Generate list of references that have something written in the Notes field

EndNote EndNote How To
1

I have been using the Notes field to write my impressions, ideas, etc. for the articles I have read.

I would like to be able to pull up JUST those references that have something in the Notes field, so that I can identify which articles I have read and noted on, so that I can read through the list with my notes.

I have not found a way to “tag” a reference (I would want a tag that said “read” - in the past tense!) – that would be very helpful.  I have a lot of uploaded references that I haven’t read yet - so a tag for “to read” would also be helpful.

But in the short term – is there a way to work with what I have already set up (references with notes in the Notes field) to pull together such a “filtered” list of noted articles?  In the future I could add a word at the beginning of each of my Notes fields that I could use as a search item – but I didn’t do that at the beginning, and I hate the idea of clicking on 500+ articles to find the 20+ I have made Notes on.

Thanks for any help you can provide1

2

The easiest way is to temporarily (or permanently) “show” the notes field in your library display view (from Edit>preferences) and just sort on it by clicking on the heading twice (once from none to alpha text containing, the second time to reverse the sort from alpha backwards to nothing.  Select and show those with text and use the Tools>edit change text to add specific tags either to in front of the Notes field, or in another unused field (either existing or a custom field, which you can name/use in the Edit>Preferences> ref type  option). 

going forward you can sort first on your custom field, and then on the notes field to identify those that you need to add your “read” or “to read” (but I would use something distinct from the word “read”).