all pubmed refs being imported, not just selected ones

I was recently “upgraded” to X3 on the Mac. My libraries are being trashed because when I do a Pubmed search that brings back 100 references and I select the one I want and right click and pick copy references to my library as I have done for years , this version is copying all 100, not just the one that is highlighted.At this rate I’ll soon have all of pubmed in my personal library!

How do I make it stop doing this?

You should likely start by reading this FAQ:

http://www.endnote.com/support/faqs/Search/faq5.asp

Jason Rollins, the EndNote team

Yes, I read it several times before posting. It says:

To save references while in Online Search Mode to your Library, highlight them and then:

- Go to the References menu and select Copy References to in order to select a new or existing library and copy the highlighted references to that selected library

problem is whan I do that (using the menu that comes up on a right click rather than references menu) it copies all the references, not just the highlighted ones. I’d be perfectly happy if it did what the FAQ says.

Are you saying the Copy References command works differently if you choose it from the top menu rather than the popup, or that it works differently depending on which “mode” you are in? If either of those is true it’s a pretty serious UI glitch if not bug.

Are you actually going to the “Online Mode” (the Globe only icon in the upper left corner of the library window), or just selecting “PubMed” from the list that appears under “Online Search” on the left, below your “All References” etc?  The default “Mode” is a combined library and online search that dumps all results directly into your library.

You need to first click on the Globe in the upper left corner. Then choose PubMed and do your search.

Or to avoid this problem, click on the middle “mode” that looks like just books.  Then you will not see the PubMed option and you will have to either click on the “Globe” icon or go to Tools>Online Search.  Return to this middle mode when you are done. The library will open next time in this Library only mode and you won’t accidentally dump all the downloads into your library.

That would explain it thanks! (Your expanation is much more clear than the FAQ)

Now if only I could fathom what somewhat might have been thinking when they introduced this “feature”. This must of started life as a solution to some problem, I just can’t imagine what. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another program where selecting an item and copying it to another place, if implemented at all, doesn’t work properly.

At least I can work around it.

Glad I could help.

As for the search feature, I think they looked at how undergraduates might use EndNote (and trash the library after the paper was turned in). None of my researchers like it. In fact, X2 came out without the Mode options, all you could do was dump all results into your library, or create an entirely different library and copy from it to your ‘real’ library.

Angela is exactly right. We used to continually hear that new users would get confused by the old “Temporary Library” in a separate window, citing directly from it, then deleting it and ending up with much confusion and orphaned references. With the Modes design this no longer occurs.

Some expert/long-time EndNote customers do not like this but have the choice to use the Local library + Online Mode to get an experience very similar to the older design.

This is quite common with software that has evolved over many version; expert users nearly always have different wokflows than new users.

We do our best to try to accommodate a wide range of users but are not going to be able to make everyone happy about every change we put into EndNote.

Jason Rollins, the EndNote team

ok, I get it. But wouldn’t it be nice if by now there was an option to disable this function so it can’t happen? This thread is a little old, I just started using X4.0.2…this didn’t happen in Reference Manager.

Okay Jason, we old timers would just like to hear from one newcomer that really LIKES the default import all option though!  Hasn’t happened yet to these old ears!