Displaying Multiple Authors

You may have found that later versions of Endnote (X5 in particular) displays by default all the authors of a multi-author reference.

You may find this slightly annoying, as I do, because the column in the display is too narrow and so the additional information is wasted.

Furthermore, the initials of the authors are displayed, and this can be inconsistent in the references. In extreme cases you can get one author with last name then initials displayed, and then the next reference has last name and full first names. This looks a bit confusing, in my view.

There is a fairly easy fix for this one, found on Edit | Preferences and choose the Display Fields link.

Click on the checkbox at the bottom to switch off the all author display. Click Apply and OK, and the display should look neater.

Importing PDFs

It is possibly a little known fact, but you can import PDFs into you Endnote library and, in some cases, Endnote can get the bibliographical detail from the headers in the PDF.

It has to be said that this will only work with reasonably recent PDFs.

To import, choose File | Import | File from Endnote.

The Import File dialog is shown.

Click on Choose… to select the PDF of interest, and make sure you have PDF selected in the Import Option drop down menu.

Click on Import.

A number of windows might appear as Endnote imports and analyses the file. The item should then appear in your Imported References group, with the PDF attached.

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.

Downloading Extra Files

As I mentioned before, by default Endnote does not load all the style, connection and import files. On a PC, you can simply modify the installation to achieve the full loading (see http://durhamendnote.blogspot.com/2011/10/full-install-of-endnote-files.html for details), but I’m not sure how to do this on a Mac.

The easiest option seems to be to click on Edit and choose, for example, Connection files from the main Endnote window, then select ‘Open connection Manager’.

The Connection Manager dialog has a ‘Get More on the Web’ button. Click on this.

This takes you directly to the download page on the Endnote web site.

Click on the download a complete set link and put the file where the instructions (in slightly smaller type) suggest. You should then have the full set of connection files available in Endnote.