Endnote. What's the consensus on this app with Scrivener?

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
,
1

As part of my enrolment for the new Post Grad, the university has Endnote 2025 available at no charge for the duration of the enrolment. In previous degrees I’ve manually managed citations, though tempted to give this a go.

Any comments/thoughts on Endnote with Scrivener?

Yes, I do know the Cite While You Write function is available with Word, (we get a free sub to MS Office as well, though I have the paid 2021 Office already), but it’s Word. :face_vomiting:

1 Like
2

I also have a free licence for Endnote, but happily pay for Bookends. The feature set, writing workflow and indie developer support are worth it for me.

The wiki gives you some idea of the writing workflow for Scrivener + Endnote:

The good news is that temporary citation workflow should work for Scrivener compile to DOCX (Word plugin converts temp citations) or ODT (Endnote scans the doc, and Libreoffice is IMO way better than Word irrespective of the price). I suspect there may be more issues scanning a doc rather than using Word’s plugin, but I haven’t battle tested these myself.

My TLDR: for people who already compile to DOCX, Endnote is fine. For ODT/RTF you should be OK but I don’t know whether the feature set is matched between Word-only plugin and document scan. For Markdown workflows if you want to automate stuff, Endnote temp citation format is not ideal, and Bookends/Zotero/Jabref[1] would be better tools.

  1. it would be possible to use Endnote to manage refs, and Jabref to use the BibTeX export for inserting temp refs more flexibly? ↩︎

3 Likes
3

Thanks very much.

Still not sure why I decided at 74 that another degree was essential. :joy:

3 Likes
4

Well, given the significant cognitive benefits I’d say you are certainly more likely to live to 94 reactivating your grey matter doing this (if you don’t get a stress related heart attack from missing deadlines at 75!?) :rofl:

EDIT: if you have any workflow issues, I will of course be happy to help out as best I can!

3 Likes
5

I had good experience using Endnote with Scrivener (Windows v1.x, then 1.9 then 3), compiled to Word and would have been lost without this in my PhD journey (graduated at 2022 at 62). I made lots of mistakes and learnt through the process. I have since verified the equivalent functionality with my Mac mini, but am leaning towards Zotero. I am also looking at other levels of functionality. Good luck with your studies!

4 Likes
6

What’s one more? Survived several, including 2 ‘widow makers’

4 Likes
7

Wow! You are certainly made of tough stuff; academic stress de damned!!!

2 Likes
8

Yorkshireman/Kiwi/Aussie - You have to be tough (or stupid) :upside_down_face:

2 Likes
9

For me, using Endnote with Scrivener is no different than using it in Word, because I long since decided against the Cite-While-You-Write plugin Endnote makes for Word. It makes your resulting documents yet more tangled up with and dependent on more software. My docs have temp citations in them. When it is time to do the finished thing with full citations, Endnote replaces those and I have a fresh doc so rendered. Neither resulting doc has any further dependency or connection to Endnote.

I have been an Endnote user since version 1 and have a big investment in it as a citation database. It is the backend of any (non-fiction) work I am doing in Scrivener, Word, LaTeX, or for websites I operate. (For these last two, I have custom citation styles that output the code appropriate to each venue.) So, am too embedded to offer a balanced eval of it compared to other offerings.

1 Like