Indiana University Bloomington
University Libraries
EndNote 7: The Basics
Windows
Adapted from:
Steven Sowell (sowell@indiana.edu)
Jeff Graf (jcgraf@indiana.edu)
Introduction
EndNote is bibliographic software that allows you to create and manage a library of
references. You can store up to 32,000 references or 32 megabytes of data in a single
library. Records can be created for books, journal articles, book chapters, dissertations,
art work, recordings, web pages, letters, manuscripts, etc. After a library has been
created, you can create bibliographies of all or selected references, search the library to
find references on a specific subject or by an author, and format references in a specific
bibliographic style in a document.
Key Terms
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Library: In the context of using EndNote, a “library” is the term for your
EndNote database of references. It is a collection of records of reference
materials.
Reference: A citation for an information source such as a book, journal article, or
web page.
Reference Type: Your EndNote library can contain references from a variety of
different sources, such as books, journal articles, and newspaper articles. These
different sources are “reference types.” EndNote provides built-in forms for these
and other common reference types.
Field: A field refers to a part of an EndNote reference, such as the author, year, or
title. In the EndNote Reference window, each field is displayed as its own section,
containing a separate piece of information, such as author names or keywords.
Output Style: Styles are the files that EndNote uses to determine how to arrange
references for a wide variety of bibliographic formats. Styles are typically for
specific journals, though they can also be based on more general style guides such
as the Chicago Manual of Style or the MLA Handbook. EndNote provides more
than 400 preconfigured styles.
Import Filter: A filter is a file consisting of one or more Reference Type
templates that instruct EndNote how to interpret and import data into the
corresponding fields in EndNote from a library catalog or database.
Connection File: An EndNote file used to store the information necessary to
connect to and search online catalogs and databases directly.
Finding Help
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User Manual: EndNote.pdf
IUB Libraries Web site: http://www.bibsoft.indiana.edu/index.php3 or EndNote
Support & Services at http://www.endnote.com/support/ensupport.asp.
Help within EndNote 7
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Using the Toolbars
When you first open EndNote, the toolbars are not shown. To show the toolbars:
 Click on the Tools menu
 Click on Show Toolbar, then choose Main and it will appear.
 Repeat these steps to select the Text Style toolbar. See figure 1 below.
Figure 1
Sorting the Library Display
Your EndNote Library can be sorted easily by any displayed field in ascending or
descending order. Simply click on any column heading to sort by that field. For example,
click on the Year column and it sorts your library by year in ascending order (i.e., from
the reference with the oldest date in the Year field to the on with the most recent).
Clicking on the Year column a second time reverses the sort to descending order.
Customizing the Library Display for an EndNote Library
By default, EndNote displays first a column to indicate whether an image file is attached
to each reference, then the first author, year, title, and URL for each reference. However,
you can customize your Library Display to include any of the EndNote fields, in any
order, with a maximum of five displayed columns. For this example, assume you want to
customize the display to include reference types instead of URLs. This will help you
distinguish journal articles from books, conference proceedings from theses, etc.
From the Edit menu, choose Preferences. The Preferences panel contains a wealth of
options for customizing EndNote to suit your needs. See the list in figure 2 below. For
this example, select Display Fields from the listed options.
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Figure 2
Pull down the Column 5 menu (currently listing URL) and select Reference Type from
the list. The heading Ref Type will automatically be assigned (you can overwrite this if
you prefer). Click on OK to leave the panel.
Use the horizontal scroll bar to view the new Ref Type column to the far right in the
example library.
To resize the columns for optimal viewing, simply position the cursor along the vertical
edge of the column heading to be resized, then drag it to the left or right. This will
reapportion the viewable space within the Library window accordingly.
Selecting Default Output Styles and Previewing References
EndNote comes with four output styles as default choices in the drop-down list in the
current style window on the toolbar (Annotated, Author-Date, Numbered, and Show All).
If there are one or more output styles, such as APA or MLA, which you use on a regular
basis, you can add them to the drop-down list.
From the Edit menu, choose Output Styles and select Open Style Manager. EndNote
comes with over 1,000 different styles. Scroll through the list and select those you want
to make defaults by placing a check mark in the box to the left of the name. You can also
scroll through the styles by category by clicking on Find and selecting a category. You
also can quickly move through the alphabetical listings by pressing a letter to jump to the
listings beginning with that letter. See figure 3 below. After you have made your
selections, close the window. You choices will now appear in the drop-down list as
choices for the current style.
