[MW Forums]

Thomson ResearchSoft has released EndNote 9, a new version of its professional bibliographic tool for Mac OS X that now features Spotlight support for Tiger users and other improvements. more

[KonradK]

I hope this version is better than EndNote 8. The integration with Word 2004 was basically unusable (formating references in a Word document caused Word to crash, not sure if this is a problem with EndNote or Word). Also EndNote 8 was not backwards compatibile with eariler version of EndNote (backwards compatibilility is a must for collaborations).

[alienfoo]

Every version of EndNote promises wonderful features for the Mac. Some of the them work and other features are broken. No patches are offered; only new versions which promise to fix the previous problems. EndNote 8 was supposed to fix Word compatability problems which it sort of did while at the same time causing Word to crash so often that it is almost unuseable. I wonder what problems EndNote 9 will introduce? I wouldn't mind upgrading the product for new features but I think they should fix the bugs in their old versions rather than forcing you to upgrade.

[DogHouseDub]

The inability of Thomson to deliver a competent version of Endnote for the Mac OSX user may be the single largest reason for the decline of the Mac in the scientific community. Though a great many of us still persist, the truth of the matter is that Endnote in OSX with the latest versions of Office has been largely dysfunctional. At large research institutes such as where I work, scientists must chose the best tool to help them complete a job. Unfortunately, that answer is more frequently found on the Windows platform. I now do all of my writing on an IBM laptop because I need seamless, reliable integration of Endnote with Word. If Apple wants to make a statement of their support for the scientific community, they should buy or license away Endnote for OSX from Thomson and make this product work.

[cholera]

Yes, yes, yes! They release a version, which is found to be incompatible with Word v.X and instead of patching, release a new version. Then 2004 is out, more crashing and problems, and of course a new version to "fix the problem". The most money-grubbing company I've ever business with.

[Achamian]

I appreciate this post and have a solution that will keep Windows away. The Mac is an excellent choice for the science community and outstanding bibliography software does exist. I had Endnote 8 and switched to Bookends. I am a chemistry PhD student and Bookends is outstanding for my needs. It comes with Internet reference search software for free (as opposed to ISI's additional cost for the same add on). Bookends also works with Sente and supports Word and Mellel on the Mac. Bookends is intuitive, adaptive and stable, while ISI has been nothing but a headache for me. I have no affiliation with SonnySoftware - but I heartily recommend Bookends.

[megatrick]

I started my Master's thesis using EndNote 7 and Word v.X. It was great. Then, I upgraded to Word 2004 and found that it was incompatible. I finally wound up finishing it by sticking with Word v.X. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a little bit annoying not to be able to utilize my investment in Word 2004.

[Achamian]

Oops...I did not mean to say ISI in my reply, I meant to refer to the makers of Endnote...