This document aims to provide a fairly complete list of new or changed features in version X2 of EndNote.

CONTENTS

COMPATIBILITY

Windows

EndNote X2 will run on Windows XP (service pack 2) and Vista.

For word processing, it is compatible with Word 2003 and 2007.

Macintosh

EndNote X2 will run on OS X (10.4.x, 10.5.x)

For word processing, it is compatible with Microsoft Word X, 2004, 2008.

TOOLBARS

There are no longer toolbars at the top of the EndNote screen, under the main menu bar. Instead, there is a Library Toolbar which appears at the top of the Library window, and a Reference Toolbar, which appears at the top of the Reference window (when it is open). The commands which appeared on the toolbars in earlier versions of EndNote are now split between the two new toolbars. For example, all the text style tools are now on the Reference Toolbar.

As in the past, only common commands are accessible from the toolbars. Many commands are only accessible from the top menu bar.

GROUPS

There is a new Groups item on the EndNote menu bar. It gives access to the Hide Groups/Show Groups command, which was available on the main toolbar in the previous version.

The Groups Pane at the left of the library window has now been divided into five categories:

• Temporary Groups (All References, Search Results, Imported References, Trash, etc.)
• Custom Groups (created by the user, as in EndNote X1)
• Smart Groups (see below)
• Online Search (see below)
• EndNote Web (to transfer references to or from EndNote Web)

You need to be conscious of the group which you have currently selected in the Groups Pane. Functions that you perform will only apply to that group. If you want the function to apply to the whole library, you must select the All References group.

A plugin was released in February 2009 which makes it possible to identify references that have not been assigned to any group. See the installation instructions.

Smart Groups

Smart Groups are proving to be a popular feature. These are groups which you set up with an inbuilt search strategy. When new references are added to the library, they are searched by each of the Smart Groups. If they fit the parameters of any of the Smart Groups, they are automatically added to that group.

To set up a Smart Group, either go to Groups>Create Smart Group, or use the Search function, and click on the Options button and select Convert to Smart Group.

To edit the search terms for the smart group, do a right-click on the group name in the Groups Pane, and select Edit Group.

It seems that Smart Groups are to be used as a temporary location for references, which can then be moved into a normal Custom Group. There is no facility for moving an ungrouped reference into a Smart Group: references can only be moved into Custom Groups.

A Smart Group can have the same name as a Custom Group.

To delete a reference from a Smart Group, highlight the reference, click on Edit on the top menu bar and select Clear.

Online Search Groups

Any connection files which you have marked as favourites will be listed in the Online Search group in the Groups pane. You can click on the name of the connection file here to launch it quickly. Other connection files that you have used during the current session will also be listed here.

The search is performed in the Tab Pane. As in the past, you specify how many references you want to retrieve, and these references will be displayed in the main pane of the library window. These references are automatically added to your library.

The automatic adding of retrieved references to the library has proved extremely unpopular with users. As a result, the X2.0.1 patch includes a feature which allows you to choose between different modes of using the groups.

A useful new feature will eliminate duplicates retrieved from an online search. If a reference is already in the library, it will not be downloaded during an online search. To activate this feature, click on Edit>Preferences and select Duplicates. Under Online Search Results, check the box Automatically discard duplicates.

An online search is now specific to a particular library. It is possible to have more than one library open and so conduct online searches of different databases at the same time.

Modes

The X2.0.1 patch introduces modes, which allow different presentations of the Groups panel. Depending on the mode chosen, the panel either hides or shows particular Groups. Users choose the active mode by the three new toolbar controls:



1. Integrated
2. Local
3. Online (Temporary Library)

 



 

These toolbar icons remain depressed when clicked, indicating the current mode. But only one remains depressed at any given time. The leftmost button is for Integrated mode, the middle is for Local mode, and the rightmost is for Online mode. They can be clicked in any order. Thus users can freely move from one mode to another, although Local and Online tend to be used in conjunction with each other.

The default mode when EndNote X2 is installed is Integrated. However if the user then selects one of the other modes, EndNote will remember that choice when it is shut down, and it will reopen in Local mode. Library windows never open up directly in Online mode.

In the Integrated mode, all groups appear in the Groups Pane, including the Online Search groups. When performing an online search, results are downloaded directly into the user's library and added to the All References group (i.e. the complete EndNote library).

Online and Local modes are similar to the multi-window remote search used in prior versions of EndNote:

Local mode hides the online groups and displays only those groups containing references found in the user's library. This includes Custom, Smart, and ENWeb groups.

Online mode presents only the Online Search groups, in addition to the Online References and Online Trash auto-groups. All the references found in these groups are located in a temporary database, separate from the user's library, but displayed in the normal library window. There is no Retrieved References window, as in earlier versions of EndNote. In Online mode, users can search and download references from remote databases without affecting their own library. To copy any required references to their permanent library they must select those references and use the References>Copy References To command.

