I have a bibliography that was created without EndNote and I wanted to know if there was a way import those references into EndNote easily. I would prefer not having to manually add each reference into EndNote. I’m using the Mac version of Endnote X5 and Word 2007.
Endnote’s website says this but you might prefer to read this previous threaddiscussing some “power user” approaches to importing from a word processing file. I still feel it best to retrieve the records from a database if there is one available in your field (PubMed, Web of Science, or a proprietary database) usually via carefully constructed searches, and smaller numbers of potential typos!
You might find it only necessary to to import some of the reference, in X5 with the new “Find Reference Updates”. I am not exactly sure of the minimum fields that are needed to reliable find matches though. In my tests, it is a bit hit and miss for old records in my library.
But whatever you decide, if you intend to import from a text file, you will want to do some careful search and replace steps to “tag” the items you want imported.
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