them to the bibliography.

If you have got any more information, or any examples of this happening, please do let me know, because I have never actually seen it in action.

What is new in Endnote X5?

Hopefully, Endnote X5 will be deployed across university machines before the beginning of term. So what is new in the new version?

Overall, the look and feel of the software is pretty much the same as X4, and indeed, X3. Much of the functionality is the same as well, but one or two bits have changed.

The most useful change I have found is the new ability to view PDF files attached to references directly. In the tabbed pane at the foot of the user interface, the third tab, which was just a ‘Quick Edit’ of the reference, is now a ‘PDF and Quick Edit’ pane.

The left hand side of the pane gives a preview of the PDF attached to the document; the right hand side is an editable view of the information in the Endnote reference.

The panes are adjustable in size so you can adjust the size of the document you read to (nearly) full screen. There are also tools for adjusting the size of the text, rotating it, adding notes, highlighting text and a search tool.

Of course, you can still open the reference and double click on the document to read it as normal using Acrobat Reader, but I think this is a convenient method of seeing the content of a paper, particularly if you cannot remember what it was about.

Accessing the Durham Library

You probably already know that you can access the Durham University library directly from Endnote.

This is done via Tools | Online Search and choosing Durham U from the list.

At present, this works from a university PC, but is failing externally.

We think that we have tracked down why this is the case.

In April, the library changed servers. The server used to be gutenberg.dur.ac.uk, and is now library.dur.ac.uk.

Since then, external efforts to contact the library catalogue have failed. Internal ones at present still work, because gutenberg has not yet been switched off; they will fail when the server has finally been retired.

Unfortunately, the connection files which Endnote uses have not been updated (we are working on both our own fix, and one with Endnote), and older versions of the software which may have been purchased also will not know the new address.

In order to fix the problem, go to Edit | Connection Files | Open Connection manager and choose the Durham U connection file, then click the Edit button.

On the list on the left hand panel, choose Connection Settings.

In Server Address, replace the 129.234.4.6 address (which points to gutenberg, the old server) with ‘library.dur.ac.uk’ (without the quotes).

Choose File | Save As and save the file as, say, Durham U Copy.

Then go to Tools | Online Search and choose your new connection file. You should now get through to the library and be able to search the catalogue from the normal search screen.

Welcome...

... to the Endnote @ Durham blog.

The idea is to create a forum where I can disseminate useful information about the Endnote bibliographical reference management software, and allow users to ask informal questions.

The sort of thing I have in mind are issues which do not make it into training courses or manuals, information about updates and the like.

I do not intend to post frequently, but hope to be able to regularly, approximately once a week. I will, however, monitor any replies more frequently.

This site is supposed to complement the already existing support mechanisms, such as the IT Service desk (itservicedesk@durham.ac.uk) and the Endnote related training courses (www.dur.ac.uk/training.course) and manuals.