The user can switch between any of the modes via the toolbar, though going from Online to Integrated deletes the temporary database associated with Online mode. Going from Online to Local closes the remote search, but it does not discard the temporarily retrieved references. They are only deleted when the library is closed.

FOLDER LOCATIONS

There has been a significant change in the location of the Filters, Styles and Connections folders. The locations of these folders can be seen by clicking on Edit>Preferences>Folder Locations.

In earlier versions, these folders were, by default, stored with the EndNote Program Files. This caused two problems:

• The folder locations formed part of the Preferences, and the Preferences were copied from the earlier version of EndNote when updating to a new version. This meant that many users were still accessing these folders from the earlier version, even after they had installed the new version. It was necessary to go into the Preferences and select the new locations.
• Users of Windows Vista could not edit filters, styles or connection files, because they were denied access to the Program Files area. They had to change the folder locations and move the files so that they could edit them.

In EndNote X2, the user has personal folders which are located at:

• C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\My Documents\EndNote\ (on Windows XP) or
• C:\Users\[UserName]\Documents\EndNote (on Windows Vista).

New or modified filters, styles and connections are stored in the personal folders. If you wish to save a filter, style or connection which you have downloaded from the web, or been sent by a colleague, you must save it in your personal folders.

If you are editing a filter, style or connection file supplied with the software, you cannot save your changes unless you have selected the personal folders in the Folder Locations of the Preferences. If your Folder Locations are still pointing to the Program Files, you will not be able to save the changes, and you will not receive any error message explaining why.

This will cause some confusion for experienced users who are upgrading from an earlier version. Because the Preferences are carried over from the earlier version, their Folder Locations will still be pointing to the Program Files. The easiest way to fix this is to go to the Preferences and select the Folder Locations, and then click on the EndNote Defaults button to set up the location for the personal folders.

When you view the Style Manager, Filter Manager or Connection Manager, you are seeing both the files supplied with the software and the files in your personal folders. If you save a file to your personal folders, and the file has the same name as a file in the program folders, you will only see your personal copy, although the other file is still in the program folders.

The files in your personal folders are not affected if you uninstall EndNote or upgrade to another version.

FIND FULL TEXT

There is a new command under the References menu: Find Full Text. If you highlight one or more references and select this option, EndNote will try to locate the full text of the article(s). If EndNote is able to find the full text, it will download it and attach it to the reference as a File Attachment.

If the articles are only available in subscription databases, this function will only work if you are using a computer with your institution's IP address. It does not work off-campus via EZproxy. Articles in freely available (open access) journals can be retrieved from any computer with an Internet connection.

EndNote apparently detects the Windows proxy settings on your computer. If you are using a proxy server that requires authentication to access external websites, the Find Full Text function will not work, because it has no means of authentication.

While searching and download is in progress, a Stop full text download icon appears in the footer of the library window. References for which full text has been downloaded will be added to a temporary Full Text group.

Full text will be retrieved for only a portion of the articles which you can access electronically. The following factors will assist in retrieval of full text:

• Link to PubMed record: If you have downloaded the references using the PubMed connection file, they will have links in the URL field which connect to the PubMed record on the web. EndNote can make use of the LinkOut links from PubMed to locate full text of articles. Or if you have downloaded references from PubMed with a filter which imports the PubMed ID into the Accession Number field in EndNote, this can also be used to connect back to PubMed and use the LinkOut links to locate full text.
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI): If the record has a correct digital object identifier in the DOI field, EndNote can use that to locate full text of articles.
• Go to ISI link: If you have exported the references from the Web of Knowledge databases, they will have links in the URL field which connect to the Web of Knowledge record on the web. EndNote can make use of the Full Text links in Web of Knowledge to locate the full text of articles.
• EndNote Web: Using EndNote Web in conjunction with EndNote will aid in full text retrieval. Note that you should enter your EndNote Web username and password in the EndNote Preferences. The presence of an international standard serial number in the ISSN field of the EndNote reference plays an important role here.
• OpenURL: We are told that you must Enable OpenURL to use the Find Full Text function. To do this, click on Edit>Preferences and select URLs & Links. It is not clear how the Find Full Text function makes use of the OpenURL Link function, which has been available since EndNote 7. The OpenURL Link command is likely to retrieve a higher proportion of articles than the Find Full Text command, but it can only be used for one article at a time, and you must manually save the retrieved PDF and attach it to the reference. OpenURL Link works best if your library has implemented a link resolver. You should enter the details of the link resolver in the URLs & Links section of the EndNote Preferences. Otherwise you must use a generic link resolver, such as the one supplied in the EndNote default settings.
• Internet Explorer 7: We are told that Windows users will get better results if they are using Internet Explorer version 7.

