Importing EndNote X references with PDF attachments

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matt541
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Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:03 pm

Importing EndNote X references with PDF attachments

Post by matt541 »

I have a large EndNote X folder of references, many of which have PDF versions of the reference. Is there an efficient way to import all the references and their PDFs in one batch of imports?
Jon
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Post by Jon »

You can export as XML from EN and import that to Bookends. Links to pdfs should remain intact. Try it with one reference first and see if it works as you expect.

Jon
Sonny Software
matt541
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:03 pm

Importing EndNote X references with PDF attachments

Post by matt541 »

Jon: Thanks for the quick response. I selected an article with a PDF from EndNote, exported it per the instructions and then imported it into BookEnds. The article came but not the PDF. When I seleect the "attach" button, it said the PDF file couldn't be found.
Jon
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Post by Jon »

The EN export may not include the full path name (it may refer to localhost -- you can open the XML and see).

In this case, moving your pdfs (or copies of them) to the Bookends default attachments folder should allow them to be found. They can be copies, but they must have the same name as they had in EN.

Jon
Sonny Software
tappazee
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Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2021 8:00 am

Re:

Post by tappazee »

Jon wrote: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:55 pm The EN export may not include the full path name (it may refer to localhost -- you can open the XML and see).

In this case, moving your pdfs (or copies of them) to the Bookends default attachments folder should allow them to be found. They can be copies, but they must have the same name as they had in EN.
For reference, I just successfully moved 2k references, most with attachments, from endnote x9 to bookends using this method, i.e. copy all the pdf files from the endnote library to bookends' 'attachments' folder, leaving the endnote attachment folder structure intact (endnote gives each reference a folder with a 10 digit number name). Then export references from Endnote via XML then import XML file to bookends. I did try just dragging and dropping references from endnote to bookends as per the online guidance, but I couldn't get bookends to pick up the attachments via that method.

In my BE attachment folder, am I now stuck with all the numbered folders from the way endnote organised pdfs, or is there a way to have BE reorganise its attachment folder?
Jon
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Re: Importing EndNote X references with PDF attachments

Post by Jon »

You can't drag and drop references from EndNote to Bookends. Please post the URL where you saw that? If it's somewhere on our web site I'll remove it.

Here are the instructions on the various ways to import from EndNote.

https://www.sonnysoftware.com/bookends/ ... mport.html

Since you've just made the move, I'd do it again using those instructions and the built-in EndNote importer. If you have any problems with it, you should contact tech support.

If you want to try to deal with your current situation in which each PDf is in its own folder, you can try Global Change -> Consolidate Attachments (please refer to this in the User Guide, Help menu, for how it works). You'd need to change the default attachment folder to a new empty one, run this, and if the PDFs were successfully moved to the new folder use it as the default attachment folder.

Jon
Sonny Software
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