In previous versions of Endnote, pdfs would be copied into folders with the author’s name and some beginning portion of the title. Now with X6 the folders are given random strings of numbers, which makes it difficult to track down pdfs from programs outside of endnote. I’ve tried to find an option or setting to tweak, but have not come up with anything yet. Has anyone had any luck with this?
Thanks
Hello,
You are correct in that the newest version of EndNote, the folder names for PDFs are now numbers. If you would like to have them to have a more descriptive name, you will have to manage the folders (and not have EndNote automatically manage them).
To do this you can create a folder and call it “My PDFs” for example. Then in that folder you will want to create folders (with the folder names you wish) and then place your PDFs inside those folders.
Next, you will want to change a setting in EndNote so that EndNote does not automatically manage your PDFs. To do that, open EndNote and go to the “Edit,” then “Preferences,” menu.
Next, select “URLs & Links.” On the right hand side, take the check-mark off of “Copy new file attachments to the default file attachment folder and create a relative link.”
Lastly, when you want to attach a PDF you will be attaching it from the folder you created with the folder name you created. This will create a link in the reference directing it to the folder and folder name that you wish.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Miguel Mendoza
Will this change ever be reverted? This is a serious loss of functionality for me.
Hi MigMendoza,
Can you please explain what is the rationale for creating those sub-folders with random numbers?
When almost always there is just one PDF file attached to a record, it would be better if the EndNote saved the PDFs right within the PDF folder (without creating sub-folder) using the naming schema that was employed in EndNote X5 (Author-Year-Title-Number).
Thanks,
Farhad Fatehi
And how do I go about if I want to keep the pdf folder names from Endnote X5 and not the numbered ones in Endnote X6?
Marianne
Bumping this as well. Is there any resolution?
How come EndNote 6 appears to be regressing in its features???
This is making Endnote unworkable - I am using Scrivener and link to ‘external sources’ (i.e. my pdf’s in Endnote)- with hundreds of entries now each in an obscure numbered folder - its hard to find what I want. Might be switching to the competition.
I agree, we have several databases each consisting of up to 3 thausend PDFs. Now, it is realy impossible to retrieve files from that databases. I see only the solution to downgrade to earlier versions, where this feature was not implemented and to prevent further upgrade.
With the new facility to rename PDFs themselves in X7, I have no trouble searching for the PDFs. The searches I use, reach down thru the folder name to the subfolders, to the PDF files themselves?
My problem is that I have a pdf collection>5G. I put my library on skydrive. Before, I can find my pdf file on my ipad skydrive app using the folder name. Now, ENDNOTE X7 rename the folder name to numbers. …
Is that possible X7 can change it back? Otherwise, I have to revert to X6.
Well, it doesn’t sound like a good solution to me.
It’s very cumbersome and extremely frustrating.
Please, Thompson Reuters programmers, make an effort and convert the defolt folder names to the good old-fashioned “author’s name_file name”. I can’t believe that changing code for that would make more time than for me changing all the folder names.
I don’t always work on computers with EndNote installed, but always need access to my pdf’s.
Thank you very much!
This is not a solution. this is basically telling the past users that Endnote has made a decision to discontinued this function and those of you who really relied upon it are screwed. Thanks but no thanks. This is important enough for me that I am going to discontinue using X7 and go back to older versions and am now investigating leaving Endnote as this is compltely rediculous on top of all the other silly disfunctional problems with Endnote, this is the straw for me. If the automatic PDF import will not work correctly and now the naming of folders to random numbers that do not allow for user access outside of Endnote, Im done.
hh
I was STILL looking for a solution to this problem this morning. I am using Endnote 7 on a Mac. While it still doesnt seem to be a function of Endnote, there is an easy workaround.
As above, the problem is that when you Import PDFs (using the Auto Import feature personally) they will automatically save to the default library (in sub-folders labelled with numbers - for whatever reason). Transfer these to your desired destination folder by:
Creating a blank file on your desktop, or wherever.
Highlight (Cmd+A) all the PDFs subfolders (with numbers) from the past week or whatever period of time.
Copy and paste these to the untitled folder on your desktop.
in the search bar of the blank folder, type ‘.pdf’ - this will bring up all the pdfs in that folder, out of the subfolders.
Highlight these (Cmd + A), and copy and paste into your desired destination folder (e.g. called ‘Articles’)
Delete the blank desktop folder.
Yes, its not perfect as you will have to repeat this process every so often, but I’ve searched for the past hour and this is the only way I can find to manage my PDFs in one accessible folder using Endnote.
I definitely prefer the “old” method as well. I just recently updated (now, I ask myself, “is this REALLY an upgrade”). I want to use my own names, my own system. At least provide that as an option.
This is a great explanation. I slightly modified it as follows:
When Endnote automatically finds PDFs for sources in an Endnote library, it puts them all in a single directory, but each PDF is in a subdirectory that is named with a meaningless string of numbers. The PDFs themselves are named in a very meaningful way.
How do you move all of the PDFs to be within a single directory?
Now all your PDFs are in the same directory
I slightly improved the process a couple message up.
When Endnote automatically finds PDFs for sources in an Endnote library, it puts them all in a single directory, but each PDF is in a subdirectory that is named with a meaningless string of numbers. The PDFs themselves are named in a very meaningful way.
How do you move all of the PDFs to be within a single directory?
Now all your PDFs are in the same directory.
If you are moving PDFs from their subfolders it will make their current refrence within Endnote faulty (i.e. PDF will be missing and you will only have refrence information, like title, journal, pages and such). This will mean that you would need to import newly moved PDFs as new entries. This is a problem if you sorted old entries within different Topics. Is there a way to retain relative link between refrence entry and its PDF file while moving PDF file to new location?
Only if you move them. In the instructions below, they copied them.
You can (but not using “find full text”) attach PDFs one by one, and keep the PDF linked to an absolute location rather than relative location in the .DATA/pdf folders. but it is tedious and you need to remember to maintain the folder structures. (see attached for preferences setting to turn off.
