Disable "rating" in reference window

I understand that some users might find it useful, but a major change to the reference window should be optional, not imposed at its head. I use the “User Defined” fields for a number of non-standard entries or to mark references I want to use in a particular context; an i-pod-style star rating scheme at the top of my references, on the other hand, is just irritating. If you must retain “Rating”, please make it an optional field, or move it to the bottom of the window. Thanks.

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Chiming in to agree–give me the option to get rid of this feature which is useless to me. It often seems like the developers of EndNote don’t actually use this tool with the strange features which are added (reminds me of the ill considered integrated library and online search mode).

Please issue a fix for this…

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One further related gripe, the stupid rating field doesn’t even disappear when “hide empty fields”??? Please issue a fix for this poorly designed feature

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I totally agree with removing this irritating feature. Sure, some users like this function; however, please at least provide an option to turn it off.

Honestly, X6 is a big disappointment. It is much slower than X5 and many new features are not practical at all. The worst point is a lot of functions cannot be cusmized, like PDF reader, rating etc.

I have been using EndNote for over 6 years and X6 is the most disppointed upadte for me. I already switched back to X5. Hopeully there will be some new imporvment in the X6 updates. 

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Have to agree with all comments above. The rating field is totally useless for me. Most of the fields should be optional and it should be the user who decides on what is necessary for his/her use.

I hope with the next version this will be removed or at least have the possibility to move it or turn it off.

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>Vote here!

+1

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Add my voice to the dissenters on this one: I can’t possibly imagine why I would want to rate references.  Please allow us the option to turn off this annoying and intrusive feature.  Thanks!

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Please give the option to disable and not view this silly feature.

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I too find the “rating” field in the Reference window of v6 to be highly irritating. I also agree with other users that it is unfortunate that EndNote would impose this as the top line without any option to disable. It’s one of those “what were they thinking?” details. Siskel and Ebert might be happy but serious scholarship is about research not ratings. The moderator offers the defense that “other users…have previously requested an option…” Fine, offer them the option but please don’t impose it on everyone else.

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Dear Thomson Reuters,

If possible with immediate effect, please provide users an option to REMOVE/DISABLE/HIDE THE EXTREMELY ANNOYING “RATING” FIELD in EndNote X6 Reference Window.  If you can’t, please at least allow it to be shifted to the bottom of the Reference window list.  This field, like the PDF attachment fields and tabs, is downright annoying for people who wish to use reference software as reference software, and not as an annoyingly market-pandering software-fanboy melange of all that’s checklistable on sales brochures.

(Gripe: why the heck did you make the rating field a permanent item in poll position in the reference window?  Don’t you do comprehensive end-user analysis any more?  Are customers just “money” to you, or something slightly better?  It’s almost as if you’re after the feature checklist-driven set and, by this, that you have forgotten your real customers’ functional needs! /End Gripe)

I need to have the first field for other information so have returned to using procite. Those of us using this type of software for data from clinical studies, working on systematic reviews etc need to be able to manipulate the fields to suit our needs otherwise we end up going back to using Access or Excel.

I’m glad to find I’m not the only one who finds the Rating field annoying! I vote to enable suppression. And I have more complaints.

My company has been using EndNote for about 10 years. We use EndNote rather differently from the typical academic user. Our main corporate library has over 16,000 records, and we do not attach PDFs to EndNote. We have one person entering references into the master library, and use server scripts to create and distribute a copy of the library to each user when they log in every day.

We just upgraded from X2 to X6, and I’m very pleased with several new features—right-clicking for Author (year) format, hyperlinking between in-text citations and the reference list, and the “document library” group showing all references currently in an open document.

However, X6 is cluttered with new features that are not useful to us and quite distracting:

1          The “read/unread” feature, which displays references in bold until one opens the record, is visually distracting and very hard on the eyes. Do I really have to open up 16,000 existing references, some of which have been in our library FOREVER, just to unbold them? I discovered how to disable the feature, but not how to unbold all my references.

2          The library toolbar is cluttered with many buttons that my users will never use (particularly EndNote Web, which will not accommodate our large library), and the one button they DO use, Insert Citation, has become difficult to find. EndNote X2 had a button with a huge red arrow on it that you could see from across the room. I’d love the ability to customize that toolbar and remove some icons. And bring back the big red arrow, please!

3          I’m not all that impressed with Unfiled Groups, either; we’ve been using the Label field for years to connect references with their projects, and don’t really need any help there. We do have quite a few Smart Groups, and if I could remove Unfiled Groups, My Groups, and Find Full Text from the Groups pane I’d have room for more. Can the Groups pane be made more editable than it is?

Kay Hessemer

User in Seattle

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I couldn’t agree more. Like the new non-customizable toolbar, the compulsory ratings field at the head of the reference window is a great annoyance, because this is where the name of the Author should be. While all other non-active fields can, naturally, be hidden by using the +/- buttons, there is no way to get rid of the irritating “Rating” field. Even iTunes, which also has this feature, allows users to opt out of having the Rating field displayed. While some users may like the feature, and they are of course free to have their own preferences, it is unreasonable for the Rating field to be thrust upon the rest of us. Like the toolbar, all display fields should be fully optional and customizable without exception. Only then will Endote be good enough for th fully range of users who work with it. One should always be able to opt in and opt out of these things.

