Zotero 3.0

I occasionally get accused of being an Endnote evangelist, and being so zealous for the Endnote cause that I ignore its shortcomings and any competitors.

I hope that is not true, but Endnote is the product we have within the university, and it is, in my view, the most powerful and flexible of the products available. That does not mean that it suits everyone, of course, and power and flexibility come at a price, both in financial terms and in complexity.

Therefore, I want to flag up one of the main Endnote competitors today, which has recently undergone a makeover: Zotero 3.0.

Earlier versions of Zotero have, in my view, been hamstrung by the fact that it has to be run from within the Firefox browser. Now, it may just be me, but I’ve found Firefox to be a bit slow and clunky, which has made Zotero harder to use.

Zotero 3.0 comes in a stand alone version, which is good, in my view, and it also integrates with Google Chrome and Safari, which as the former is currently my browser of choice, is a good thing.

You can download Zotero 3.0 standalone from here: http://www.zotero.org/support/3.0#zotero_standalone

It will read your older Zotero files, and you can export and import from Endnote as well, via RIS format libraries.

Once installed and launched, Zotero looks like this:

The toolbar in Word 2010 looks like this:

I’ll try to write a few posts over the next few weeks explaining how to use the software. In the meantime, there is a comparison of the products here:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/zotero-vs-endnote/33157

Zotero also works in Mendeley, which I know some folk use; in fact, I believe that it is part of the underlying code for Mendeley, but I could be wrong on that.

Activating Templates

Sometimes, last week’s solution to non-appearing Endnote tools does not work.

This seems to be because Word, somehow, has decided to de-activate the Endnote templates.

Unfortunately, this works in different ways on different Word installations. The instructions below are for Word 2010.

In Word 2007, it is similar but the Word Options are to be found on the big Office button.

In Word 2003, the Templates and Add-Ins dialog is to be found on the Tools menu item.

In Word 2010, go to File | Options

Choose the Add-Ins area.

If the Endnote templates are active (as above) they will be listed in the top part of this dialog.

If not, then go to the Manage menu at the bottom of the dialog and choose Word Add-Ins.

Click on Go, and the list of templates will be displayed.

Activate Endnote Cwyw.dotm by checking the box to the left of the name. Click on OK and the Endnote tools should appear.

Test Video

This is a test of a video of some Endnote functionality, just to see if it can be done.

Endnote Add-Ins

Recently, a few people have contacted me with problems relating to Endnote Add-Ins.

Sometimes, Endnote can simply disappear from your Word installation, or simply not appear at all on installation.

The usual advice is to reinstall Endnote. From Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs choose your Endnote program and click on Change:

The Endnote installer will launch. Choose Modify.

Click on Next. From the options choose ‘Endnote Program and then Cite While You Write.

Click on the drop down menu and choose ‘Entire feature will be installed on local disk.

Click on Next, and in the next screen click next again. The Word part of Endnote (called Cite While You Write) should then be installed.