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Figure 3
Click the Show Preview option at the bottom of the Library window to display the
preview panel. (Click the triangle next to the words “Show Preview.”) The preview
displays the selected reference in the currently selected style. To hide the preview panel,
click on Hide Preview.
We will now create our own library. Close the example library by clicking on the close
button for the library window. Or, from the File menu choose Close Library. Or, press
Ctrl+W.
Creating an EndNote Library
An EndNote library is a collection of references, each containing the information required
to create a bibliography. Additional information such as keywords, notes, and abstracts
can also be stored in these references. Each library can store up to 32,000 references or
grow to 32 MB, whichever comes first. You can select default libraries to open
automatically when EndNote is started under Preferences on the Edit menu.
To create a new library, click on the File menu and select New. A New Reference
Library window appears. For today’s class, we will save our libraries on the Desktop or
in our CFS accounts. But, your library can be saved on any storage device. After
selecting a location to save it, give your new library a name. Note that EndNote libraries
have the file extension “*.enl.” Since the library we will build today will be focused on
the history of education, we will name the library Education History. See figure 4
below. After you have made these changes, click on Save and the new library appears as
an empty EndNote library, showing “0 references out of 0.”
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Figure 4
Creating New References
There are three ways to add references to an EndNote library. You can enter citation
information directly into a blank Reference Type template. Importing text files of
references that have been saved from online databases is another option. The third option
is to connect to an online database and retrieve references directly into EndNote. We will
add references to our new library using all three methods.
Entering References into a Reference Type Template
Choose New (or Ctrl+N) from the References menu or click on the New Reference icon
on the toolbar. An empty References window opens with the words “New Reference”
displayed at the top. Click the Reference Type drop-down menu to view the options and
select the appropriate reference type. For this example, click the Reference Type list and
choose Book. See figure 5 below.
Figure 5
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You are now ready to enter the reference information beginning with the author names.
Author names can be entered two ways: either “First Middle Last” such as “Joel Spring”
or “Last, First Middle” such as “Spring, Joel.” Individual author names must be entered
one per line.
We will use the information from the following title page. The book was published in
2001.
Figure 6
With the cursor in the “Author” field type in the following information:
Spring, Joel
As you type, EndNote may suggest names similar to the one you are typing. This is
EndNote’s way of using term lists to facilitate the process of entering new references.
The name of the author appears in red text to indicate that it is a new name in the Author
term list for this library. When you close or the save the reference, it will be added to the
Author term list and the red text will change to black.
Continue entering the reference as shown below, using the Tab key to move to the next
field, and the Shift+Tab to move to the previous field, if necessary. You can also use the
mouse to click in the desired field.
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Year: 2001
Title: The American school: 1642-2000
City: Boston
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Number of Pages: 452
Edition: 5th
Abstract: The author provides an overview of the
history of the American school and links it to the
changing concepts of citizenship.
Figure 7
Before we save this reference, we will spell check it. Select Spell Check from the Tool
menu or click on the icon on the toolbar. EndNote stops at the word “5th” and suggests
“nth” to replace it. Click on Ignore. EndNote notifies you that spell checking is complete,
click on OK.
For more information on entering references, see the EndNote manual chapter titled
“Entering and Editing References.”
Importing Reference Data from an Online Database or Catalog
If you have access to an online bibliographic database, university catalog, or database on
CD-ROM, you can probably use EndNote’s filters to import text files saved or
downloaded from these sources. EndNote filters are customizable so they give you the
flexibility to import only the reference data you need.
To transfer references from an online bibliographic database into EndNote, you will need
to save a text file with information in an EndNote-friendly format. How you do this will
vary from one data provider to another. In the EndNote manual’s chapter “Importing
Reference Data into EndNote” you will find a table containing instruction for saving your
data for each of the data providers EndNote has preconfigured filters for.
For text to be imported with an EndNote filter, the data must be consistently “tagged,”
with each tag starting on a new line, and the file saved as ANSI or ASCII text. Here are
two examples of such an output:
AU- SPAN, CHRISTOPHER M.
