EndNote Desktop: Get Started

This guide is currently under construction.  It is being updated to reflect the newest version of the software, EndNote 20.

EndNote 20 is a citation management system. With EndNote Desktop you can:

• Save, organize, and share references.
• Create bibliographies in more than 7,000 bibliographic and journal styles.
• Save, organize, read, and annotate PDFs.
• Insert citations and full references into documents while you write.

EndNote Desktop is available to current SIU Carbondale and SIU School of Medicine graduate students and faculty, including SIU School of Law students. EndNote Online is available to SIU Carbondale undergraduate students and staff. Questions about School of Medicine use may be directed to reference@siumed.edu.

To install EndNote Desktop on your device:

1. Go to https://oit.siu.edu/salukitech/software/.
2. Scroll down to EndNote Desktop and click "Request OIT Knowledge Base."
3. Select the appropriate entry and follow the instructions that load.
4. Contact the SalukiTech for assistance if you run into problems.

1. Open EndNote Desktop and from the File menu select New and enter a name for your library.
    
2. Choose a destination for your EndNote library (My Documents is recommended) and click Save. Note: Do not save your working library to a flash drive or cloud storage (i.e. Dropbox, Sharepoint) because eventually the data will be corrupted. However, it's okay to save a back-up copy of your library to a flash drive or cloud storage.

Sync

If you have an EndNote Online (Web) account with saved citations, you can easily sync it with your Desktop library. You can also sync EndNote Desktop with a Web of Science account.

1. In EndNote Desktop, go to Library > Sync.
    
2. Log-in to your EndNote or Web of Science account. You can also create a new account at this step.
    
3. Complete the user registration form.
    
4. The first time you sync, EndNote will copy all citations from each library into the other, and this might result in duplicates. To eliminate duplicates, click Find Duplicates in the Library menu.
    
5. After you sync the first time, your sync status will appear in the Groups panel. Click it for details about the most recent sync.
    
6. Your EndNote Desktop and Online account are now synced. Desktop will automatically sync with Online as you make changes and vice versa. You can also manually sync at any time by clicking the sync button.

Windows

• Windows 10
• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster x86-bit or x64-bit processor
• 600 MB hard disk space available
• Minimum 2 GB of available RAM

Mac

• macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11.
• Intel-based or Apple Silicon-based Macintosh
• Hard disk with 700 MB available
• Minimum 2GB of available RAM

Each semester, the library holds graduate student workshops, including ones about EndNote.  Check the graduate student workshop page for more details.