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EndNote 21 : FAQs

EndNote is widely regarded as one of the world's best reference managers. It helps you save time, stay organised, collaborate with colleagues and to get published.

How is EndNote different to Mendeley and/or Zotero?

The core functions of all three programmes are essentially the same, that it, to simplify in-text citations and generating a reference list for your research paper, assignment or thesis/dissertation.

Technical Support

While Mendeley and Zotero are open source free-to-use platforms, EndNote is subscription based and with the subscription, we get an immense amount of technical support and access to instructional resources that are of greater quality than that of Mendeley or Zotero.

Cost

With the latter two programmes, however, your storage capacity is limited and you have to pay extra if you want or need additional storage. With EndNote, you essentially have unlimited storage.

Windows/Mac Compatibility

All three programmes are compatible with Windows and MacOS and with MS Word and MS Word Online. However, Mendeley and Zotero seem to have the edge when it comes to being compatible with open source word processors.

Availability on other platforms

All three programmes have a local desktop and online version available. However, EndNote also has an app for iPads, but not for Android just as yet.

Functionality

All three programmes have similar means of importing references, either through direct export from databases, adding them manually, importing PDFs that generate references if the necessary metadata is available. Mendeley has a very convenient, if somewhat unstable, web importer that makes importing multiple references from a website much easier. EndNote also has a web extension called EndNote Click, which works well on Google Scholar and some academic databases, like Web of Science and PubMed. But it still has a ways to go before it is as effective as Mendeley Web Importer. EndNote can also be connected to your institution, i.e. SU, and through that you can find the full text of references if we have access to them. This is not a fool-proof system either and it does not always find the PDFs, but it is a new feature of EndNote and is sure to improve in effectiveness.

Style editing is perhaps where EndNote outshines Mendeley and Zotero by far. EndNote has a simplified style editor that allows you to customise your referencing style to exactly fit the needs of your department, faculty or the journal you aim to publish in. EndNote also has an online library of 7000+ styles available, so before you decide to create a style for a journal, be sure to check there isn't one available already. Mendeley and Zotero make use of a Citation Style Language editor to create and edit styles and these are tricky, even for experienced users to navigate and use.

All three platforms have online search functionality that vary in effectiveness. Our advice remains that you should rather stick to using academic databases when you search for academic sources.

Mendeley does have one feature that is sorely missed in EndNote. That is its notebook. While you can make notes and annotations in PDFs on EndNote, with Mendeley you get a notebook where you can view and navigate through all the notes you have made in all of your PDFs. We're holding thumbs that EndNote will develop a similar feature soon. The benefit of EndNote being a subscription based platform is that they continuously need to innovate to maintain their client base, so we are certain that features that are currently lacking will soon be added.

Sharing and Collaboration

All three platforms have great sharing and collaboration options available. Unfortunately, with all three your team will all have to use the same platform since they are not cross-compatible. So if you use EndNote, your whole team will have to use it and this can make it difficult if you are collaborating with colleagues from other institutions who do not have access to EndNote. One thing that does make EndNote different to Mendeley or Zotero is that you can share your entire library with colleagues, or just the folders you want to share. With Mendeley and Zotero, you can only share folders.

Is EndNote available to anyone at SU?

Yes, we have an institutional subscription, which means that any student or staff member at SU can get EndNote. However, we still discourage undergraduates from using reference managers, since they first need to learn how to reference and cite properly before they can make optimal use of reference managers.

I have been using Mendeley/Zotero to reference in my thesis, must I switch to EndNote?

No, you do not have to switch over to EndNote, especially if you are in the advanced stages of your thesis/dissertation. It can be a tedious and distracting exercise to switch over to EndNote at the later stages, so we recommend that you rather finish your current research project before switching over.

I have installed EndNote on my Mac device and clicked on it to run, but nothing seems to be happening

Unlike EndNote for Windows, EndNote Mac does not prompt you to create a new library the first time you launch the software and you need to do it manually. To learn more on how to do that, check Step 15 in the installation instructions here.

I have many folders in Mendeley, is there a way they can be replicated in EndNote?

Unfortunately, there is no way to replicate these folders and you will have to manually reorganise your references once you have imported your Mendeley library to EndNote.

Can I share my EndNote library or folders with colleagues?

