EndNote 5 not using style path

Hi all,

My EndNote 5 was installed on my new cpomputer today as old one had crashed and burned.

I have backup of librray and styles etc.

However when I add the correct path under the files directory for Styles it does not offer the few I use and only ciontinues to list the full listing of useless ones for me.

I went into the registry and yes the corrcet path for the styles folder/directory is correct but EndNote will not use that.

Any ideas how to fix this?

What’s the path and are you running Windows or Mac - and what versions? 

EndNote 5.-  Win Pro 7 (64 bit)- path is C:\Library\My-Styles\

Only has 4 style files that have been edited to match he type of journals I publish in.

EndNote X5 “expects” your custom styles to be in a folder called Styles inside your Documents folder.

If you edit one of the existing styles it creates this folder automatically.

Have you tried renaming your custom folder and putting it in Documents?

Alternatively, you could try browsing to the custom folder from within EndNote and opening one of the styles. If you make some insignificant changes (e.g. add some blurb to the “about this style”) and save, EndNote should create the Styles folder. You can then copy the other styles across.

It might help to readthis explanationabout the 2 styles locations.  Also since this implementation to accommodate the Windows (since Vista) restrictions on user read-only access to folders in the Program Folders locations, Endnote only installs a “core” set of styles.  You can easily retrieve your favorite styles via the Endnote Help, Web styles finder and if you open and save as, it will save them to your local styles folder.  If you reinstall, or update Endnote, this folder remains untouched, so your favorite styles are not lost.  Endnote will pull the styles list from both locations. 

Also, it affects Endnote performance if you try to keep 1000s of styles, so it is prudent to be selective when installing the software and not to customize installation and include all of the styles.  You may customize to include a selected set though.  (but I just retrieve them as I need them). 

@batman wrote:

EndNote 5.-  Win Pro 7 (64 bit)- path is C:\Library\My-Styles\

 

For Windows 7 that’s an unusual place to store your styles. You might move the My-Styles folder into My Documents instead and change the path. 

Thanks all for the multiple suggestions.

I never - ever use the MS defaults for any program “My Documents” since that can be buried under multiple layers of stuff that is not relevant to my work flow. Frequently data files are on a different hard drive (NOT C:\ OS)  so to facilitate disaster recovery if there is a system crash no data is lost.

I was able to solve the issue by doing a search for all styles and deleting everything but the few I use from he default folder.

What my initial question was why EN5 under Win7 did not respond as it always has under WIN XP Pro.

In other words when the file location selection was made under the settings tab it would then use custom location settings, but appears not to do so under Win 7 Pro.

I don’t know if Win7 has any restrictions on a manually defined c:Libraries/my styles folder, I wouldn’t expect so, but… 

The reason Endnote had to stop using the Endnote installation folder as the combined User styles location and "installed"set, is because Windows Vista, Win7 OS write protects that folder and all the folders in that folder.  Thus the two locations solution.  So the path for the styles that are installed, can’t be edited by the user and saved back to that location from within the program.  So the  CFDIR= in the registry by default points to the C:/program folder/endnote/styles folder (installed styles folder), and the endnote program folder locations should NOT point there, or you won’t be able to save to that location and you get stuck in a loop.  The program’s preferences folder location should be able to point anywhere else that the user has write access.  In our institutions network, we actually change the CFDIR= location to point to a generally accessible Network drive that can be kept up to date for all users.  When a journal changes its style requirements or an error or additional reference type is necessary, as the manager, I can change and replace the necessary styles so it is invisible to all our users (well to all our Windows users anyway, it doesn’t seem to be so easy to make that adjustment for our Mac users!).  Users can still download styles not in our collection (and ask me to add them to the global location, if they wish) and have them accessible from their machine (I use a network location so I have them on any machine I log into). 

I am not sure if the way you were using the locations is consistent with the two location model?  I am not sure what happens if you edit the registry to use the same write-accessible location as you use in the endnote preferences, for example.