Because of the 2010 issue, my company is going to have to make a quick transition to EndNote X3 (from EndNote 9). We are on Windows XP and Word 2003 (supposedly we’re switching to Word 2007 soon, but they’ve been saying that for 6 months!).
Since I’m the EndNote “expert” here, I downloaded the trial version to try it out learn what I can before the switch. What I’m finding is that it’s extremely buggy. Every time I try to open a library (housed on a shared drive, not a local one), I get a “member not found” error (I get that one at other times, too). I also typically get a “file can’t be found” error, even though I am not trying to open from within EndNote with File/Open, but just double-clicking the icon for the .enl file on the shared drive. After that error, the library does open. In addition, the entire program crashed on me 3 times yesterday.
I’d hate to think that every user here (there’s more than 40 of them) will also experience these issues once we upgrade. What’s going on with X3? Is it the trial version? And what is that “member not found” error?
IMO, Endnote isn’t designed very well to handle files put on servers, unless you build the scheme like Leanne does. As long as I keep my library in local HD, EN X3 (registered version) is very stable (Win XP Pro 32bit SP3, Win Vista Ultimate 64bit, MS Office 2003 and Ooo 3.1). Do you see your “file not found” error all the time, or sometimes? Do you see the same message if you have your library is placed in local? Is your error tied to your library carried from EN9? These things help for troubleshooting.
Anyway, I would keep Word 2003 as long as possible. I don’t see any enhancement or improvement from 2003 to 2007, in terms of writing functions with EN. Besides, MS is going to release Office 2010 soon. I don’t know how good it is or not. Meanwhile, I’m out of MS’s office. I’ll stick with Ooo for a while.
I just double-clicked a library (created in X3 in the last 5 minutes) on my desktop. I got a “file not found” error. Dismissed that and got the “this is a trial version” message that I get every time I open the demo version. (That part obviously isn’t a problem, just reporting exactly what happened.) Then the program opened and I got the “member not found” error. Dismissed that, and EndNote was open, but not the library. Then I went to File/Open from within the program and opened that same library that way without a problem. I’m pretty sure I get that “file not found” error every time I try to open a library by double-clicking (and yes, most of the ones I’m trying to open were from version 9… I’m the only one who has the new version, so I can’t convert them).
If it were my decision, I’d hold off on Word 2007, too, but unfortunately it’s not up to me!
So, it does happen with local and newly created library, and everytime, right?
But it doesn’t happen when you use File/Open menu.
I did some quick test in my Vista machine and trial version, and I also got the same “file not found” error. It happened when I double clicked a library without EN running. Once I clicked OK a couple of times, EN runs with a blank window, and double clicking a library opened it fine. So, it appears that “Trial” message is interrupting the file open sequence.
The “Trial” message will go away in the registered version, and double clicking a library works just fine, so you shouldn’t be worried about this.
Leanne, I did uninstall version 9, but I somehow still have a toolbar from that version. Not sure why. I can try uninstalling again. Do you think the “member not found” error is a result of that?
It’s interesting that the free trial message might be interfering with the opening process. I surely hope that’s the case. Using File/Open from within the program does work, of course, but people are used to double-clicking the library and you shouldn’t have to find a workaround for something so basic. I’m going to hope that goes away in the non-trial version. If you all don’t know about it happening in the full version, it probably is just the demo.
Also, a question about file locations. In the past (with v9), we have had a central file with all the output style files, and then each user has a copy of that file on their local drive that EndNote used to format documents. Not a perfect system, but we found that EndNote was too slow if the styles weren’t stored locally. Are we going to be able to duplicate that system with X3? (It would be even better if we could point EndNote to the master shared file, of course, but there would probably be slowness issues… we have almost 7000 styles.) I noticed that the new version seems to be kind of picky where things are located.
I don’t recommend pointing EN to 7000 styles in the server. it’s going to take minutes to start.
I’m one of the people who strongly insisted the styles installed in the default folder should be minimized for X3, when X2 experienced very slow startup. As a result X3 starts very quickly. Besides, I don’t believe 7000 styles are necessary all the time.
Having a single master library in the sever is probably the best to share the database, but EN doesn’t allow multiple user access. You need a “manager” for the library, and a routine that makes a “read-only” copy of the master library for the access by “fellows”. Leanne has a better grip on it. I said, well, EN library is a personal resource.
We actually have about 100 separate libraries, too. There’s no way one person could manage all of that, and I certainly don’t want to be the one to do it. It ends up working out OK (for the most part).
We probably don’t need 7000 styles all the time, but we do need a lot of them from time to time. We submit things constantly to journals in many different therapeutic areas. By the way, where are the styles housed? When I go to the Style Manager and attempt to change a style, I get an endless “save as” loop, with the word “copy” added to the file name each time. I might be saving something, but it doesn’t tell me where I’m saving it, nor does it give me the opportunity to change the location.
I got rid of those files… we’ll see how it goes. Thanks!
For the styles management here, we have one person in charge of all the styles, and no one else has permission to edit styles in the master set. Then we have EndNote point to a local folder on each machine when it needs to use the style. Each user was responsible for updating their styles regularly. Which, as you can imagine, they never did and kept saying that styles were wrong or missing. Then we had our IT dept write a script that automatically copies any styles modified on the master set to each person’s local drive on startup every week or so. That works OK, but of course we’ll have to update that now… I don’t suppose that we could change that style location if we wanted to? Does it absolutely have to be the H drive?
We have Windows XP. I checked the preferences, and they’re on my H drive, which here is actually “My Documents,” so I ought to be able to edit things in there. But I can’t. I just get the Save As loop, with Style X Copy Copy Copy, etc.
The styles are definitelyresiding in H/EndNote/Styles. If I open one (double-click from that location), I can edit and get it saved by closing out of it and making it prompt me to save it. It also tells me I am saving it outside my Style Manager, which tells me that the change I made would not be reflected if I tried to reformat a document now.
If I do exactly the same style opening process, and then go to File/Save As to save it, I get the endless loop and no option to change the location.
The styles are definitelyresiding in H/EndNote/Styles. If I open one (double-click from that location), I can edit and get it saved by closing out of it and making it prompt me to save it. It also tells me I am saving it outside my Style Manager, which tells me that the change I made would not be reflected if I tried to reformat a document now.
If I do exactly the same style opening process, and then go to File/Save As to save it, I get the endless loop and no option to change the location.
It doesn’t reproduce with registered version, so it could be another “trial” issue. If the decision has been made to upgrade to X3 to avoid 2010 problem, then figure this out later after buying license?
It doesn’t reproduce with registered version, so it could be another “trial” issue. If the decision has been made to upgrade to X3 to avoid 2010 problem, then figure this out later after buying license?
Yes, I can do that. Honestly, I just wanted to see if anyone else was having these problems with the full version. If we did a full install of all users here, and they started experiencing what I’m experiencing with the demo version, all heck would break loose. It appears that my issues are occurring because I have the demo, which is exactly what I wanted to know.
The “Member Not Found” issue you mentioned is typically the result of a previous version of the EndNote Cite While You Write (CWYW) tools loading from the Startup folder of Word. As you mentioned, the older CWYW tools can cause this message to appear when launching Word or performing other activities in EndNote, like changing Styles. To make sure you have removed the older version of the EndNote CWYW tools and any residual files, quit Word, Outlook and EndNote. Browse to the following file location:
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
Username in this case would be your computer login name.
Note: If you cannot find the specified folder, your Windows preferences may be set to hide the folder. Go to the Tools menu (press Alt to view menus in Windows Vista). Select Folder Options / View tab. Uncheck the box that reads “Hide file extensions for known file types,” and select “Show hidden files and folders”. Click Ok.
Look for anything in the folder with a name that starts with EN (as in EndNote) and delete it. Also, look for any temporary files in this folder and delete them as well. The temporary files can be identified by the “~$” symbols in the name.
Once these items have been removed, launch EndNote from the Start menu. By default, it should open the most recently accessed library. If no library is set to open with EndNote, you can then open your library using the File menu > Open Library option. Now that the library is open, you can launch Microsoft Word from the Start menu to see if this opens without error.
Jason Berman
Customer Technical Support Representative
