Dear EndNote gurus, I am using EndNote X7 (version 17.4.0.10646) on Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10.5) on a MacBook Pro (Late 2013, 16Gb RAM). I have a library that is synchronized with my EndNote web account with about 4275 references. We don't use Word and Endnote because we want to, we use them because we have to. We have 10-12 authors on each paper these days, and Endnote is the de facto standard that everyone has on their machine. Both apps have been getting better on the Mac prior to this set back, and the iPad Endnote app is a good step forward.
Just before I handed in my thesis two things happened, which, up to then I had thought were PhD student urban myths:
- A whole journal came out full of articles that ‘scooped’ my thesis topic (gah!!)
- Endnote bugged out and turned all my 400 odd references into gibberish (instant coronary!!!)
My supervisor solved crisis number one with a single phone call. “It’s a good thing Inger,” he said cheerfully “Just point out in the introduction that the journal was published after you finished and this is evidence that the topic is hot“. Mischief managed (this strategy works really well by the way, even if you don’t have to employ it from desperation).
The Endnote problem was a doozy though.
No students on the PhD floor at the University of Melbourne had experienced anything like it. Those who eyeballed my tattered thesis looked horrified. I could read their thoughts: Thank god this isn’t me! Believe me when I say this does not make you feel any calmer.
Frantic calls to the library resulted in pointers to some very helpful material, but that didn’t help. In the end, my mad skills of Google led me to an obscure Endnote support forum. On it was a post which detailed the problem I was having, but the posted answer didn’t work for me. I put a cry for help on the same forum and crossed my fingers. Over night a kind soul answered and fixed my problem.
Thank you internet!
But no thank you Endnote, you failed me in my hour of need. Up to that point I loved you, but ever since, no matter how often someone tells me you have lifted your game, you have been officially Dead To Me. I’d heard rumours there were better reference managers out there, so I got my thesis handed in and looked around for an alternative solution. These days I would just ask Twitter what my options were, but back then such research was more random. A photocopied flyer, which my friend Dr Scott Mayson picked up in a seminar room, led me to Mendeley.
I liked Mendeley instantly. It works in a similar way to iTunes in that you can make a ‘playlist’ for each topic and it’s social, so you can share your reference data with others. Your data is in the cloud, so no more data sticks and version control issues. The interface is lovely and clean which was an unexpected bonus (I think it’s a pity that the aesthetics of software design for functional programs doesn’t often get that kind of treatment). I spent a day or so transferring my data and LOVED the way it renamed all my PDFs in a consistent format at the press of a button.
Being a social sharing kind of person I put together a research education bibliograhy and linked it to the blog. I made an open Twitter literature list, added a few references and published it on the web. I woke up the next morning to find that many kindly souls had posted new references to it – instant literature searching! I was captivated and told all my friends about my new toy, trying to lure them away from the Endnote mothership.
But, like so many intense love affairs, the lustre eventually wore off and my eye began to wander. Once you have loved and lost a reference manager, it is so much easier to move on. I was transferring my writing practice into Scrivener at that point, and people on Twitter told me that cite while you write referencing worked better with Zotero.
![Endnote App For Mac Endnote App For Mac](/uploads/1/2/4/7/124751349/137893819.jpg)
Zotero is a project of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The key feature of Zotero is the way it integrates with your Firefox web browser, plus Cloud, open source, sharing, automatic metadata scraping …oh – and free. What’s not to love?
Well I tried Zotero for a couple of months and, to be honest with you, I just couldn’t warm to it. After the aesthetic and functional design of Mendeley it felt hard to use and I never did quite work out how to synch it properly. It may well have had something to do with my migration to Mac from PC and the digital chaos that ensued, but I quickly tired of fighting with the interface. I know many people love it, but – not for me.
It seemed that Zotero was destined to be my rebound reference manager love affair. It was time to settle down and get married. All this moving around was hurting my paper kids. My digital life needed some order and routine so I turned again to Twitter with my wish list for a new reference manager. The wish list read:
- Easy to use interface
- Compatibility with Scrivener
- Good search functions and ability to keep notes
- The ability to auto-populate fields with meta-data from PDFs
- The Cloud. Baby.
. @vanderaj pointed out my wish list was unrealistic and suggested I try Papers2 for the Mac. While Zotero and Mendeley were free, Papers2 was $80, but there was a free trial for a month. It had everything I wanted but the Cloud, but that wasn’t a deal breaker because in the meantime I had rejigged the way my hardware worked.
Mr Thesiswhisperer is a professional software engineer. He watched me struggle with three computers (home, office and laptop) and decided the way I was working was inefficient (you have to love the way geeks think). He replaced all the computers with one slim, light 11 inch Mac Book air.
Instead of maintaining and synching data on multiple computers and remote servers, I now cart all my data with me, which would be dangerous if Mr Thesis Whisperer had not also installed Time Machine. When I turn on my laptop inside my house, Time Machine finds me and slurps up all my latest work. So fantastic – we live in the future right?
Anyway, Papers2 turned out to have a great search function, combined with note taking and highlighting capacities. It is wonderful at scraping meta data from PDFS and populating fields like author and publisher. Often these are not properly done in the first place (honestly – I really do wonder what we pay those journal publishers for). If Papers2 doesn’t get the fields quite right you can ask it to search the web and find a match.
