I frequently use different computers in my work - laptop, home desktop, office desktop… I use EndNote 9 and whatever Windows version is on my computers - XP and Vista. Right now I use only one when I am changing anything to do with EndNote.
Any suggestions for me? Thanks!
Are you asking how to transfer the library, or are you connected with the network, where your library resides? If you need to transfer the EN9 library to other machines, you must transfer both the .enl library file AND the folder “libraryname”.DATA and all the files in that folder and they must end up in the same configuration on the other computer (both the libraryname.enl file and libraryname.DATA folder must reside in the same folder). ENX and later has a compress library function that makes this much easier.
Is EN9 installed on all your computers? It is my understanding that you can install a personal single copy of EN on all three machines, if you are the sole user and the software would be used on those 3 machines by you only.
With respect to EN9 and vista, you should read the following FAQ: http://www.endnote.com/envista.asp and http://www.endnote.com/support/faqs/Styles/faq6.asp.
I don’t know this way fits to all, but let me tell you what I do.
I carry portable hard drive, like Seagate FreeAgent Go 320GB, holding all the necessary data for my work. I use folder/file synchronization software, like FolderMatch or CopyTo, to synchronize the data files between portable hard drive and PCs at work/home/laptop. Synchronization is done in less than a minute, so I usually do it when I get a cup of coffee or something before getting started.
This method synchronize all the files in .data folder and .enl files so I can alwasy work with the most updated files wherever I go, whichever the PC I use. Also, I alwasy have duplicated back up at work, at home, and in the laptop. The problem is, if some files get corrupted, the corrupted ones are also copied (synchronized) and the healthy ones are overwritten. To prevent such disaster, I’ve added scheduled backup of the entire data. In one case, I was able to rescue corrupted files by going back to the back up files, although I lost some a few hours of work. Nonetheless, it was much better than losing countless hours of work.
It sounds like a resource hog method, but you could do it with a good flash drive, if your data are less than a few gigabytes, and <$50 investment to get a good synchronization software. Scheduled backup and mirroring is probably overkilling and it cost a lot more (RAID hardware and multiple hard drives, etc)
Thanks for the ideas. I will use them.
Yes, I’ve installed my copy of EndNote on these, and I am the only user.
My university just posted that they have a download of EndNote available to all faculty (includes me); if it is EN X, will that mess me up?
Would using EndNote Web help me, or would it really mess things up if I switched to a new system?
I’m not sure why university’s site license goes to the older version. You may request to upgrade site license?
I don’t use Endnote Web because it is slow (as compared to the local Endnote) and I’ve got already pretty good synch and collaboration schemes. It’s a little bit too much work if this is about personal library, but for the shared library, web version may have some advantages. In terms of new system, I’m not sure what do you mean by “system”, but if that is about Windows operating system, the problem is the structure of the My Document. Some software automatically make some folders (downloads, preferences, etc) in My Document, and require contents inside. Because Vista changed the structure of My Document, I found some software doesn’t work in the same way in Vista. I suggest to stick with either one.
Sorry, I wasn’t very clear. I don’t know what version the university has for us, and that was part of my question - if I’ve already used EN 9, will my EndNote entries transfer okay into the new version?
I use only a personal library.
Thanks again to both of you. EndNote is really a super resource.
Yes, it will work. Just make sure you make backups for all the libraries you have, including the data folder associated with each library. IMO, version X3 is more stable than X2 with Word and Vista, and got more usable group feature and find full text function. If you have a situation like writing a book/thesis with multiple chapters, X3’s chapter formatting is another function you may want.