I couldn’t agree more. Like the new non-customizable toolbar, the compulsory “Rating” field at the head of the reference window is a great annoyance. Why a professional academic would want to “rate” publications in her or his personal database is a mystery to me but it appears that there are some amongst our ranks who wish to do so and they are entitled to their preferences. But why thrust this “feature” upon us all? In Endote, all other non-active fields can, naturally, be hidden by using the +/- buttons, or customized for selective display. But there is no way to get rid of this irritating “Rating” field. Even iTunes, which also has this “Rating” feature, allows users to opt out of having the “Rating” field displayed.  Like the toolbar, all display fields should be fully optional and customizable. No exceptions. There is no reason why Endote cannot be useful to the different kinds of user needs that the diversity of personal and professional conventions and and preferences by simply allowing all users to opt in and opt out of these things. Not having certain features in a program is one thing. I am sure we could all thing of things that we would like the developers of our favorite programs to incorporate in to them. But having existing features forced upon you in a software environment that stifles the workflow by putting in place a regime of non-optional and non-customizable rigidty is simply unacceptable. While some users may like the feature, and they are of course free to have their own preferences, it is unreasonable for the Rating field to be thrust upon the rest of us.

All of this suggests that the pathological urge to hastily issue annual releases of poorly tested and conceived upgrades in the  pursuit of rapid revenue, a problem which unfortunately pervades many sections of the software industry, also exists among the good folks at Thompson Reuters. Endote X6 is clearly a product of lazy and hasty work, the sort of 60% effort that might get an otherwise capable student in my class a C but will leaving him wishing that he had spent more of his time at his desk and less of it at the beer keg, so that he could have earned the A that we all know he is capable of. But since we have no good alternative here (I have tried Sente and other programs on the Mac and they have even more problems), we are at your mercy. Be kind to us. I would recommend  spending the next two or three years doing some real research and development on this program, rather than cashing in with another poorly thought out version next year. I am happy to pay for this program but I have a low tolerance for chicanery, as it would seem, do many customers on this forum. You may be laughing all the way to the bank but it is we who must suffer.

I couldn’t agree more. Like the new non-customizable toolbar, the compulsory “Rating” field at the head of the reference window is a great annoyance. Why a professional academic would want to “rate” publications in her or his personal database is a mystery to me but it appears that there are some amongst our ranks who wish to do so and they are entitled to their preferences. But why thrust this “feature” upon us all? In Endote, all other non-active fields can, naturally, be hidden by using the +/- buttons, or customized for selective display. But there is no way to get rid of this irritating “Rating” field. Even iTunes, which also has this “Rating” feature, allows users to opt out of having the “Rating” field displayed. Like the toolbar, all display fields should be fully optional and customizable. No exceptions. There is no reason why Endote cannot be useful to users with diverse personal and professional conventions and and preferences by simply allowing all users to opt in and opt out of these things. Not having certain features in a program is one thing. I am sure we could all think of features that we would like the developers of our favorite programs to incorporate into them. But having existing features forced upon you in a software environment that stifles the workflow by putting in place a regime of non-optional and non-customizable rigidty is simply unacceptable. While some users may like the feature, and they are of course free to have their own preferences, it is unreasonable for the “Rating” field to be thrust upon the rest of us.

All of this suggests that the pathological urge to hastily issue annual releases of poorly tested and conceived upgrades in the pursuit of rapid revenue, a problem which unfortunately pervades many sections of the software industry, also exists among the good folks at Thompson Reuters. Endote X6 is clearly a product of lazy and hasty work, the sort of 60% effort that might get an otherwise capable student in my class a C, but will leave him wishing that he had spent more of his time at his desk, and less of it at the beer keg, so that he could have earned the A that we all know he is capable of.

But since we have no good alternative here (I have tried Sente and other programs on the Mac and they have even more problems), we are at your mercy. Be kind to us. We do pay you for your product. I would recommend spending the next two or three years doing some real research and development on this program, rather than cashing in with another poorly thought out version next year. I am happy to pay for this program but I have a low tolerance for chicanery, as, it would seem, do many customers on this forum. You may be laughing all the way to the bank but it is we who must suffer.

I’d just like to second what “hugster81” wrote in the previous post.  Just updated to EndNote v6 (user since v1 I think, anyway for about 20 years).  I use EndNote to manage references for scientific publication.  I use it on a Mac.  I’m disapointed by the inability to customize toolbars, like many other Mac Apps.  But I’m expecially disapointed that I cannot remove the “rating” item in the reference window.  Maybe some will use this, but I never will (and from talking to several colleagues, I get the feeling I’m not alone).  Endnote is used by a diverse group of people for different things - some appear to use it as a reading list and maybe ratings help to prioritize this activity.  For those of us, like me, who do not use it this way, having the ability to simply disable the display of this item would seem to be a reasonable solution.  Please implement this soon!  Thanks for listening.

I too second hugster81’s well-made points.  I am seriously considering downgrading from X6 back to X4 after discovering that the absurdly juvenile rating field can’t be got rid of or moved, while the (to me) not very useful read/unread feature means that my whole library is now appearing emboldened.

Please don’t add features for the Facebook generation without checking whether they actually add value, and without including an off switch for grown-ups who actually need your product for real research use.

Can we have a patch to disable these “features”?

The rationale for having a rating window at all seems to be that some users would like to decide which papers they want to read, or have read and  “liked”. The first reason does not justify imposing this feature on everyone else. As to the second reason please let us remove this concept from serious research. I may offer some view of a paper in my literature review or discussion but I don’t need a rating for that.

If you wish to cater for those few individuals who want to rate so be it, but please make this field optional. It will be first change I will make to my new X6 installation!

Another unnecessary “great idea” from designers that users don’t want.  Please make it possible to disable ratings and eliminate that field showing up in the record display.

EndNote version X7 allows users to hide the Ratings field if they choose to.

Jason Rollins, the EndNote team