My First Impressions With Endnote X8

Hello users, I thought I’d share my findings after playing around with this software this afternoon. Perhaps you can point out features I’ve missed, but so far I have a few recommendations for improvement:

  • no simple select & merge option

  • opening a particular file is clumsy if a ref has several attachments.

  • no field for author ID in the Article reference type (e.g. ORCID). Many modern databases have a field for this. Adding it myself requires laborious tweaking of filters and styles.

  • no ability to preserve the original import information as a text attachment

  • no ability to display library fields with multiple entries (e.g. keywords) except authors.

  • poor batch workflow:

    • can not import multiple files at once (e.g. multiple pdfs or several .nbib files)
    • no ability to add multiple files to a single reference at once.
    • no ability to add a single file to multiple references (at once, without duplication)
  • reference types should be infinitely extensible. 8 custom fields is limiting…

  • custom reference types should be merge-able with existing ones , not overwrite everything by default on import.

I hope this highlights some issues that are possible but not obvious to a new user, or things that are on the future roadmap. Thank you for your consideration.

Repost to the suggestions forums for the developers to see?