[OS X TeX] An EndNotes-importable Mac OS X Bib Tool

[Michael McCracken]

Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
> Someone can correct me if I'm wrong because my understanding of BibTeX 
> is not that great, but it seems to me that Endnote data is richer, so 
> that you are forced to map specific Endnote fields into generic BibTeX 
> fields (like "notes").  Also, the BibTeX style included with Endnote 
> sucks (at least for my needs).

This depends on your point of view - if you want to have specific data 
inserted into the list of references as typeset by TeX, most BibTeX 
styles don't use fields other than what they were designed for. Some 
will include "notes" (or "note", i forget), and this makes a handy way 
to add a URL, for instance. So, from that point of view, BibTeX is a 
more restrictive format. (of course you can always write your own style 
file with makebst.tex (find it with `locate makebst`)

 From my point of view (possibly a minority) - I don't mind if the rich 
information in my database doesn't make it into the publication. BibTeX 
won't break if you define fields that no style file reads. It will just 
ignore them. For instance, I have a "Read" field for every entry that 
lets me know if I've read it, a "Filed-as" that lets me know where to 
find the hardcopy, etc... In this case, if you are using extra fields to 
help you organize things, BibTeX is fine, and if Endnote's export dumps 
all the extra fields it lets you use into "notes", then it's not playing 
very nice.

Mark Guzdial wrote:
>
> EndNote's export into BibTeX isn't the best -- it doesn't generate a 
> default term for a reference, for example, and it generates BibTeX 
> incompatible strings on occasion.  I have well over 1K references in my 
> EndNote database.  It would be a painful process to generate all of the 
> entries into valid BibTeX.  However, EndNote's Refer export is fine, 
> and BookEnds can import Refer databases.  It was an easy process to 
> move from EndNote to BookEnds.
>
> Mark

In light of the news that Endnote exports Refer format well, there's a 
directory at CTAN that's full of ways to move refer format files into 
BibTeX:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/utils/refer-tools/

Of course, if BookEnds works for you, never mind me :)
It does look nice - I almost bought it back when I was looking around 
for something I liked, but even the student discount of $70 was too much 
for me.

-mike

--
Michael McCracken
mmc at acm.org


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