Why can a shared group open just on Endnote Online and NOT on Endnote Desktop???

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Hi,
I am a long time Endnote user and am trying the X8.
I want to see if its worth buying, for working with my students.
I do NOT want to share with them my entire library, but only a group, or a few groups.

The problem is that one can only work on a shared group with Endnote Online, and not with Endnote Desktop.

This has many disadvantages, for example:

  1. Endnote Online does not enable them to work with my term lists.
  2. It doesn’t allow them to customise the fields names (or use my customized fields names).
  3. They cannot have access to my attachments.
  4. They cannot conduct searches in specified fields.
  5. They are unable to put the references in other shared-groups (because if they do, this duplicates the references).
    etc.

If I understand correctly, my only option is to create a separate library with the references I want to share, and then share with my students this library. In this way they would be able to work on the shared library in Endnote Desktop.

But this option has its own flaws:

  1. When I search for references, I will have to conduct multiple searches, because I will not keep a copy of the references I give my students (since the whole point is that my students make amendments to the references I share with them).
    I know I can conduct multiple libraries search through Word. But this search does not enable specific fields etc.

  2. If I want to share with John 100 references (which are relevant to his project) and share with Jane 200 different references for her project; and I don’t want John to see Jane’s work, and vice versa, I am unable to share more than one library.
    Unless the shared library is the student’s library, shared with me. But I don’t want to do that.

So my questions are the following:

  1. Why is it not possible for people to work on a groupd which was shared with them on their Endnote Desktop?
    Please don’t give me the “copyright infringement” argument which I’ve seen on Endnote’s website. I am a copyright law professor and this answer is ridiculous. Especially when one could share an entire library…

  2. Doesn’t Endnote want to sell its products??? If my students would be able to work on the shared groups in Desktop, they will purchase their own Endnote.

  3. I would appreciate suggestions on how to enable my students to work on the shared groups in Endnote Desktop.

Y