If EndNote is unable to download the full text of the article, it may insert a link in the URL field of the reference. You will see a message in the footer of the library window, e.g. Attached 3 URLs. These references will be added to the temporary Full Text group, but they will lack the paperclip icon in the File Attachments column (if you have chosen to display the File Attachments column in your library window). The link inserted in the URL field will take you to the webpage for the article. From there, you may be able to download the full text and attach it manually to your reference.

The Find Full Text function will only work with articles available from certain large online electronic journal collections, such as ScienceDirect. The X2.0.1 patch extends the number of these collections to include databases such as Wiley Interscience and SpringerLink.

PREFERENCES

Under Libraries there are new options available. By default, when EndNote starts, it will open the most recently used library, as with previous versions.

There is a new section, EndNote Web, where you can store your EndNote Web username and password. This is to avoid having to enter it every time that you wish to transfer references to or from an EndNote Web account. It also assists retrieval when using the new Find Full Text command.

DELETED REFERENCES

Instead of being deleted, references are now placed in a special Trash group (References>Move References to Trash). This removes them from the library but stores them until you click on the Trash group and use the References>Empty Trash command. You will be prompted to emtpy the trash whenever you close the library.

FIGURES

If figures have been inserted into references in the past, there is now an option to convert them to file attachments (References>Figure>Convert Figures to File Attachments). This will be useful for those who have stored PDFs of journal articles as figures. This was a fairly common practice before EndNote X introduced a special PDF folder as part of the library's Data folder.

LIBRARY SUMMARY

There is a new Library Summary command on the Tools menu. It displays some basic data about the library. Probably the most useful piece of data is the location of the library on the user's computer. Those involved in providing EndNote support frequently encounter unsophisticated users who do not know where they have saved their library.

RECORD SUMMARY

Some basic data about each reference can be displayed by highlighting the reference in the library window, and then clicking on References>Record Summary.

DATE STAMPING

References now include automatic date stamp information. Each reference displays an Added to Library date and a Last Updated date in the footer of the reference window. Obviously references will not contain an Added to Library date if they were entered using an earlier version of EndNote, but they will have a Last Updated date corresponding to the date on which the library was first opened in EndNote X2.

In previous versions of EndNote there was a Last Modified Date field that could be used for this purpose. In EndNote X2, this field is no longer used and it is has become a custom field (Custom 8). However users of earlier versions who had entered data in that field will find that it is still present when they upgrade, but the field is now called Custom 8.

The Search dialog and the Sort dialog in EndNote X2 now include fields for Added to Library and Last Updated, so it is possible to search your library for references added on (or after, or before) a certain date, and also to sort your references by date added or date last updated. In the Search dialog, when you select the fields Added to Library or Last Updated, the box where you enter the search terms now has a drop-down menu with a widget that allows you to select the required date.

REFERENCE TYPES

Six new reference types have been introduced: Aggregated Database, Blog, Catalog, Pamphlet, Serial and Standard.

TAB PANE

The Preview Pane at the bottom of the Library window has now become the Tab Pane. It contains a Preview tab and a Search tab.

There is a Quick Search box on the library toolbar, but the Search tab in the Tab Pane brings up the full search dialog box. To search the whole library, you must first click on the All References group in the Groups Pane. To search only a particular group, click on the group name in the Groups Pane.

The order of the boxes in the Search tab has become more logical. First you choose your field, then the modifier (e.g. Contains, Is less than) and finally you enter the search term. (In EndNote X1, the search term came before the field, followed by the modifier.)

The Search tab also becomes the search window when using the Online Search function (connection file).

DIRECT EXPORT

When using the direct export function from databases, EndNote no longer asks you to choose a library if you already have a library open. It assumes that you want to import the references into the open library.

TOOLS MENU

The Search Library, Sort Library and Change and Move Fields commands have moved from the References section of the menu bar to the Tools section of the menu bar.

STYLES EDITOR

When editing an output style, you now select fonts from a menu at the top of the style edit window.

COMPRESSING THE LIBRARY

This function is a little more visible now on the File menu. There is a new command which allows you to both compress and email a library, using your default email system.

EndNote libraries larger than 4 gigabytes cannot be compressed.

64-BIT PROCESSORS

Although version X2 is a 32-bit application, it has been designed to work in 64-bit environments. However we are warned that there may be some "issues".

KNOWN PROBLEMS

Many users find that EndNote X2 is slow to load. The solution suggested by EndNote Technical Support is to reduce the number of files in the Filters, Styles and Connections folders. As most users only require a small number of these files, the majority could be removed and stored in another folder in case they are later required.