Thanks to @jasondowns and @scottmayson I have discovered other cool features such as the ability to set up a proxy and search databases like Google scholar from within the interface, which enables me to import from the web, seamlessly, with one click.
In other words, I’m happy with Papers2 for most of what I do (but I still use Mendeley to compile libraries on to share on the web). I think this story demonstrates how the choice of reference manager is deeply personal and contingent on a whole lot of factors. Sometimes I yearn for other features, but the more I get to know Papers2, the more I appreciate its trusty and efficient design. Deep lasting love is always like that, at least so I’ve found.
That’s my story – what’s yours? Did you stick with your first reference manager or kiss a lot of frogs until the right software came along? Perhaps you have some other, totally radical solution for keeping your references in order? Would love to hear your stories in the comments.
Related posts
Love the Thesis whisperer and want it to continue? Consider becoming a $1 a month Patreon and get special, Patreon only, extra Thesiswhisperer content every two weeks!
Endnote App For Android
Create and collaborate on documents that are beautiful beyond words.
Pages is a powerful word processor that lets you create stunning documents. You can even use Apple Pencil on your iPad to add comments and illustrations by hand. And with real-time collaboration, your team can work together, whether they’re on Mac, iPad, or iPhone, or using a PC.
Download Pages for Mac from the Mac App StoreDownload Pages for iOS from the iOS App StorePreview Pages for iOS in the iOS App StorePreview Pages for Mac in the Mac App StoreStart using Pages at iCloud.com
A canvas
for creativity.
From the start, Pages places you in the perfect creative environment. It puts all the right tools in all the right places, so it’s easy to choose a look, customize fonts, personalize text styles, and add beautiful graphics. And everyone collaborating on a document has access to the same powerful features.
Start with a great‑looking template.
Choose from over 70 beautiful Apple‑designed templates, and customize your document any way you like.
See your progress.
Track changes, add highlights, and have threaded conversations with your team. Your edits are saved automatically.
Find and organize chapters easily.
Endnote App For Android
Pages automatically creates a table of contents for you based on paragraph styles and updates it as you make edits. Just tap or click to find the content you want.
Communicate beautifully.
Liven up your text by filling it with color gradients or images. And take the entire page to the next level by adding photos, galleries, math equations, charts, or more than 700 customizable shapes.
Record and edit audio clips.
Add and adjust narration, notes, and sounds for people to play in your documents on iOS and Mac.
Create a book.
From travel books to fairy tales, it’s easy to make beautiful, interactive books with image galleries, audio clips, and videos right inside Pages. Built‑in tools let you copy and paste into different projects, create links to jump to other pages, and collaborate with friends, editors, colleagues, or classmates. And when you’re done, easily share them with others or publish them to Apple Books for download or purchase.
Turn your device into a teleprompter.
Now public speaking is nothing to be afraid of. With Presenter Mode, Pages turns your document into a ready-to-read speech with just a tap. You can then set it to scroll automatically at your pace.
Pages and
Apple Pencil.
Sketch, illustrate, and create documents to express your ideas with Apple Pencil on your iPad.
Download iStudiez Pro Legendary Planner for macOS 10.11 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. We have fixed the bug of reflecting the event that lasts for a few days in the Calendar of the app. The dots for the event are now shown for ALL days of the period of duration. Thanks a lot for your generous feedback! $10 calendar app for mac 2017. ZenDay (Android, iOS) is a time-management and calendar app with a timeline-style approach to managing your schedule, zooming in on the near future to display your upcoming events in. Apple today announced financial results for the third calendar quarter and fourth fiscal quarter of 2017. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $52.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.7. Nov 17, 2011 Download Awesome Calendar and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Now you can automatically sync with all iPhone calendars, write your todo list, create notes with photos, check the weather and more, all with Awesome Calendar!
Draw and modify
Sketch your idea, then press play to watch each stroke animate onto the page.
BetaEdits that stick.
With Smart Annotation, your edits stay with the marked-up text, making it easy for you and your team to incorporate changes.
Collaborate with anyone.
Anywhere.
Work together in the same document, from across town or across the world. You can see your team’s edits as they make them — and they can watch as you make yours, too. Just select a name on the collaborator list to jump to anyone’s cursor.
Work on any document. On any device.
You don’t work in one place on just one device. The same goes for Pages. So the documents your team creates using a Mac or iPad look the same on an iPhone or web browser — and vice versa.
Work together in real time on documents stored on iCloud or Box.
Everyone can collaborate — whether they’re on Mac, iPad, iPhone, or a PC web browser.
Unlock documents with a touch or a glance.
Best story boarding app for mac. Open password-protected files in a snap with Touch ID or Face ID on compatible devices.
![Mac split screen shortcut Mac split screen shortcut](http://techibee.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/mac-split-screen-first-app.png)
Microsoft Word friendly.
Teaming up with someone who uses Microsoft Word? Pages makes it simple. You can save Pages documents as Word files. Or import and edit Word documents right in Pages. Most popular Word features are supported, too. Now it’s no problem to work on the same project. Even if you use different apps.
Learn more about Microsoft Word compatibilityLearn more about Microsoft Word compatibility
More ways to do stunning work.
Numbers
Create great-looking spreadsheets. Together.
Keynote
Easily build stunning, memorable presentations.