EndNote: Organize Your Library

Groups are what keep your EndNote library organized, much like a filing system. You must create a group and assign references to the group manually. There are three group terms that are important to learn when organizing your library:

• Group - A custom list of references. 
• Smart Group - A group based on a search of the EndNote library. Since it is based on a search that is constantly updated, you do not add references to a smart group manually. References are added to the smart group automatically based on the search parameters that are set.
• Groups Set - References are organized in groups and groups are organized in group sets. Group sets can be moved up or down in the Groups Panel, while groups underneath group sets are always in alphabetical order. 

Creating a Group

1. In EndNote, select Create Group from the Groups menu. A new folder will appear in the My Groups section of the Groups Panel. Name the new group and press the Enter or Return key when finished.

2. Select the references you want to add to the custom group. You can select multiple references by holding down the CTRL key while clicking on each reference with the mouse cursor. The selected references will be highlighted in blue.

3. Drag and drop the selected references into the group folder. 

Creating a Smart Group

1. In EndNote, select Create Smart Group from the Groups menu. A window will appear. Name the new group in the first box labeled Smart Group Name.

2. Build your search strategy for the group just as you would in a library database. Click the Create button.

3. All of the references in your library that contain the same keywords found within your search strategy are now added to the smart group. New references will be added to this group set automatically as the become available.

You can send your EndNote references to Excel using either the "Tab Delimited" output style or an Output Style that you design yourself.

To Create a New Output Style:

1. Choose Tools > Output style > New style
2. In the Bibliography section, select Template.
   1. Select the type of reference you want from the Reference Types drop down menu.
   2. Use the Insert Field button to add the information you want. Be sure use the Insert Field button to insert a Tab between the types of information you want.
   3. Repeat the process for every other Reference Type you expect to have.
   4. Click File.
   5. Click Save As.
   6. Give the Output Style a name. Call it whatever makes sense to you. For example, you could call it Excel for Meta-Analysis.
   7. 
   8. (Steps 8 and 9 are optional.) In Bibliography, select Author Name.
   9. Set Initials: to Full Name so that you will get all authors' full names in your Excel file.
   10. Click File.
   11. Click Save.

To Send Your EndNote References to Excel

First, you need to clean up the information in EndNote. Many of your references will include characters that interfere with the layout in Excel. You will need to make changes to get the information in the correct cells in Excel. (Thanks to the Pao Yue-Kong Library at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for sharing how to clean up the data !)

1. Important: Save a Copy of your EndNote Library using the button on the File tab. We need to make changes to the references that could cause problems with using other parts of EndNote. You will want to have an unedited version of Library that you can use later on. Give it a name that will help you remember if it is the edited version or the unedited version. For example, call it "Copy for Excel."
2. Go to the version you want to edit. Select all of the references you want to use. On the Library tab, select Find and Replace.
3. Set In: to Any Field. (Note: When a source has multiple authors, this process can cause EndNote to merge the authors' names in an unexpected way. If you wish to keep the authors distinct, you may want to experiment with changing the information in a single field at a time. Repeat steps 3-8 with every field you want to change. It can be tedious because there are many fields.)
4. In the Find field, use the Insert Special menu to select Carriage Return. There will be no visual indication that you have added something to the field, but it will be there.
5. In the Replace field, enter a semicolon.
6. Click Change.
7. 
8. Confirm that you want to make those replacements.
9. Select the references you want to send to Excel.
10. On the File menu, select Export.
11. Give your file a name.
12. Set Save as Type to Text File (*.txt).
13. Set Output Style to Tab Delimited or the style you created. If the style you want is not in the list, select Select Another Style and select it from that list. The styles in the long list are in alphabetical order.
14. Click Save.
15. Open Excel.
16. On the Data tab, use the option to Get External Data From Text. Select the file you just created. Click Import.
17. Select Delimited and click Next.
18. Select Tab as the delimiter.
19. (Optional: Click Next to tell Excel what kind of data format to use for each column.)
20. Click Finish.
21. Tell Excel where to put the data. (By default it will start with the first cell. You can select a different cell if you want.)
22. Click OK.