EndNote X2 - First Impressions and suggestions

Perhaps Thomson might consider a better beta testing model than is currently being used. Useability tests outside of the community of power users is plainly an inadequate model of testing new features. Among other things, it undermines the confidence of the community of users in the product. There are many products catching up to Endnote that are in some ways more powerful, like Zotero, and free or at least more affordable. I think buyers of this product deserve more careful consideration of new features to avoid debacles like this silly feature addition–an addition that could only have been cooked up in a lab utterly free of actual users.

Wow, thank goodness I ran into this discussion.  I posted a question about this in another Endnote forum and was told about the new automatic search process.  I asked if this could be turned off and received no response.  I thought that I must be seriously missing something, as I found this new “feature” quite troubling, to the point of deciding not to use Endnote anymore, because I’m scared of my library endlessly expanding.  Plus, I can’t be bothered deleting references I don’t want.  I’m really happy to hear that the company will be addressing this issue shortly.  If I didn’t know this, I would have moved to another citation manager and never looked back.  The new search process is just plain scary.

I have one additional request, related to this situation.  I now have a ton of new references that I don’t want and some that I purposefully chose.  I’d like to be able to get rid of all the excess references, but I’m not sure how to do so without reviewing each of them.  Even if I order them by reference # (so the new ones show up last), this would be a real hassle, since I’ve purposefully chosen a bunch of the new references.  The most efficient way for me to remove the unwanted references would be to search for all references that are not assigned to a custom group, since I assign all of my references to custom groups when I download them.  Hence, any references that are not assigned to a custom group would be excess references that were automatically downloaded in addition to the ones I purposefully chose (i.e. references I purposefully chose in recent searches have been categorized away into custom groups as I usually do).  Unfortunately, while there is a way to search for references that have been placed in reference groups, there doesn’t appear to be a way to search for references that are not assigned to any custom groups.  If there is a way, please share!  If there is not, I request this option to be included in the upcoming patch. 

Thank you and thank goodness I won’t have to change citation managers!

  1. Make the search fix available ASAP, like yesterday.

  2. the extremely attactive feature of version X2 is the Find full text feature.  In this feature Endnote will go on the web and download and attached the pdf file of a reference.  This would be a wonderful feature for me, unfortunately it fails many more times than it succeeds.  I can’t figure out why it fails and why it succeeds.

Hi,

I am actively considering progressing to use EndNote X2, but this nagging problem badly corrupted my library, which I took effort to keep clean and relevant. May I know the time frame of having this patch?

Campion

The EndNote X2.01 free upgrade patch for Windows and Macintosh is scheduled for release by the end of October 2008.

Jason Rollins, EndNote Product Development

jason.rollins@thomson.reuters.com

Thanks.

That’s quite a long wait. But will definitely look forward to this.

Hi, my first post on this forum.

I use X1 on a PC at work and need to run a mirrored library on my Mac at home. Ideally I would prefer the same version of Endnote on both machines, however as I can only get X2 from the site, I downloaded the trial version to try out. 

After a short time working the same workflow that I have used since Endnote 4, I became really frustrated and went searching for answers in this forum. It now appears that what I thought was a bug/problem with my settings (I searched through the preferences carefully) of getting my PubMed searches dumped directly into my carefully vetted library is actually a carefully researched ‘feature’. I’m really not happy with this. I would far rather dump the X2 when the trial runs out and get a copy of X1 - bit of course that’s not available!

I now have a dilemma:  I would still prefer the same versions on mac and PC, but there’s no way I’m updating my PC X1 to X2. And there doesn’t appear to be another solution. 

I read Jason’s replies as to why this change has occurred and I’m not convinced.  The comparison with Outlook is really not relevant - I want to choose what I put into my libraries and my searching is deliberately less than pinpoint accurate in case I pull up something serendipitously. I’ve never found it a huge problem moving the references I want into my library and disposing of the rest when I upload the next search. 

I like the look and functionality of X1 that I use on my windows machine. I would really like a copy of Endnote X1 for Mac!!  

I also join the request to be able to modify the option of automatic retrieval of all search results into main liberary.

It is quite urgent for me, as I am writing a scientific paper at the moment, and using a temporary liberary just for searching is driving me crazy.

I registered for RSS update on this thread, could someone please post here when the update is available for download?

thanks!

