Whether you're new to EndNote or a long-time fan, improve your EndNote experience with these five advanced features.
1. Customize how EndNote looks
Some of our favorite Preferences include:
- Within "Display Fonts," make that font size bigger!
- Within "PDF Handling," have EndNote rename PDF files as Author + Year + Title.
- Within "Display Fields," hide the fields you don't use (e.g. read/unread status) and display those you do (e.g. Research Notes). Also, uncheck the box to "Display all authors in the Author field."
- Experiment with the library layout on a PC or on a Mac (page 2-4) to find what works best for you.
- Learn more on how to set your preferences on a PC or on a MAC (see chapter 3).
2. Have EndNote download PDFs for you
EndNote can retrieve full text articles for you while you take a break. Since EndNote won't find all articles we have access to at Duke, simply locate and attach the PDFs manually using the paperclip icon within each reference.
3. Get rid of duplicate references
Duplicate references can clutter up your library. Remove duplicates by going to References > Find Duplicates. Note that:
- You have the option to go through them one by one or you can click "Cancel" and then delete all duplicates at once.
- EndNote's default setting is to check for references where the author, year, and title all match. You can change this setting in Preferences > Duplicates.
- If you've searched in multiple databases, first check for duplicates, then sort by title to identify duplicates missed due to variations in database references.
4. Create a quick citation or bibliography
Do you ever need to create a bibliography without writing the full paper with in-text citations? First, set the Output Style to what you need (e.g. APA, JAMA, etc.). Then select all the references you need, right click, and select "Copy Formatted." Then paste it into your document. The Annotated style will include abstracts, which can be handy when sharing with colleagues.
5. Compress your library for back-up and for sharing via email
To do so, simply go to File > Compressed Library. You can choose to compress the entire library, selected references only, or all references within a particular group.
For additional EndNote features, check out our EndNote guide, take an EndNote class, or Ask a Librarian.