I'm getting the "no translator could be found for the given file." It's EndNote 6. Not sure it'll read the thing + I can't seem to be able to download (or find) the RIS export tool at the EndNote site. Any suggestions?

@aaronwilcher:
http://tinyurl.com/y5ycwd

@Dan:
Just a note that the RIS style isn't always installed and can sometimes be removed. It sounds like this might be the case for aaron.

Zotero can import a variety of formats. Two such formats which you should be able to export from Endnote (using the zip file for Endnote 4-7 linked to on that page) are Refer and BibTex.

(Slightly off-topic, but Word DOCs are proprietary, minimally documented, and binary. They don't have a standard way of storing bibliographic citation information. The new MS OpenXML format will have a "standard" way to do this & Zotero may use this when they add the ability to work with MS Office. If Zotero is made to write to this format, I suppose it might be a reasonable feature request to import it too. But none of your current Word files are likely to be in the correct format.)

I have my references in an Endnote 8.0 file, and my Endnote application is not working well (I cannot open my notes). When I follow the sequence - RefMan (RIS) Export - Style (Endnote: Output-Style; File>Export>Text) - I find that the new file has zero kb. Is there some way of translating my Enl file directly?

A little persistence pays off. Turns out that if you set the output style in Endnote X to RefMan, the export the file as a text (txt) file, Zotero can upload the references flawlessly. Note of caution. If you Endnote library is large, then this can freeze up the browser, so I found it necessary to carve up my library into smaller units for importing. Hope this helps others.

Hi
I am trying to import a .txt file in RIS output style from Endnote X running on Win XP into Zotero running on Ubuntu 7.0.4. The process appears to start but is terminate shortly after with the message "An error occurred while trying to import the selected file. Please ensure that the file is valid and try again."
Any ideas on how to overcome this?
Thanks

Another alternative would be to do a find & replace in the RDF file that Zotero will generate for me, but this seems complicated. The notes are presented as separate items in the file, with their own identifying item number cross-referenced to the original citation item. So without knowing the rules for generating these item numbers, which ones might be in use, etc., a find and replace seems like it's not going to fix it. Any thoughts out there?

Feel free to send files that don't import to support@zot....org, and we'll take a look at them.

I have been trying to import my libraries from Endnote (V9 for Mac) with partial success. I am not experienced in this kind of thing, so I compared imports using 4 formats: RefMan, BibTeX, Endnote Export and Refer.

Most of the basic info came through with all of them. However:

In RefMan, some of the dates of publication came through incorrectly! I think it may have become confused with dates or 4-figure numbers which occurred in other fields.

In Endnote (Export), there was some muddling of fields.

In BibTeX, there was also some muddling of fields, and URLs were not picked up.

In none of the above were my extensive research notes picked up. They all just ignored them, except for the Refer export format. This picked up a portion of the research notes and put them into the 'Extra' field. However, it cut off after a certain amount of text. It doesn't recognise URLs, but this still seemed to me to export the most data successfully and correctly.

I am not impressed at not being able to transfer my notes. A list of references is all very well, but it is not reasonable to have to copy across pages of notes by hand (as someone has suggested).

(I still like the look of Zotero so far, though, and am hoping to switch across properly.)

@noksagt: There is a workaround for this using the current BibTex exporter. @Silverfin: Here's how you can get your Endnote research notes and URLs into Zotero. This is based on my Mac experience, but I don't see any reason the Windows procedure would be different since Endnote seems to work pretty similarly on the two platforms.

Endnote 9 has two fields where I have stored my own notes. One is called "Notes" and the other "Research Notes." The BibTeX exporter only includes the data from Notes (if you select "BibTex Export.ens" as your Output Style in Endnote and open the preview pane, you can see exactly what it will output for each of your records). It ignores "Research Notes," and also ignores URLs. Anything that is in the BibTex Note field, when imported into Zotero, goes into the Extra field (just above Date Added at the bottom of the Info tab).

