PDF attachments from a library from Endnote X1 do not work when l open the lib in Endnote 9

EndNote EndNote How To
1

Hi,

I have a library created with Endnote X1 or X2, which I got from a friend.

I have Endnote 9 only, and although I can open the lib, openning of PDF files associated with citations does not work (get an error such as

This URL (internal-pdf://Zinnen-1994-Misincorporation and-0935534621/Zinnen-1994-Misincorporation and.pdf) could not be launched).

All pdf attachments are in LIB_NAME.data/PDF/ directory.

I guess the libs formats are not compatible between X versions and version 9. Is there a way to open X version lib in endnote 9 properly?

2

They are compatible.  Are you sure you got the library with the .DATA folder?   If I remember correctly, EN9 has a “send compressed” or something like that in the File menu, which will package the whole thing, but if not, you need to get that folder with any subfolders and put it in the same location as your .enl file. 

Otherwise, the issue may be addressed in here, where some Acrobate versions seem to have trouble. 

http://forums.thomsonscientific.com/ts/board/message?board.id=en-general&message.id=122&query.id=198635#M122

3

Yes, the .data folder is present. When I copied the folder with .enl files and .data folder to another computer with Endnote X1, everything works nicely.

On the computer with Endnote 9, I tried different PDF readers and “PDFwrapper” from the thread you suggested, but still cannot open PDFs from endnote.

I noticed that in Endnote 9 the icons in the attachment column (the one with paper clip) are not displayed (but the Open PDF option after right click on the reference is active). I can see this icon on another computer with Endnote X1. So I think that it is rather a problem with Endnote or library itself, rather than PDF reader.

4

Oh… yes!Sorry senior moment.  The placement for PDFs in EN9 was different and limited to only one file at a time.  I suspect that PDFs in the new home in ENX, ENX1 and ENX2 will never be backward compatible with EN9. 

5

I solved (more or less) the problem in the following way:

  1. In Endnote X1 export the library in Endnote Export format
  2. In any text editor search and replace the “internal-pdf://” to “file:///full_path_to_endnoteX1_PDF_folder”
  3. In Endnote 9 import the lib as Endnote Import format.
  4. Change the field type of the first column to “Link to PDF” ( Menu Edit → Preferencess… → Display Fields)

Things that do not work, and probably will not work:

  • When two PDFs has been attached, none will open after clicking “Open PDF”. There are at least two half-solutions to that, which will enable openning of the first PDF file: 1. Delete the line with the second PDF file 2. Add “%>” to the second line
  • The paper clip is not drawn when PDFs are attached, somehow paper clip column is reserved for Image Field.
  • The paths to PDFs must be absolute, I haven’t found a way to use relative links. That means that the paths must be changed for each computer (probably using Export -> Change path in editor -> Import)