Endnote vs The Rest

There is an interesting post here about using Endnote (or not):

http://thesiswhisperer.com/2013/08/21/endnote-vs-well-everything-else/

together with a lengthy discussion in the comments.

Endnote seems to have a bad reputation for occasionally messing up long documents, leaving a 'references-off-by-one' error, which is referred to int he post and comments.

I have not ever seen this error, so could anyone who does experience it let me know, please? Anecdotal evidence suggests that it happens when a long document scan for citations is cancelled, but I have not managed to reproduce it.

Aside from that, one of the outcomes of the discussion is that choice of reference management software is highly personal.

And finally, I have to add that lots of people do complete their theses happily while using Endnote....

Invalid Class String – Update

One of the most popular posts on this blog is the one about the error “Invalid Class String”.

This usually happens when you are running Word as an administrator and Endnote as a user.

Thompson have kindly rearranged their web site, so the link to the FAQ in the original post (http://durhamendnote.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/invalid-class-string.html) is not incorrect.

The address you now need is this: http://endnote.com/support/faqs/endnote

and scroll down to CWYW 13, and click on ‘Answer’. 

Endnote X7.0.1 Windows

No sooner did Endnote X7 appear, than there was a patch.

The patch also uses a new feature of Endnote X7, in that it launches automatically when the update is detected, and installs itself.

The update arrived last week. You can skip it, but the pop-up may well return the next time you open Endnote. In order to avoid it keeping popping up, you need to click on ‘skip this version’. If you use ‘cancel’ it will reappear next time.

You also need administrator rights to install it, so it could become a nuisance for those without such rights (of course, that may be part of the point; updates are good things, in general).

The patch description is:

Improved stability for Synchronisation.

Updates to "Category Bibliography" functionality in CWYW.

Updates to record matching logic for CWYW.

Improved performance for application auto-updating.

Prefixes and Suffixes

Sometimes, the plain reference will just not do. Someone asked me recently about a work which was by a set of authors, but had a bit inserted in it by someone else. The plain reference (Smith et al (1991) p. 42) simply would not do, but then nor would (Jones (1991) p. 42), as that is almost equally misleading.

Similarly, you might was to say (see Smith et al (1991) p 55).

How do you handle these issues?

There are two ways you can, in fact, deal with these items. Inevitably, there is a complex way, and a simple way. Unless this sort of thing happens a lot to you, I commend the simple way.

Consider this citation:

(Cuban, 2001)

Suppose I wish to add the word ‘see’ to the beginning of it. If I click on Edit & Manage Citations from the Citations group of the Endnote tab, I get the dialog box:

I can add the text I wish to appear before the citation to the Prefix box:

(see Cuban, 2001)

I need to remember to add the space as well.

Endnote X7

For those of you eagerly awaiting the arrival of Endnote X7 I present the following video.

It isn't mine, but from a reliable source, and lasts just over six minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqvYH0FUXps

Changing Temporary Citation Delimiters

I encountered an issue recently with Endnote which had been upgraded (from X4.0.0 to X4.0.2, but I’m not sure the exact details are important).

During the upgrade the temporary citation delimiters had been changed from “{“ to “(“.

A simple, slight change, you would think. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, Endnote, of course, started to throw a bit of a wobbly, putting up the Find Citation box for every parenthetical comment the author had made.

Fortunately, I discovered that this can be fixed in a relatively painless manner. Although I still recommend taking a backup before trying this at home.

You need to start with all the references in a formatted state. This might take some clicking on the Ignore button on the Find dialog when it appears.

Then, click on the little box with an arrow on it in the bottom right of the Bibliography group on the Endnote tab. The Format Bibliography dialog will be shown.

Change the temporary citation delimiters to your required symbol and click OK.

Now, in the document, unformat the citations. They should appear with your new temporary citation delimiter around them.

Then click on Update Bibliography. The extra visits to the Find Reference dialog should be avoided, this time.

Converting a Text Bibliography to Endnote

This is a perennial favourite question that I am asked, and there simply is not a good answer: ‘All my references are in a Word document. How can I convert them to Endnote?’

I have found, however, some new (to me, anyway) methods of trying to sort this problem out.

There are some instructions here:

http://libraryguides.missouri.edu/content.php?pid=89799&sid=671253

The instructions refer to WizFolio, yet another free (or, in this case, semi-free) online bibliography reference manager, to be found here:

http://wizfolio.com/Default.aspx