So, if you need your research notes and URLs in Zotero, you can use the following procedure (I strongly suggest making a copy of your Endnote library and doing this on the copy):
1. In Endnote, under the References menu, select Change and Move fields
2. Use the dialog to ask it to move everything from Research Notes to Notes (you can insert after, before, or overwrite current material there as you wish).
3. Use the same facility to move info from your URL field to the Notes field after or before the current material as you wish.
4. Use "Export" under Endnotes "File" menu to export your library.
5. Use "Import" under Zotero's gear icon to import your library. (Be prepared to wait a few minutes.)

All your research notes and URLs will be in the Extra field for the associated records. So far as I can tell, the Extra field will hold an arbitrarily large amount of material although I cannot promise this. But my longest notes seem to be complete.



As I noted above, it would be great if there were some way to convert this material to associated notes for the relevant records, rather than filling the Extra field. Could the BibTex importer be modified to give this as an option?

Do you have small excerpts from your RIS file that demonstrates these issues?

There is a suggestion to understand what's wrong with Endnotes import.

I try many times importing Endnotes files to Zotero using BibTeX, RIS, Refer Export even with EndnotesExport, with very different results and problems: fields not imported, wrongly placed, transfered in "Extra" or in "Notes", etc. But it's very difficult to analyse what is wrong with real bibliographic data.

To understand these problems and compare import formats, I made a Endnotes file with 32 "faked items" corresponding to the 32 items types in Endnotes 9 (wich I use now). After, for each item, I put the name of the each field in the field. For exemple, for item type "BooK, field Publisher = "Publisher", field Pages = "pages", etc. For fields TITLE, I put "title + item type name", for Book, Title = "Title_book", for Manuscript, Title is "Title_Manuscript", etc.

So, if the importation is right, the content of the field will be the same that the field's name, if not, that means that a field is misplaced in Zotero's field. An empty field in Zotero means:
- a field not imported,
- placed in an other field
- a field that does'nt exist in Endnotes (or with a different spelling)....

After, I export this Endnotes file of 32 items in 4 differents import format: BibTeX, Refman(RIS), Refer Export, and EndnotesExport. Now, I can compare exactly the differences and understand the problems. My impression is that the "best" one (for now) is RIS where the fields not rightly import in Zotero are transfered as "Note". At least, no information is lost. In Refer Export, these fields are put all together in Zotero's "Extra".

For me, it's a very good way to see and understand what is wrong with import from Endnote. Some fields, as "language" or "short title", are never or rarely (?) imported.
I don't understand why it's like that, and I can't change it. But if someone like to work to improve Endnotes import to Zotero, I can send my 4 small files in text file to import in Zotero. It's a good tool to anlayse the problem, I think.

(Sorry for my english, I hope it's clear..)

Dan: I'll send my 4 files at support...

An other problem is that some Endnotes items types are not well imported in Zotero. For exemple, with RIS, the item type "Manuscript" in Endnotes is recognized as "Web page" by Zotero.

If the complete importation is not possible, the idea the put the Endnotes "not recognized" fields with RIS as "Notes" in Zotero is very good. But, to improve it, is it possible to create a tag to these notes with the name of the field and the content of the field in the note itself.

For exemple, for item type "Magazine Article", the field "Reviewed item" in Endnote is put in a note in Zotero. If we create the tag "Reviewed Item" to this note (with the text in it), it will be much more useful. Not only the info is not lost, put it's tagged, and much more searchable...

Noksagt: I understand that create a complete "translator/importator" is not easy. At least, I try to understand wich fields are well imported for each item type. There is many "secondary" fields, not very essential to have and rarely used in a style.

And, if I found 2-3 items types and fields very badly imported, I could change it for a more "generic" item type or move-merge infos in a field to an other one. That way, I'll really migrate to Zotero, but for now, I have to many items in Endnotes (more than 10 000) to adopt completely Zotero, a very excellent tool.

Now, import is always a (bad) surprise! We don't know what will be well or quite well imported. If we can know that, we can manage to "adapt-prepare" Endnotes files for importation. It won't be perfect but useful.

Just a general comment here: I think EndNote users having trouble exporting their data should also report these issues to Thomson/Reuters.

Some of the most common issues seem to be due to shaky implementation of various export formats on EndNote's end. There is nothing the Zotero folks can do about that (except for trying to be helpful). If Thomson/Reuters gets enough support requests and complaints, one would hope that they try to make some improvements.