TI- EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL REFORMS FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN JUVENILE
DELINQUENTS IN 19TH CENTURY NEW YORK CITY AND PHILADELPHIA
PY- 2002
SO- JOURNAL-OF-NEGRO-EDUCATION. VOL. 71, NO.3, PG.108-117
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Author: Span, Christopher M.
Title: Educational and Social Reforms for African American
Juvenile Delinquents in 19th Century New York City and
Philadelphia
Year: 2002
Source: Journal of Negro Education. Vol. 71, (2) Pp.108-117
In this example, you will download a search from Academic Search Premier and import
its results into EndNote.
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To begin, access Academic Search Premier using the links from the IUB Libraries
web site (http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=16) using Internet
Explorer.
In the box labeled “Find” type the words “american educational history.”
Click on the Search button to conduct the search. You should see the page change
to show your search results.
Select the first four references by clicking on the folder icon to the right of the
citation. It’s also labeled “Add.”
Next, at the top of the page, click on “Folder has items” to display the four
selected references.
Click on the icon labeled “Save to Disk.”
On the next screen, click on the tab labeled “Bibliographic Manager.”
For this example we will use the first option (“Save citations in a format…). It is
already selected by default.
Click on Save.
On the next screen follow the instructions at the top: “To continue, select FILE
then SAVE AS from your browser's toolbar above. Be sure to save as a plain text
file (.txt) or an HTML file (.html).”
Save this file on the Desktop or to your CFS account. Give your file a name and
remember to “Save as type: Text File (*.txt).” Finally, click on Save.
In EndNote select Import from the File menu.
Click the Choose File button, then locate and open the text file you saved
containing the records you want to import. Make sure “Files of Type” is set to
“All Files” to view text files.
Click on the Import Option drop-down menu to select the filter you will use. The
Import Options includes a number of default options. It also includes recently
used filters and any filters you have selected as “favorites” in the Filter Manager.
Note that most of the filters include a database name, followed by an abbreviated
name of the data provider in parentheses.
Select Other Filters to open the Filter Manager, showing the complete list of the
available EndNote filters. Select Acad Search Elite (EBSCO) from the Filter
Manager list. This filter should now appear in the Import Option line. Once you
select a filter to import a file, EndNote retains that setting until you change it.
Select your preferred option from the Duplicates drop-down menu. By default, a
reference is considered a duplicate if the author, year, title, and reference type
match a reference already in the library. These criteria may be changed in the
EndNote preferences.
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The Text Translation option can be used to improve EndNote’s handling of
accented characters. Change this setting only if accented characters are not
importing correctly.
Click the Import button to begin the process.
Figure 8
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When the import is complete, only newly imported references are displayed in the
library window. This facilitates checking and editing them if necessary. To view
all of the references in your library, select Show All References from the
References menu.
Searching Remote Databases and Catalogs
EndNote’s search interface provides a simple way to do basic searches of local EndNote
libraries and remote databases. The same Search window is used for both purposes,
removing the need to learn a separate program to search online databases. This search
interface is not intended to replace the advanced search options offered by our
information provider’s interface. There may be times when you want to use the
information provider’s search interface (for example, to take advantage of a thesaurus of
search terms) and then import the references into EndNote.
The first step in searching a remote database or catalog is connecting to it, so we begin
this example by connecting to the IU Libraries’ catalog, IUCAT. Note that EndNote
offers a variety of connection files to remote databases. Some of these databases are by
paid subscription only and some are by free public access. Library catalogs and the
Library of Congress book catalog are examples of public-access databases.
Choose Connect from the Tools menu and then select Connect again. The Connect
menu presents a “favorites” list of databases to which you have successfully connected
previously. You may also customize this list using the Connection Manager. See the
EndNote manual for details.
Select the Indiana U connection file (type the first letter of the name to quickly jump to it
in the list), and click on the Connect button to direct EndNote to connect to IUCAT.
When the connection has been successfully established, EndNote opens a window
showing “Connected to: IUCAT at Indiana University,” which will be populated with
retrieved references after searching. This is the Retrieved References window. In front of
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this window you will see the Search window. Note that the “Search Remote’ option is
automatically selected. EndNote is ready to search the remote database.
Enter the search term(s) to find
the references you need.
Searching a remote database is
very similar to searching an
EndNote library.
Enter the term “educational
history” in the search window and
click the Search button.
