All of the comments below apply to the Mac version
- When creating a compressed library, the application provides zero feedback in terms of where it is in the process, leaving the user to wonder if it’s working or not. All the user sees is the spinning beach ball. I’m sure some users quit before the process completes. The user needs visual feedback.
- In Versions X9 and before, clicking on an attached figure brings it up in a new window. No longer. Now we have to go to a menu to get the same functionality. Why?
- In Versions X9 and before, double clicking on a reference brought it up in a new window. Now we have to click on an obscure icon to get the same functionality. Why?
- In previous versions, clicking on an item in the sidebar required just a single click to display the info on Groups, etc. in the main reference window. Now this has been changed so we must click twice. Can anyone at EndNote explain why this change was made? You have changed the basic functionality of the app with no gain. All this does is frustrate your users.
- There is no easy way to export data from EndNote because the programmers have used the same fields for different purposes. Thus the data in field number 5 might be a journal title for one reference type and a book title for an edited book. Thus exporting from the database becomes a nightmare of field matching. I know because I’ve spent literally over a year trying to get the export field mapping to match properly. There needs to be a clear and easy way to export data.
- If we want to add an attachment, such as a PDF, the process is simple. Click the + Attach file button and navigate to the file you want to attach. But if we want to attach a Figure there is no such button. Instead, we must go to the References menu and select Figure, enter another fly-out menu, only to be led to a useless dialog box with the button that leads us to where we need to go. So to review: Add an attachment? Easy one step process. Add a figure? A more difficult, non-intuitive multiple-step process. Why? Why can’t the programmers make a “+ Attach figure” button that works just like the “+ Attach file” button?
- The formatted reference summary window lies hidden at the bottom of the Summary window only. In X9 and before, the window was visible in both the Summary pane and the Edit pane. Most importantly, the application remembered your positioning of the window. Drag it up a bit and it would remain in that position even if you closed the database and reopened it. Now it does its disappearing act and must be reopened (by dragging it up) every time the database is reopened. Why? Why, oh why, do the EndNote programmers do this to their users?
- When a new reference window opens up, the window automatically resizes itself to half the screen size when moved. Why? This is extremely annoying.
Almost all of the problems described above were specifically created by the EndNote programming team, breaking the functionality that already worked in previous versions. And we, poor users, are forced to actually pay for these downgrades.
I’m not giving up on EndNote. Yet. There is still time to fix this stuff. But watch out. If a competing product comes out that does this better, I and many other users will abandon this ship.