Exporting a whole library from Endnote 3.1.2 to Zotero

Troy Aurelie
Hello,
I have read many discussions on the forum... but still, I can't manage to export a whole library (1280 references) from Endnote (an old version: 3.1.2) to Zotero
If anyone has tips...
Thanks a lot.
Aurélie from France
  • adamsmith
    "I can't manage" isn't really much to go with
    What have you done so far?
    What isn't working?

    I don't know if anyone has done this with such an old Endnote version - 3.1.2 is from the late 1990s, isn't it? - but I think it should still work.
  • Troy Aurelie
    I tried to export my library in .html and in rtf...
    couldn't understand very well the procedure I guess
  • ajlyon
    You will need to export in RIS or BibTeX format, then import that into Zotero, by selecting Import from the gear menu in the Zotero pane.

    See:
    http://www.zotero.org/blog/making-the-switch-to-zotero/
    http://whyihatetheropods.blogspot.com/2009/03/going-from-zotero-to-endnote.html

    I'm sure there are more detailed migration instructions somewhere, but I can't seem to find them.
  • Troy Aurelie
    With such an old version of Endnote as I have, the only options in the file menu when you want to export a file are txt, html or rtf format...
    I will look up the links you sent and see if I can do something...
    Thanks
  • ajlyon
    It is probably exporting in a standard format regardless-- hopefully in RIS. Export as txt, then try to import it into Zotero using the gear menu.

    You can also open the file that Endnote creates and paste part of it here -- we should be able to tell what format it is using. It is also possible that such old versions of Endnote don't support any of Zotero's formats, but that seems unlikely. If that's the case, you may have to open your Endnote library with a newer version of Endnote and use that version to export.
  • mark
    If you can't get it to work, I think a solution might be to open your library in a newer EndNote version and export it from there. Do you have anyone that could help you with that?
  • Troy Aurelie
    Unfortunately, I don't have anyone around me using a newer version of endnote...
    I tried to follow the steps exposed there :
    http://www.zotero.org/blog/making-the-switch-to-zotero/
    but :
    - "output styles" doesn't exist in the edit menu
    - I couldn't download the RIS style from the End Note site because it is only available for versions of endnote from 4 to 8...

    Here's a bit of my library in .txt :
    1967 « Congrès international des africanistes- Deuxième session », Dakar.

    1978 Les Saltigues, Dakar, Les NEA
    Centre d'étude des civilisations
    Ministère de la culture (Demb ak Tey. Les cahiers du mythe (revue)),Vol. 4 & 5).

    1981 Fadiouth, Lîle aux coquillages
    Brochure du centenaire de l'église Saint-François Xavier de Fadiouth (1881-1981), Dakar, Imprimerie Saint-Paul.

    1982 Education et initiation, Dakar, Les NEA
    Centre d'étude des civilisations
    Ministère de la culture (Demb ak Tey. Les cahiers du mythe (revue)),Vol. 7).

    1992 History, Design, and Craft in West African Strip-Woven Cloth, Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution
    National Museum of African Art.

    Or in .htm:

    Adam, J.-G.
    1970 Noms vernaculaires de plantes du Sénégal, Paris, Journal d'Agriculture Tropicale et de Botanique Appliquée
    Laboratoire d'ethnobotanique, Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle.

    Adanson, Michel
    1996 [1757] Voyage au Sénégal
    Présenté par Denis Reynaud et Jean Schmidt, Saint-Etienne, Publications de l'Université de Saint-Etienne.

    Adjamagbo, Agnès; Antoine, Philippe, et Delaunay, Valérie
    2004 « Naissances prémaritales au Sénégal: confrontation de modèles urbains et rural », Cahiers québécois de démographie, 33, (2), pp. 239-272.

    Adler, Alfred, et Zempleni, Andràs
    1972 Le bâton de l'aveugle. Divination, maladie et pouvoir chez les Moundang du Tchad, Paris, Hermann (Coll. Savoir).

    Does that help ?

    Oh and I also tried to import into zotero both those files from the gear menu but not surprisingly, it says "the selected file is not a supported format".

    thanks for your time !
  • adamsmith
    no, unfortunately it doesn't - you need Endnote to provide a decent, standardized export like RIS - if that's really not possible in the old version I don't know how you'd move things to Zotero.
  • Troy Aurelie
    thank you anyway...
    If I don't find a newer version, maybe I could cut and paste item by item... will take some time...
  • rrodd
    In Version 3 of EndNote there was a separate Styles menu (between Paper and Windows).

    If you look there you should be able to find RIS (it may be called RefMan, or RefMan (RIS)) if not, try BibTeX.

    Once you've set the style, export the references as text.
  • mark
    Don't cut and paste by item. If you don't find a solution, let me know how I can contact you for you to send me your library. Though I stay far from using it, I have access to EndNote X.
  • bdarcus
    Endnote 3.0 was released in 1998 (!), back by the original Niles software (Endnote has since changed hands a number of time).

    I believe I used this version at the time, and Endnote has, AFAIK, always been able to export RIS, Refer/Endnote, and BibTeX.
  • Troy Aurelie
    Hello mark, bdarcus, rrodd, adamsmith, ajlyon, and thank you for the energy and time you spent answering my post.
    I finally made it. It was in fact very simple.
    I had to select Another Style from the Style menu, open the \Styles\export directory and choose RIS. Then I went to the File>export command, and saved my library as .txt... and import it afterwards in Zotero !
    "Problem" - due to my ignorance - solved !
    Have a nice day overseas !
    Aurélie from France
  • jvlauw
    I am having similar problems trying to export about 5000 refs to zotero...
    exporting to TXT RIS works fine but then importing generates error 1275259977
    I can add screeshot to show the message if you want to.
    I do not know how to add screenshot...
    Cheers anyway,
    Johan.
  • rrodd
    Have you tried exporting the EndNote library in sections? Select (say) the first 500 references and choose export. Make sure "Export Selected References" is checked so that only the selected references are included.

    That should solve the problem if the complete file is just too large and it may narrow it down if there is a problem reference that's causing the error.

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Instead of commenting here, you should start a new discussion. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.