Import fr. Endnote with notes in Custom field

sarahwwms · August 11, 2010

I managed to import all my references from an Endnote library (yay!), but I lost all the notes I had been taking about each item. I had modified one of the 3 'Custom' fields in Endnotes to be a place to type my notes on each reading. Is there a way to import the info in that field, too?

Tjowens · August 12, 2010

The RIS field for notes is N1, so if you get your Endnote RIS export to set your custom field type show up with N1 in front of it Zotero should pull all those notes right in.

sarahwwms · August 12, 2010

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! After a bit of trial and error, I did manage to do it. I tried renaming the Custom field containing my notes 'N1,' but that didn't work. Here's what I had to do:
To move the text to an Endnotes field that's already by default designated N1 (I picked Accession #), I selected all references in my Endnotes library, then entered References > Change and Move Fields > Move Fields. I checked the box for 'Insert after field's text' (so as not to over-write the accession #). I chose 'Custom 3' (since that's where my notes were) in the dropdown 'From' menu, and 'Accession #' in the 'To' menu, and clicked OK. After moving the text for all records in this way, then the Zotero instructions for RIS export from Endnotes and import to Zotero work fine. I only lost my text formatting. [You can see which fields Endnotes calls N1 when you have a record open in RIS Export style.]

101james · September 27, 2010

Thanks for the work-around. I've got a custom field that shows if I've got or not got a reference. Which is handy for managing references - keeping it is one hurdle over come for switching to Zotero.

I've another custom field ('read', 'to read', 'rev'). Following the approach given above that also imports. It is now amalgamated as one field (I guess).

Note - for Endnote X2 - the move fields is under the "Tools" menu.