EndNote: Creating, Saving & Backing Up

First time users:

1. Open EndNote: Start > All Programs > EndNote > EndNote program
2. Create a new library: File > New 
3. Save the new library in a location of your choice

You have now created your new library, which ends with the file extension .enl. A folder named the same as your library and ends in .DATA will be created at the same time in the same folder. For more information see Note 4. below.

To open your library: File > Open Library

There are some important things you should remember when creating and saving libraries.

1. DO NOT save libraries to network drives. This can lead to corruption and performance issues. Libraries should only be saved to physical storage areas, such as your hard drive, USB or external drive.
    
2. DO NOT save libraries to cloud or shared services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, iCloud etc. 
   Saving files to shared or cloud services will eventually result in your library being corrupted because of the way the cloud services synchronize files over the Internet.
   It can also cause EndNote and/or Word to crash.
   ​
   • Use EndNote Online (their own cloud service) to:
     • backup your library in the cloud via sync
     • share your library with colleagues
     • sync your library on multiple computers
        
3. You should only have one library. This is important for a number of reasons, including:
   • Word documents should only be linked to one library. If you use multiple libraries, it is easy to open the wrong one and this can corrupt your document.
   • You can only sync one library with an EndNote Online account.
      
4. Keep your .enl file and .DATA folder together.
   EndNote libraries are made up of two parts: the .enl file (your library) and the .data folder (library information and stored PDFs). These two parts must be kept together in the same folder as both are needed for the library to work correctly.

It is important to backup your library regularly in case anything goes wrong.

There are two ways to save a backup copy of your library:

1. The first method of backing up EndNote library is to Save a Copy of your library.
   • Select File > Save a Copy
   • In the Save dialog box, the file name should have the word Copy at the end (e.g. My EndNote Library Copy.enl)
     You can either use this, or rename your copy (adding a date may be useful when you have more than one version)
     
      
2. Alternatively you can create a compressed version (smaller file size) of your library that also contains your Data folder
   • Select File > Compressed Library (.enlx)
   • Choose from the following options:
     • Create your EndNote library or Create and Email
     • With, OR Without File Attachments
     • compress All References in Library, OR Selected References, OR All References in Group
   • Click OK
   • Name the file (the extension is .enlx), then click Save