EndNote + Pages = Great... but I can't collaborate!!

Dear EndNote Team,

I am extremely happy that CWYW functionality has been added to Pages '09.  As a research scientist and Apple user, this is something that I have been waiting for for many years.  Overall, I find that the CWYW implementation in Pages '09 is pretty good (and quite ‘snappy’!).  However, as wonderful as this implementation is, it is utterly useless for any scientist or engineer who needs to collaborate with colleagues that use Microsoft Word.  All links to EndNote are lost as soon as a Pages document is saved or exported in another format.   I am confused as to why EndNote in Pages '09 doesn’t support placeholders (i.e., the wonderful curly brackets) to enable and facilitate such collaboration between platforms.  I am no programmer, and I do not profess to understand the complexities inherent in enabling such integration between software programs.  But, in its current iteration, the EndNote/Pages integration is crippled for anyone other than a student or home user who has no need to collaborate cross-platform.  

I sincerely hope that a viable solution to this will be implemented in a forthcoming and free software update.  I refuse to believe that my only option for collaboration is to post a Pages '09 document on iWork.com (or <gasp!> use Microsoft Word).

Any thoughts on this issue would be most appreciated.

Sincerely,

Douglas C. 

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I agree with Douglas. I think this should be included very soon and (since both Apple and Thomson are banking on this to get consumers to buy both iWork and Endnote X2) be a free update, much like Endnote X1 and Word 2008 compatibility.

Scott

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I have the same problem.  If I send a Pages document to somebody for edits and they edit it in Word, all the links to endnote are lost and the bibliography is reformatted as text when I open it again in Pages.  I just got off the phone with EndNote and they are aware.  Unfortunately, they do not think there will be a solution to this problem.  They might fix it so that links are portable FROM Pages TO Word, but not vice-versa.  It sounds like if somebody in the group uses Word (inevitable) than everybody must use Word (boo).  The functionality with Pages would work for a standalone author, but is useless for anybody who wants to collaborate.  

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Hmm. That’s a pretty severe limitation. I agree with Chardo this needs to have some better solution. I also agree that the curly brackets, while not very “Mac-like”, would sure be better than nothing. 

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I got an answer from Thomson-Reuters.  Unfortunately, the bottom line is that you cannot go back and forth between Pages and Word. It does not sound like this will be fixed any time soon. Bummer.

From their email:

The best resource on information for transferring between Word and Pages 09 can be found on our following FAQ page:http://www.endnote.com/support/faqs/CWYW/faq55.asp

Please keep in mind that compatibility with Pages was done by Apple with minimal input from us. Because of this there are going to be fundamental differences in how EndNote works with each of these programs. 

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We are noting all of the Pages-related suggestions and will share them with Apple. But it is best if Apple also hears from customers directly. There is a suggestion form here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html

Jason Rollins, the EndNote team

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Jason- does EndNote X3 solve the Pages to Word collaboration problem?

thx

jk 

I can speak for the EndNote team and say that we all agree that the ability to unformat citations and collaborate among Apple Pages and Microsoft Word users would be very valuable. Unfortunately, this is not really something that EndNote can solve. Apple needs to hear these suggestions directly from customers so that they can prioritize implementing these enhancements.

We have communicated these requests to our Apple contacts but I am sure that hearing directly from users and customers will have much more impact - http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html

Jason Rollins, the EndNote team