Article: References in hand

The major new release of EndNote has arrived, and we’ve been working flat out to keep up with demand for upgrades over the past few weeks. If we take a moment to consider why, perhaps it’s not surprising, as EndNote 7 has a long, long list of enhancements which include most of the popular requests from users of the previous versions. Many of these requests will be familiar to the members of our email list.

Stephanie Marshall
Bibliographic Software Team

Already the feature creating the biggest stir in EndNote 7 is the ability to free our EndNote libraries from the desktop using a Palm handheld computer. Although methods of transferring data to handhelds have existed in earlier versions, EndNote 7 allows us to search, edit and beam references, and then use the “HotSync” function to back up your EndNote library to the desktop.

The EndNote application for Palm OS handheld devices uses a format that supports all of the reference types and fields used in the desktop EndNote application. It allows us to enter EndNote references into the desktop version of EndNote and/or into a handheld device. It’s then straightforward to synchronise files between your EndNote libraries easily. It’s also possible to beam individual references to another Palm OS handheld.

The software works with every handheld device from Palm, Inc. (such as the Tungsten series, Zire series or m series) using the Palm Operating System 3.1 to 5.2.

But this new feature is just one of many which we’ve been pleased to see. Another great addition is the introduction of the “subject bibliography”, a real time-saver when creating a bibliography with topic headings. Simply select the field “Author”, followed by specific author names, to view the finished bibliography. And of course you can control the look of your subject bibliography by selecting a particular output style, choosing a sort order for the references. You can even recycle reference numbers.

Many users will be pleased to see that EndNote can now insert a figure or table anywhere in a Microsoft Word document. It allows us to place figures and tables within the text, or create figure and table lists at the end of a document. EndNote also now uses the chart/table reference type to handle tables separately from figures. New output style settings to specify the caption location for a figure or table, either above or below.

There’s an increasing demand for EndNote to be more compatible with word processors other than Microsoft Word, and EndNote 7’s RTF features handle this, enabling bibliographies to be created using StarOffice, OpenOffice, AppleWorks, FrameMaker and more. EndNote 7 scans RTF documents containing temporary EndNote citations and creates a bibliography instantly. It’s easy to copy selected references from an EndNote library reference list and paste temporary citations into a document. The RTF document scan feature provides a status report on unmatched citations and offers over 1,000 output styles to create the final bibliography.

One final feature we should highlight is that EndNote 7 extends the ways to collect data from many online resources and to publish manuscripts. There are new and updated content files-connection files, output styles, import filters and manuscript templates, both in the upgrade and in the download centre at http://downloads.adeptscience.co.uk. All in all then, a practical and workmanlike upgrade to the world’s best-selling reference management software, which we think will prove very popular amongst users at every level of sophistication.