Yes, you can either share your entire library, or specific folders (called Groups in EndNote) with colleagues. More about sharing with EndNote can be viewed in these PDFs:

Windows

EndNote 21 Library Sharing

MacOS

EndNote 21 Library Sharing

Can I use EndNote without internet access

Yes absolutely. EndNote works perfectly well without internet access. The online library serves more as a backup of your data.

How do I import references into EndNote

You can learn more about importing references here:

Windows

Adding a new reference

MacOS

Adding a new reference

How do I manage and edit citations in EndNote?

You can learn more about importing references here:

Windows

Managing citations

MacOS

Managing citations

EndNote 21 can recover your library from the EndNote Cloud and get you back where you belong
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* Protect Your Work With Data Restoration Function


The single reference restoration feature introduces the ability to compare and restore previous versions of individual references to correct any accidental mishaps. And, if the unthinkable should happen and your library files get deleted or damaged, you can restore your library with our new data restoration function, ensuring your research is not lost.

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* Stay Organized with Tags

Tags are customizable labels that let you organize your references however you'd like. You can add tags to references and customize the colour and name of the tags. You can add multiple tags to a reference and anyone who you share your library with can view a tag, making tags a great way to quickly and intuitively organize your references.

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Note: Now Tags are available in EndNote Web (Refer below about the new interface) i.e. we will be able to create, edit, and manage the Tags on EndNote Web, just like a Desktop version. In addition, Tags that we have created on the Web will sync to the EndNote 21 Desktop, and vice-versa. 

                        EndNote Web                              EndNote 21 Desktop  
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* New Exclusive EndNote Web Interface

With the newly redesigned EndNote Web, you can sync seamlessly between online, desktop, and iOS devices. The brand-new EndNote Web is available only to EndNote 21 customers for 3 years from the activation date.

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* EndNote: Word Online CWYW

Our best-in-class Cite While You Write tool makes it easy to insert your EndNote references into Word Online. Cite While You Write automatically creates, formats, and reformats in-text citations and reference lists. EndNote 21 Cite While You Write for Word Online add-in now has a native integration with Word Online and is the perfect tool for collaboration with your research colleagues. It allows you to pool your references with your collaborators' references. Cite While You Write requires an EndNote Web account activated with EndNote 21. Cite Wile You Write has a direct integration with your EndNote 21 Web account. Refer here for more information. 

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* Cite While You Write in Google Docs™

CWYW is available for EndNote 21 customers in Google Docs™ via Google Workspace Marketplace, making it easier to write your next paper and to collaborate on documents with colleagues. Refer here for more information. 

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Cite While You Write Add-in Guide

 

Click here to learn how to install the Desktop (EndNote 21/20...) Add-in to Word app

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Click here for Office Add-in

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Click here for Google Add-in


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Click here for EndNote Online Add-in

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Click here for Apple Pages

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Click here for Windows LibreOffice 

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Click here for Windows OpenOffice

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Click here for Windows WPS


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Reference Style

 

1. How can I find an Output Style that is not included with EndNote?

   If you do not see the style you want in the list of styles in EndNote Style Manager, check our website here first. Suppose the style is not listed on our website, then we do not have the output style you seek.
   You might consider checking the EndNote Forum to see if anyone else has created the style you seek, or you can add a suggestion for the style to be created. Periodically we create newly requested styles and 
   post them on our website.

   If you need a new style right away, you can create a new one or you can identify a similar style and modify it. The style editing guide can be found here: EndNote Windows and Mac: Style Editing Guide.


2. How can I add style to the EndNote Website?

   To add style to our website, you would need to request the journal editor or librarian to submit a request here.

   Note: Requests from individuals will not be processed here. The form needs to be submitted by journal editorial staff and professional staff supporting EndNote only.



3. Can I add more styles to my EndNote programme?

    EndNote has over 6,000 bibliographic styles, however, the application only provides the most often-used output types. If you want to add additional styles, then refer here for more information and instructions.



4. Can I share a customized output style with a colleague?

   EndNote allows us to modify any style and share it with others via email. You can refer here for instructions.


5. Why are the references automatically bulleted and misaligned?

    Mostly it might be due to Word's Style setting rather than EndNote. Correcting the style settings should resolve this issue. For the steps, you can refer here.


6. Can I add or modify the style in the EndNote Online?

    No. You cannot add or modify the style in the EndNote Online. If you have Basic EndNote Online, you have 21 styles to utilise and you can check the list here. However, if you are affiliated with any organization 
    via Web of Science, you can reach out to your EndNote Online admin to upload the style. You can find more information here.