Figure 9
EndNote sends the search request off to the remote database and a summary of the search
results is displayed.
Figure 10
The dialog displays the number of references found that match your search request and
gives you the option to retrieve them. If the result set seems too large, you can refine the
search. To do so, click Cancel, return to the EndNote search window, and enter
additional search criteria.
Change the number in the second box in the window to “10: and click OK. The first ten
references are downloaded and appear in the Retrieved References window.
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Figure 11
At this point you can peruse the retrieved references to see which ones you would like to
keep, and then save the references you want by transferring them into one of your own
EndNote libraries.
The selected references can be copied to an open library using drag-and-drop or the
“Copy and Paste” commands. You can also copy references directly to a library that is
open, to a library that is closed, or to a new library using the Copy References To button
as described below.
For this example, we’ll save a few of the retrieved references to our example library.
Select a subset of the references
displayed by holding down the
Ctrl key and clicking on the
individual references. (Shift-click
to select a range of references.)
Choose the option Copy #
References To (where “#” stands
for the number of references) and
select the list example library.
Notice that the open libraries appear below the New Library and Choose Library choices.
When you close the Retrieved References window for IUCAT, EndNote alerts you that
the references in the Retrieved References window will be discarded. Because you have
already saved what you needed, you may click OK and close the window.
Searching for References and Creating a Bibliography
Let’s assume that you want to generate a list of all references in the library that have been
published in 2004.
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Select Search References from the References menu or type Ctrl+F.
Type “2003” as the search term
The words “Any Field” above “2004” mean that EndNote will search all fields in the
library for the work “2004.”
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Select Year from the field list, and then select is from the comparison list.
Click the Search button to begin the search. In a moment, EndNote displays the
search results.
Figure 12
The status of your search will be in the bottom left corner of the library window and
should now read, “Showing X references out of XXX.” You are still looking at the same
library you were before, but EndNote has restricted the view to display only the results of
the search.
Figure 13
Sometimes you will want a list of references that are independent of an article or paper.
For this example will create an independent bibliography.
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The references in the bibliography will be sorted in the order in which they appear
in the main library window in EndNote.
From the Edit menu, select Output Styles, and then select the APA 5th style. (If
APA 5th is not on the list of available styles, select Open Style Manager, and
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then scroll to the APA 5th style and mark it. This will add it to your list of
“favorite” styles.)
Select Print from the File menu. A standard print dialog will appear. Click OK to
begin printing.
Another way to create an independent bibliography is to use the Copy Formatted
command. Use this option if you would like to be able to customize headers, footers,
heading titles, etc. in your bibliography before printing. To do this, select the style you
want the references to appear in by selecting Output Style from the Edit menu.
Highlight the references you would like to include in EndNote. Select Copy Formatted
from the Edit menu. Open your word processor and create a new document, and then
select Paste from the Edit menu in your word processor. The references you highlighted
in EndNote will be copied into your document with the formatting of the style that was
selected in EndNote. You can now save this file as you would any other word-processing
document.
Citing While You Write
EndNote’s Cite While You Write technology allows users of Microsoft Word to format
papers in one step within the word processor. EndNote inserts commands on the Word
Tools menu to give you direct access to your references while writing. Find Citation(s)
and Format Bibliography are the main functions on this menu.
For this example, start a new document in Word. Type “Bibliographies are easier than
ever with EndNote’s instant formatting.” You are now ready to insert a citation at this
location in the paper. From the Tools menu in Word select EndNote 7 and then Find
Citation(s).
Figure 14
In the upper left corner of the dialog box, next to Search type the keyword “2003” and
then click the Search button or press Enter. Highlight one of the records retrieved and
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click Insert or press Enter. This citation is inserted and formatted in the current output
style selected in EndNote.
It is very easy to change the output style of your citations in your Word document. From
the Tools menu in Word, select EndNote 7 and then Format Bibliography. The dialog
box below appears:
Figure 15
Change the output style with the drop-down list on the Format Bibliography tab.
Use the Layout tab to adjust your bibliography’s attributes.
Enable or disable EndNote’s Instant Formatting feature by clicking on the Instant
Formatting tab.
The Libraries Used tab tells you which EndNote libraries were used to format this paper.
Click on the pull-down menu next to With output style and select Numbered from this
list, and then click OK. Watch EndNote reformat your in-text citations and bibliography.
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