Lost customized output style after laptop died

[ClaraW]

Hi everyone, here is my issue :

I am writing a PhD thesis using EndNote. I created my own citation style, which included renaming certain reference types.

My laptop died recently.

I have now installed EndNote on a new laptop, logged into my account, and syncronized my library.

I also had a copy of my EndNote file from the previous laptop on a USB key. I was able to import the custom style I had created from the USB key to my library on the new laptop.

Issue 1: Missing RefTypeTable.xml?

However, when I check the imported style, it looks nothing like it did on my old laptop.

My understanding is that this happens because I need to access the special RefTypeTable.xml file which stores the changes I made to the reference types ; and apparently this file is only stored locally on my old laptop; I cannot find it in the EndNote file I saved on my USB key. Is this correct? If so, is there a way to retrieve it without the old laptop?

Issue 2: Citation Formatting Inconsistencies

More importantly, I am facing an issue with citations in my thesis Word document.

All existing footnotes remain correct according to the custom style.

If I insert a citation to a reference that was already in my library before my laptop died, the formatting also follows my custom style - even though, when I check the style settings in my new EndNote installation, they don’t match the actual citation output in the Word document.

This makes it impossible for me to check or correct potential formatting issues in my thesis since the style displayed in EndNote does not match the actual output.

However, when I insert a citation to a new reference, even if I carefully match its fields with a similar existing reference, the citation formatting is incorrect, i.e., it does not follow my custom style. Instead, it seems to follow a modified version of my custom style, as it currently appears in my library, without all the changes I made.

So I can’t add new references and insert citations in a way that matches my previous citations.

Does anyone understand what is happening here? Is there a solution to restore my custom reference type mappings and ensure consistency?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[aley]

You’re dealing with two separate but interconnected issues: the missing RefTypeTable.xml file (which affects your custom reference types) and inconsistencies in citation formatting within your Word document.

The RefTypeTable.xml file contains the custom mappings for your reference types in EndNote. When you created or modified reference types on your old laptop, these changes were likely stored in that file locally. Unfortunately, EndNote’s syncing mechanism doesn’t sync this file between devices; it only syncs the library itself (references, groups, attachments, etc.). As a result, the reference type modifications you made are not present on your new laptop.
If your old laptop is no longer accessible and the file isn’t on your USB backup, your custom reference type definitions are likely lost. The file would typically be located in the EndNote installation folder on the old laptop, not inside the .enl or .data files.

The issue with the citations is related to the custom style and reference types, but there’s an additional layer of complexity: Word stores some formatting information locally in the document through its link with EndNote, which is why old citations are still formatted correctly, while new ones are not.

Old citations: These citations were inserted when your custom reference types and style were active on the old laptop. Word has preserved the formatting for these citations, even though your new EndNote installation doesn’t currently reflect the same custom style or reference types.

New citations: These are being formatted according to the current version of your custom style, which is incomplete due to the missing RefTypeTable.xml file.

[leanne]

Sorry, this was sitting in “progress” – and the answer is similar to that posted by aley

The ref table is only generated on the old laptop, if you exported it from that laptop, as I believe it was in the registry rather than in anything that Endnote kept with the library. If you make a copy of that output style, you maybe able to replace the field names with the “original generic fields” associated with your ref types that now contain the data you want in that position, especially if those fields don’t exist as named fields in your current ref types… How many ref types did you edit and how extensively? I suspect that currently inserted records are being pulled from a “traveling library” and thus have the original laptop’s field assignments, while new records have the standard field assignments.