I’d like to know if there is an easy way to swap the “Full Journal” and “Abbreviation 1” fields in the Journals Term List. A little background info FYI: I’ve been using EndNote for years now and have amassed an EndNote library with nearly 4,000 references, each of which I have entered maually. However, I got started by entering the info backwards (e.g. Full Title = J. Biol. Chem. and Abbreviation 1 = Journal of Biological Chemistry) :dizzy_face:, and before I knew it the library was too large to fix manually. Of course, I have just modified the EndNote styles to use the necessary field, but I would really like to be able to set up the term list properly…any suggestions?
Thanks CG, that worked great. I was able to export the journals term list, transfer the file to a Linux system, rearrange the columns (an almost trivial task using the cut and paste Linux tools), transfer the file back to my Windows machine and import the new list back into Endnote (after deleting the journals in the original term list, of course). I also updated the styles that I use so that they point to the correct column (Abbreviation 1) in the new journals term list, and everything seems to be working to specification (i.e. the approproate abbreviation is used as shown in the “Preview” tab).
One last question–Is there an easy way to replace the journal name in the Journal field for each existing reference “master record” (i.e. the information that is displayed in the Journal field in the “Referenece” tab? These still retain their original abbreviated names; I’d like to change these to the full journal titles so that they match the Full Title column in the journals term list. I could export the references using a predefined style, edit the journal name, and import them back into EndNote, but then some information would be lost (such as the Notes).
The whole purpose of the term list is to avoid having to do that. – Also make sure, if you haven’t already to turn off all the auto term list updating in preferences, so you don’t copy new journals into the wrong place in the new table.
Thanks much for the additional help–I know that this situation is unusual. Also, there may be something I’m not understanding correctly. The issue that I am experiencing is that for the table entries that existed before I swapped the columns in the Journals term list, the journal names that appear in the table (and in the Journal field on the Reference tab) are being shown as abbreviated journals, as I originally entered them. I had previously added these abbreviated journal names to the “Full Journal” column of the Journals term list when creating a new reference; I would then edit the journals term list to add the full journal name in the “Abbreviation 1” column. Backwards, right?
However, I’ve now successfully swapped the “Full Journal” and “Abbreviation 1” fields in the journals term list (see above), and now when I add a new reference, the Journal field expects the full journal name (I have enabled “Suggest Terms as you type” in Edit >> Preferences… >> Term Lists) and everything is fine. However, for the older entries, there is no longer an abbreviated journal name in the “Full Journal” column of the journals term list. To be fully consistent, I would like the journal names for the older entries to also be displayed in the table with the full journal name. Of course, one option (which is not really an opotion) would be to maually edit the old entries one by one (!) and change the Journal field to the correct full journal name. If I’m thinking about this correctly, I cannot use the “Update List…” option either, as that would inappropriately add the abbreviated jounal names from the oplder entries back to the “Full Journal” column of the journals term list.
One last question–Is there an easy way to replace the journal name in the Journal field for each existing reference “master record” (i.e. the information that is displayed in the Journal field in the “Referenece” tab? These still retain their original abbreviated names; I’d like to change these to the full journal titles so that they match the Full Title column in the journals term list. I could export the references using a predefined style, edit the journal name, and import them back into EndNote, but then some information would be lost (such as the Notes).
Thanks for the update and glad it worked out. As for your last question, it isn’t necessary to change the abbreviated names to the complete Journal names. If you want to pursue doing so using Endnote there are 2 options: 1) Find and Replace (go to the toolbar and select Edit >5 and Replace); or 2) Change/Move/Copy Fields (go to the toolbar and select Tools > Change Move Copy). (Since the The Change/Move/Copy Fields option replaces the entire field you’ll first need to pre-sort the references by journal title. Then you would be able to select a group and change the journal title for that group.) Before proceeding with either method, you might want to copy the journal title field into another field for safekeeping.
There’s a quicker and easier method using MS Excel and the VLOOKUP function but calls for exporting the Endnote records and the journal terms files. The process is to:
Export the journal terms list and the Endnote records as text files. (Note: before exporting the Endnote records, presort the records in ascending order by the journal title field. Also, If using the Tab Delimited output style to export the records you may need to first place carriage returns at the end of certain fields so the data remains intact. Refer to this thread for further detail.)
Open the journals term list and Endnote records in MS Excel, creating 2 worksheets. Then copy one worksheett into the second worksheet so both are in the same workbook . (Refer to image 1). For this example, each worksheet has been named “terms” and “library”and fields both the number of records and fields have been decreased to facilitate the illustrations.
a. Insert two columns on the left side (column A and B). Copy the list of abbreviated journal titles into column A (this will serve as the reference point). The blank column B is where the vlookup function will return the complete journal title when found on the journal terms worksheet.
I know I am coming late to the party and haven’t full digested the advice so far. I find it far easier to use the pre-setup journal lists rather than manipulating the lists automatically generated during data input over time. At least in the sciences, those are pretty good and then I turn off all auto-updates (although you can leave the suggest as type for any manual entries, although those too are rare.
What is your field of study? Don’t the provided terms list in the installation, fulfill what you need?
…I find it far easier to use the pre-setup journal lists rather than manipulating the lists automatically generated during data input over time…
It’s unknown why pdmosier elected to manipulate the journal terms (which is quite simple to do in MS Excel). Might just reflect personal preference, workflow issues, or perhaps just wanting to contain the terms to be specific to the references in the Endnote library.
If, there comes a time when pdmosier would like to import the pre-set list(s) of journal terms that option is always available.
