Hi all listen who can help me with some kind of program that takes she sheer awfulness out of references!
I have tried Endnote and its pretty exhaustive and im buggered if i can get it to work. Refworks seems to be quite unreliable.
Can anyone please tell me is there anything out there you have come across to help with this??
Dx

Endnote is a fairly good solution in my opinion. Could you clarify what you mean by exhaustive? Have you considered Connotea (http://www.connotea.org/)? It's supposed to be free. There's also Reference Manager, too. Sorry I can't be more help.

well see i downloaded endnote and just found like the amount of things i had to fill in was unreal, i couldnt really understand how to work it . maybe im being a bit stoopid lol!

With endnote, it's all (usually) automated. You can automatically import references from the journal website (download citation links, for e.g.). Endnote is the most popular reference management software (I think), and I find it a breeze - though I had to learn how to use it first. Does your uni not offer training sessions in endnote? If not, the University of Michigan has some good training presentations on it for download, or try Googling around.

Hi, Try out Zotero! www.zotero.org. It is a free programme but you need to download firefox to be able to use it. It is easy because it crack open a half window on the website you are in for the resource. I only used refworks before but I find this one is way more easier because you don't need to go to a different window to record your reference and plus it works for any website. Hope you will find it helps

I actually like Refworks because you can access it from any computer as long as you have an internet connection (which comes in handy with travel/last minute bios/etc).

Also they just added a feature where you can upload pdf's directly to your reference, basically storing them online alongside your reference. If there wasn't a cumulative files cap, this would be my ideal system. A totally organized way to get all those fabulous PDF's OFF my computer!

I haven't tried the other - but will check them out! Good luck!

i'm a committed endnote-user.
- yes it does take a little getting used to in the beginning but it's worth the time 1000 times over.
- as has been said, the huge advantage of endnote is that it is very widespread. there are very likely courses at your uni and the IT-helpdesk would come to help you if you had a problem, and probably half of your colleagues use it too, so they would be a first point of reference for any help/questions.
- endnote also has these online functions (weblibrary, your references always accessible etc.) but i think that costs extra.

question: when you say you downloaded it, did you "buy" it? the freely available endnote-stuff are usually not the whole programme but rather just the web-version or something. the whole programme is quite expensive, even at student prices. that might be the source of your confusions.

Surely your college has a course that goes thro' the basics of EndNote. I used to think it wasn't worth the effort but quickly changed my mind on finding out how it could be used to make the maint. of refs easier. Get the manual and skip thro' it - there should be a pdf copy when you downlaoded the program.

One bit of advise - stick with Endnote 9 or 10 ... 11 seems to have a few bugs in it.

I think what you need is Jabref [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabref]. Its really light weight and has a lot more options than endnote and its FREE to download. You can export and import a wide range of bibliography databases and can be installed on windows and linux..

Forgot to say.. its very reliable (may be more than Endnote 11)

i've heard good stuff about jabref too. however, if you use MS Word, i believe the function where you insert citations directly from the database to your text is not available, i think it only works in latex etc.
so if you're not working with MS products, it's really good. else, you might find key functions not available.

Ohh...does anyone know if I can use Jabref to import all my references from microsoft reference manager, so that I can put them into BibTeX and then use them in LaTeX?

Have just discovered LaTeX and am going to write my thesis in it (hopefully)!

endnote is fantastic - it eliminated at least one horrible major step in writing theses for me! ask another student to show you around it for max an hour and you'll kick yourself for not having used it before