Hello everybody,
I’ve got some suggestions for future updates here i’d love to see in the future.
I’ve tried different reference managers in the last years (Mendeley, Papers, Zotero, BibDesk) and now sticked with Endnote, mainly because of the BibTeX-Output-option (if you set it up correctly by yourself) and the Update-Reference (currently not working) and Find Fulltext function. I also use Papers 3, which is a real pleasure to use, but unfortunately the BibTeX export isn’t working well enough.
So here are some of my suggestions for a better Endnote user experience:
- Keyboard Shortcut for Importing and Updating References
There’s clearly a CMD+I shortcut for importing references missing. Going to File - Import every single time is quite annoying.
Also a shortcut for the Update Reference function would be great.
- file type sensitive Import function
Why is Endnote the only reference manager where you have to select the filetype (PDF, RIS, XML) before you can actually import the files? I see that the option “PDF Folder as a group set” might be practical in some cases, but that option could be implemented in some other place.
- Drag and Drop Import
It would be great to just drag all the documents i want to import directly into Endnote and dropping them in a group to the left or into the main window and Endote automatically imports them into the certain group (like in iTunes and elsewhere).
- Better Annotation features
I like to highlight some sections in some PDFs i’m working with for faster finding them the next time. It would be real handy when there was an overview of all the pages wheren i’ve highlighted or annotated something.
- Editing multiple references
I know this can be done in a limited way by the Tools - Change/Move/Copy Fields function. But i see no way to change the document type of multiple references there? I recently importet 20 Book Sections as PDF - i can edit the authors and title … but i have to switch the document type from Journal Article to Book Section for every single one.
- Updating References in the background
It takes quite a long time to use the Update Reference feature for more than 10 references. And in this time you can’t use Endnote. In contrast, Find Fulltext works in the background, you can use Endnote in the meantime and see the changes / found updates later. That would be very useful for the Update Reference feature too: Like a button right under the “Sync Status” for “Reference Updates”, where you can right click and check through all the updates at the time you want it.
- Individual cite keys
For the LaTeX export function it would be very practical if Endnote could automatically create a unique key for each reference. Just like in PDF handling - AuthorTitleYear. Right now I’m using the Reference Number (“RN123”) for this, but i have to change every number to a real cite key when i export the references into BibTex files.
- Clickable Groupset and more group levels
It would be really practical if the Groupset (name) was clickable and would show a list of all the references included in the Groups in this Groupset.
More group levels would also be a real help for sorting big libraries.
Actually, for Endnote is around many years now, i don’t understand why some of these basic features haven’t been implemented since X3, like the drag and drop import or a editing multiple references function.
Anyway, I hope these suggestions are helpful and will make it into some future updates.