Sonny Software

Hi to all,

A confusing issue has happened when I export my Bookends library to Endnote (just for work purposes, so frustrating): the Unique ID and Endnote record numbers do not match up between libraries, even though the Endnote library is solely from importing the Endnote XML output by Bookends.

This means that I have to manually confirm every single citation in the 400+ page research work I am compiling, as the IDs do not match up.

Is there any way to make them match? There appear to be no other factors different besides this issue between libraries.

Images attached for comparison - it is perplexing and will take hours to resolve manually!

Thanks
dawooddren

That's a limitation of EndNote. They assign ids sequentially (which is why merging EndNote libraries is problematic). Bookends unique ids are assigned randomly. They won't match.

Here's a FAQ that discusses using Bookends and EndNote together, with some suggestions you may find helpful.

https://www.sonnysoftware.com/support/f ... citations?

Jon
Sonny Software

Jon wrote: ↑Mon Mar 10, 2025 12:24 pm That's a limitation of EndNote. They assign ids sequentially (which is why merging EndNote libraries is problematic). Bookends unique ids are assigned randomly. They won't match.

Here's a FAQ that discusses using Bookends and EndNote together, with some suggestions you may find helpful.

https://www.sonnysoftware.com/support/f ... citations?

Jon
Sonny Software

Hi Jon,

Thanks so much for that information - that is very frustrating!

For reference, it's for a PhD dissertation with over 1,000 different temporary citations.

Looks like I have a lot of manual changes to make in the coming weeks before submission.

dawooddren

I'm not sure which app you used to create the temp citations and which app you are using to scan the citations. But I can tell you that if you export from EndNote to Bookends, Bookends will not change the unique id (as long as it is unique, of course). Which means that if the EndNote id for a reference is 23, it will be 23 after being imported into Bookends, too.

Additionally, you don't need to reference id in temp citations for either app. If your field is in the biological/medical sciences, PubMed IDs can be used. Or, in fact, just unambiguous text from the references (e.g. author, date, etc).

Jon
Sonny Software