Howto: Sync your Endnote libraries, styles, filters and connections using dropbox
Hello again researchers!
Your Endnote contains the list of literatures and authorities you used for your research paper. It may also contain your research data itself, attached to the bibliography in endnote. For sure, you want it to be safe and if possible, retrievable from any location which has endnote software in it. The solution: store your endnote data in the cloud. If you use multiple computers, you might want to sync it as well so that every changes you made in one computer will be adjusted in the other. We’ll do this using dropbox.
Steps:
The Three Main Folders
1. Install Dropbox.
2. Identify three main folders used in endnote: the styles folder, the filters folder and the connections folders. Click edit, preferences, folder locations. You will see three default path to folder locations.
3. Go to windows explorers, find the location of those three folders, copy them.
4. Go to your MyDropbox, create a new folder (e.g. Endnote) and paste them there in the new folder.
5. Now you need to return to your endnote, click edit, preferences, folder locations, select folder. Change the path into your new endnote folders in Dropbox.
The library file (ENL)
Normally, Endnote store your library file in MyDocuments/Documents. Go to windows explorer, find the *.enl files and copy them. Next, go to MyDropbox, paste them there (or you can paste it in your endnote folder in dropbox too, if you like). In order to change the default library location, do the following:
Click edit, preferences, libraries, open the specified libraries, click add open libraries, apply.
That’s it! Your endnote is in your dropbox now. You can work on your paper in any computer with endnote and dropbox installed. If you are using a new computer, don’t forget to adjust the paths of your endnote software into your dropbox folder.
Related post:
Howto: Autosave your ms word doc in Dropbox
You're quite clever for figuring that out, but there's a much easier way to get your reference manager to sync. Just use Mendeley. It's free and syncs with the web automatically.
@Gunn: Thanks a lot for the tip. I'll give it a try!
This is a really nice solution. In addition to the things you've already listed, you'll probably want to keep the .data folder EndNote creates in Dropbox too. There's information in there that's associated with your library (file attachments, etc.).
But the easiest way to make sure your references are backed up is to transfer them up to EndNote Web.
@jmelinn: Thanks for the tips about .data folder. You are right I forgot to mention it earlier. But the *.enl file automatically creates and copy the data file when it is moved to another folder, no?
Another question: will the end note web saves the attachments (contained in the .data folder) to the cloud? If yes, is there a limit? I red that there is alimit of 10000 records, but what about attachments?
http://science.thomsonreuters.com/support/faq/wok3new/endnoteweb/#import
Thanks for that, but when I tried this Endnote reported "Your Styles folder does not contain any Styles. Please select a new Styles folder". More worrying, when I reverted to the default folder it still gave me this error. I've contacted Endnote for help on this one.
Donncha
I have exactly the same problem das Donncha. I am using EndNote X4 and the latest Dropbox client on MAC OS X.6 (Snow Leopard). Anyone found any solution? Would be very much appreciate!
I am having a different problem using MAC OS x.6 and endnote. Endnote and word don't seem to be synching properly, with the wrong citations appearing in the word document. Anyone else having this problem? Any suggestions on how to fix it?
I talked to Endnote tech support about this from a different angle. I was wanting to find a way to collaborate with several colleagues using the same EN library, and wanted to figure out if dropbox would be a good way to go. Similar useage to here.
They suggested that working on the cloud in general, and off Dropbox in particular, is dangerous in Endnote, and is likely to result in corrupted libraries. Well, we tried it anyway and that's what happened. Any thoughts on how to minimize this risk?