Importing existingreference lists

Lorraine Beard &

Martin Snelling

DRAFT: May 2007

Importing references

• In previous sections of these materials you have looked at importing references using a variety of methods– Manually typing them in– Using connection files– Using import filters– Directly exporting from online databases

Importing existing reference lists

• However many of us have our reference list as a formatted Word document.

• If this is you, there are three options1. Enter them manually 2. Copy and paste each reference from Word into

EndNote3. Rearrange the reference data using Word and

Excel

• If you only have a few references you may want to consider option 1 or 2

• These learning resources cover option 3.

Importing Reference Types in batches

• Import reference types in batches avoiding mixing reference types

• For example, import Journal Articles separate from Books

• If you import different reference types in the same batch you will need to manually change them in EndNote

5 steps…

• Option 3. has 5 steps• Our recommended route for transferring

references from Word into Endnote involves 5 steps

1. Preparing your text in Word and saving as a text file

2. Importing this data into an Excel spreadsheet

3. Tidying up and adding field names in Excel and saving as a ‘tab delimited text file’

4. Adding extra text in Notepad and saving as a text file

5. Importing the text file into EndNote

• You must follow the 5 steps in order

1. Preparing your text in Word and save as a text file

• Taking out stray characters and punctuation• Inserting a tab between each of the "fields"

2. Importing the data into an Excel spreadsheet

• Importing the Word data into Excel as a tab delimited file

3. Tidying up, adding field names, save as tab delimited text file in Excel

• Insert a new row containing EndNote fieldnames

4. Adding extra text in Notepad and saving as a text file

• Type *Reference Type e.g. *Journal Article, at the top of the text document

5. Importing the text file into EndNote

• Click File, then Import…• Find your file and click Open• Under Import Options: select Tab Delimited and click Import

The next step…

• Now work through ‘Tutorial: Importing References’