EXPORTing from ZOTERO to ENDNOTE

ashok199
Dear all,
I appreciate a lot to zotero team for the usability and applicability of this application. Though I have this problem of exporting a data file FROM zotero TO endnote, I am still further confused after reading the forum and help pages in zotero site.
Can anybody just help me this one: I would like to import this reference:
http://goo.gl/Uh8aT

here a german name in authors site: Möllmann
and a – symbol is there in the name part: stem cell-mediated………….

Now to import both of the parts in addition to the webpage or other parts clearly
What should I do or feed into the system.
1. Zotero > preference > export > import character encoding > WHAT?
2. While exporting selected item > character encoding > what and in which format should I export?
3. While importing into endnote > what is character encoding again.
If I keep all as Unicode-8 the output in endnote becomes
Möllmann H, Nef HM, Voss S, et al. Stem cell‐mediated natural tissue engineering. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. 2011;15(1):52-62.

Any help is highly appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance.
  • adamsmith
    open the RIS file you export from Zotero with a text editor (notepad, TextEdit) - do you see the umlaut's correctly? In that case the problem would seem to be on endnote's side.

    If it's not the problem can probably be fixed on Zotero's side.
    As a general rule UTF-8 is the best encoding format for import and export, but yes, there are exceptions.
  • ashok199
    thanks adam. yes, astonishingly when i open as a text file everything seems alright. but when imported to endnote as such the above problem starts. but when imported into endnote as UTF-8 format then the author names are correct but not the hyphen symbol of the subject. strange!! again, if anybody else has any suggestions please share with me.
  • ajlyon
    I‌ wouldn't be surprised if Endnote has imperfect Unicode support. If when importing in UTF-8 (the correct way), only the "hyphen" (actually, an n-dash) is incorrect, just fix those manually by replacing them with regular hyphens (type them manually).

    As for getting Endnote to show n-dashes, I think you'll need to raise that question on an Endnote support forum. Good luck-- their paid support is much worse than our free support. :)
  • DWL-SDCA
    EndNote and Reference Manager both have problems with UTF-8. Indeed, that was the issue that let me to switch to Zotero. I don't know about the most recent version of EndNote but before EndNote 9 unicode didn't import. For later versions, when I provided RIS files for someone to import it was necessary for me to use selected text editors. Windows Notepad didn't produce the characters that EndNote recognized as UTF-8. The version of TextPad I used didn't either. At one point I was asked to start each RIS file with this: (0xEF 0xBB 0xBF) so that EndNote would recognize the character set. I have no idea if that worked. I also suggested abandoning EndNote for Zotero and provided a Zotero RDF. I didn't hear more from the recipient of my RIS file.
  • ashok199
    Now everything is clear. i was subconsciously thinking zotero had the problem. a lot of thanks to ZOTERO team!!
  • ajlyon
    For completeness, I should note that if EndNote required the Byte Order Mark (which DWL-SDCA referred to), then that isn't an entirely unreasonable requirement. Zotero doesn't emit it, since it generally causes trouble, but you can try adding it yourself. If you open the file in Windows Notepad and save it again, I think it will add the BOM for you, then EndNote may import correctly.

    Still, EndNote should be able to read RIS‌ without the BOM, in part because the RIS‌ spec doesn't specify that it is required and few programs can be counted on to include it.

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