“Bring your EndNote library with you on your Palm!” While a Palm version of an EndNote library sounds good, the usefulness of the feature very much depends on your intended purpose.
How it works
Palm capability was included with EndNote 7 which debuted in June 2003. Since then, the Windows version of EN has been upgraded to EndNote 8, a notoriously buggy version not recommended at present. Version 7 is still the most up-to-date version for Macintosh users. A handheld capability for Reference Manager is not offered yet.
After installing the EndNote software on a desktop computer, a preliminary sync adds the software to the Palm device. From the desktop program, select the library to be downloaded by choosing Tools -> Configure Handheld Sync. Syncing again loads the library to the handheld.
Only one library can be placed on the handheld at a time. If a different library is selected, it will overwrite the existing handheld library the next time the device is synced. The library cannot be saved on an expansion card, limiting the size of the library that can be loaded.
The program downloads the entire library, retaining the original reference numbers for each record. Any changes to citations will update the desktop version of the library during the next sync session.
Purpose: Library Lists
The first use of a handheld library that comes to mind is bringing a list of references to retrieve from the library. However, the default settings and lack of customization make this impractical for journal articles:
The Palm list of references displays three columns, which cannot be changed:
Author | Year | Title
These represent the three sort options for the handheld database as well. The rest of each citation can be seen by selecting the record.
For retrieving articles, the optimal display would be by journal title, then publication year and volume. This allows the user to determine whether:
- the library subscribes to the journal
- the library subscribed during the time of the article
- the volume is currently available and not at the bindery, checked out, or missing
In order to use the Palm list to retrieve citations, the user would have to go into the record for each article and find the citation. The process for articles from the same journal could not be batched.
A different option for this purpose is to output a brief bibliography of articles to retrieve sorted by journal name and date. This would require customizing an output style to create either:
- a standard bibliography sorted by journal to be cut and pasted into the Palm memo feature or uploaded into a Palm text processor
- a tab-delimited file for import into a Palm application such as DocumentsToGo Excel, HandBase or abcDB,. A spreadsheet/database format allows for further sorting of results.
Disadvantages are the extra steps required, and the loss of the ability to overwrite any annotations on the original record in EndNote. Advantages are the ability to transfer multiple databases and to use an expansion card.
Purpose: Reviewing and Annotating Citations
If the main use of the handheld database is to read and annotate citations or manually add new ones remotely, then the design is adequate but still problematic. For example, you might want to read and annotate citations newly added to your library while standing in line or commuting on public transportation. The reference list display includes a shortcut button that goes directly to any citation's Notes field for adding comments. However:
- because the software does not allow sorting by reference number you will be unable to determine which citations are the most recent, unless you have previously marked down the author names.
- if you create smaller libraries of just the new citations, they will not retain the main library's original record numbers.
Therefore, this feature is best used for reviewing and marking new citations before uploading them to your main library.
Technical Requirements
EndNote technical support staff does not recommend using the software for devices other than Palm PDAs. Other system requirements are:
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EndNote 8 Windows
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EndNote 7 Macintosh
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Palm OS 4.1-5.x
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Palm OS 3.1-5.2
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Serial/USB HotSync
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Serial/USB HotSync
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devices with 16MB of RAM or more
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devices with 4MB of RAM or more
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Windows 2000 or XP (not ME or '98)
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Macintosh OS (10.1.5, 10.2.x) with 10.3 Panther
- some problems have been reported
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