Is the use of a temporary library the only work-around for this? Have around 3000 references in my main library, and don’t want to clutter it up with a lot of junk, but a temporary library seems like more work.  It has been recommended to me to use Zotero for searching and then export the library to Endnote, but I don’t see big advantages to that, either. 

If one has to use the temporary file, it seems to me that it would be best if the libraries were on the left toolbar as icons, and the references could be highlighted and then dragged to the permanent library icon, rather than having two screens open, particularly on a laptop, where screen real estate is key.

iPhone support would also be great, since there is a portable MEDLINE portal. It would be nice to have a small app that lets me search, pick references, and then e-mailed either to Endnote or to my inbox for Import.

Using a secondary library is the recommended method if you do not want all of your online search results going into your main library. This is really all the older EndNote “Temporary Library” model was. Having multiple windows open - and the real estate use and confusion this caused is one of the reasons we changed this in EndNote X2.

As we have said many times, we are working on a free patch for all X2 users that will include a “temporary library for online searches” option but one that will be integrated in a single window workspace. This patch should be available for both platforms by the end of this month.

Jason Rollins, EndNote Product Development

Thank you Jason, first about working for the update to have the “old fashioned” online search option. I guess I was not alone complaining about that automatic entry “feature” in beta testing.

As you pointed out in the response to my beta test report, there is a wide variety in Endnote users. I understand some people make tons of small library, naming each with a specific title. Some people make (including me) a big “master” library which contains all the reference they need, and categorize them within the master. I prefer the latter method, because I don’t need to choose or open multiple libraries to format current manuscript. However, it’s been (before X) painful to custom-categorize hundreds or thousands of records using custom keywords and Term functions. In that sense, Group feature introduced in X1 was a big welcome for me, and now the number of groups is not limited (in X2). However, the automatic entry “feature” in X2 was not good because it corrupted (as others pointed out) my “10 years old” master library. The automatic entry is probably good for people using small library management.

At least, Thomson may try user survey about how they use Endnote at some point. Library management as well as methods to import record from online sources are probably the most critical areas users care about. Then changes may be geared with that survey in mind. Of course, some changes may not be welcomed by all, but at least you can get a sense about a common denominator.

Best regards,

JasonR wrote

 

As we have said many times, we are working on a free patch for all X2 users that will include a “temporary library for online searches” option but one that will be integrated in a single window workspace. This patch should be available for both platforms by the end of this month.

 

Jason Rollins, EndNote Product Development

Jason, thanks for this update, as if it was necessary, count me as another long-time endnote user (all the way back to the very first version of it) that really does not like the new feature of automatically adding all search results to the open library.  I anxiously await this patch to allow me to choose the references I want to import. 

Hi Jason!

Do you have a specific date for the X2 update patch now? Will it be the end of October, or must we expect a later date?

I’m asking because we are holding back an update to X2 on our (over)administrated work- and public computers until the patch is available so that both can be installed in one operation and not two (as we do not have the privileges to do the update ourself) . If the update is delayed we probably will have to install X2 soon anyway because students and other users with own computers (not administrated by the computer dept.) are starting to install and use X2.

I’m sure others are interested in this too.

Thanks!

Best wishes

Jan Ove

Message Edited by parabuthus on 10-14-2008 06:36 AM

We are still on target for the patch and are very hopeful that EndNote EX.'S will be publicly available for both Windows and Macintosh by the end of October.

Jason Rollins, EndNote Product Development

I’m very happy that you are bringing back the old method of online search & importing items. A tiny request - make the option “Clear currently displayed results…” remember its setting. It did so in X1, but I always need to uncheck it in X2.

The last week of October is coming. Shall we expect the patch to come in next week?

The free EndNote X2.01 update patch for Windows and Macintosh should be available for download in the next couple of days. We will post an official notice here and on www.endnote.com as soon as it is available.

Jason Rollins, the EndNote team

Well, maybe the new implementations in X2.01 are some kind of unsatisfying. I used to open a new thread for that here.

Where is the X2.01 patch though. I don’t see any download link posted or anounced yet?

You can find the patch at the following location or by searching for “Endnote Program Updates…” via Endnote’s Help menu. 

http://www.endnote.com/support/ENX201_WinMac_updater.asp