7. Why are my Journal Names not abbreviated correctly?

     You will need to check the term list of the Journals if the Abbreviation 1 or 2 is listed correctly. For the steps and instructions, you can refer here.

Groups

 

I have 500+ references on various topics. How can I categorise them?

You can use Smart Groups that help arrange the references by keywords, author, journal, and so on. When you add new references to the library, they will be filed automatically to the Smart Group based on the
     settings. You can refer to this here for more information.



How can I move references to a folder/group in the EndNote library?

     Groups make it easy to break a large library into subsets for later viewing. A group simply points to a subset of references that already exist in the library. There are various methods for transferring references to
     certain groups. For the steps and more information, please click here.



How can I identify which groups the references belong to?

    In EndNote, you can use the “Reference Summary” whereas the version before EndNote 20 is called "Record Summary". option to find the groups to which the references belong. To check this,

    1. Highlight any reference in your EndNote library
    2. In EndNote 20, go to the References tab then choose Reference Summary. In previous versions, you can also right-click on it to choose “Reference Summary”.
    3. The information will display in the “Reference Summary” as the following:

  • Web of Science Times Cited:
  • Date Added:
  • Last Updated:
  • Fields Used:
  • Custom and Smart Groups:


How can I restore references from the Trash folder/group?

     The references moved to the Trash folder can be restored to your EndNote library. The steps are outlined below:
 

  1. Click on the Trash folder in the Groups Panel.
  2. Highlight the references shown on the right side.
  3. From the "References" menu, choose "Restore to Library".

    Alternatively, you can drag and drop the references from Trash to a specific group or the All References group.

    NOTE: References can be restored to the "All References" group only and not to Custom Groups.


Can I add references to the Group Sets?

     You cannot add references to the Group Sets. Group  Set helps to break down or combine more than one topic in a library. For instance, in a library name Master Library, there are groups divided by Fruits,
     Animals and Plants. In each group set, you can create custom groups to help with your research.



How can I share a group with my colleague?

     To share a group, your colleague and you need to have an EndNote Online account. Then, create a group that you would like to share and add references.  For the instructions, please refer here.

Sync and Share

 

Full Text & PDF

 

1. Can I export my references to Excel?

EndNote library data can be exported to a tab-delimited file and then imported into Excel. Refer here for instructions.

 

2. Can I import a CSV file into my library?

EndNote does not have an import filter for CSV files but you can open a CSV file with Excel and then use the steps from the Knowledge Base article to turn the file into a tab-delimited file which can be imported into EndNote.

 

3. Can I download the references from the Google Scholar site?

We must configure Google Scholar to save references in an EndNote-compatible format. Refer here for instructions.



4. Can I export the references from the PubMed online database to my EndNote program?


You can follow the instructions from here for exporting the references from PubMed to the EndNote program. 



5. Is there an issue with exporting to EndNote on a Mac?


There are known problems using Direct Export with Chrome and current Safari browsers on a macOS system. In most cases, instead of importing directly into EndNote™, the browser will instead save a file onto the Desktop. This is due to the way these browsers handle MIME types; they interfere with the ability to directly export from certain websites into EndNote.

Try accessing the website and exporting using a Mozilla-based browser instead (see http://www.firefox.com/). Mozilla-based browsers like Firefox allow you to specify how to handle the data when you initiate a direct export, permitting you to select the EndNote application.

NOTE:  If you minimize your library before you try to export from Firefox it will not get imported. You need to leave the library open and not minimized for it to directly import into the open library.



6. Is it possible to export references from a document to my EndNote Library?

We can use the Export Travel Library command as long as the references (with active field codes) are cited from the EndNote (both desktop & online versions).

1. Open Word and go to the EndNote tab in the Ribbon then Export to EndNote and select Export Traveling Library (On Mac: EndNote tab > Tools > Export Traveling Library).
2. EndNote will ask whether you want to import to a new library or an existing library.
3. Click OK to import the references into the specified EndNote Library.



7. Can I export references from JabRef into EndNote?

You can follow the instructions from here for exporting the references from JabRef to the EndNote.

Click on the links below for EndNote guides on the various support tools:

Below are useful links with a variety of instructional material to get you started with EndNote: