EndNote v7 - v8

I am considering upgrading from EndNote x7 to x8.  Financial considerations, however, make this a bit of a problematic question.

Is/are my libraries fully compatible between x7 and x8?  If I upgrade, will my libraries convert over?  And then, if I decide that x7 is sufficient for my needs, will the libraries still remain completely readable and usable in X7?

In other words, are the two versions totally compatible, both forward and backward?

Chuck Billow

For quite a while, I had X8 on one machine and X7 on the other, and had no porblems with a library on (gasp) our network drive.  – there may be differences in the options to sync to the online version, but I wasn’t using that at the time on the X7 machine, just the X8.  

One more thing — I ALWAYS back up my library (usually by dragging and dropping BOTH the .enl file and the .DATA folder located in the same folder – to a new location, before upgrading!  

One thing I seem to notice, Leanne, is that the majority of changes between X7 and X8 revolve around using EndNote in a group environment.

Since I am a single user, would I really gain that much from an upgrade?  The one thing I was looking/hoping to see was some type of development of nesting in the tags/categorizing of the references, which didn’t seem to be on the list.

So in the end, would I really benefit from the upgrade?  I did like the pulling PDF’s into one’s library, but at the same time, that could easily turn one’s library into an enormous file.

At our institution, where we have both Macs and PC, the decision was made to maintain compatibility with evolving Word versions.  – If one updates Microsoft Word, one will eventually have to upgrade Endnote.  Right now, only X8 will work with Mac Word 2016.  It is only a matter of time.  As I figure I will retire in 4-5 years, I am just biding my time!  

Well, X7 seems to be working fine with my Windows 10/Office 2010, and ain’t no Macs for me to deal with so, I’m probably good for right now.  

Working for myself, I have no calendar date for retiring, so I’ll just continue to cruise on through my 60’s and try to keep from letting my PC drive me stark, raving, crazy.  I took a look at Office 2016, but the same seems true there as well.  Feature adds don’t really apply for me (now), and I an not real fond of Ms’s move to a “flatter” look to all the applications.  But then, that’s just me…

or MSs subscription model – which means I get updates, when I don’t want updates.  sigh.  I know what ya mean.  

That whole area of MS updates is a hot topic.  While in theory it should be a “player’s choice” issue, the question then immediately arises what to do when the inevitable multitude of Window flavors results and MS is expected to supply support.

While I am not a fan of forced updates, I certainly am a fan of consistent and available support, so…