Adding Terms to a Term List

Automatic Updating of Term Lists

By default, EndNote automatically updates the term lists in a library so they stay current with the data that has been entered into the references. If you enter a term into a reference, and that term is not in the associated term list already, the term appears in red text to alert you that you have entered a new term. This can help you to maintain a controlled vocabulary for keywords and other terms.

You can turn off automatic updating of term lists if you do not want to use the term lists at all. You can also turn this option off and manually enter terms into your lists as described in the following sections. For example, you can manually enter all of the terms you plan to use into a term list before entering references into the library. This can be extremely helpful when you have someone else entering data for you and you want a specific vocabulary used for keywords or other terms. As references are entered into the EndNote library, the term lists can speed data entry, and if a red term appears, the person doing data entry knows that they have entered something that was not intended to be a valid term for that field.

Turning Off the Automatic Updating of Term Lists

From the Edit menu, select Preferences.
Select the Term Lists panel.
Click the checkboxes for Update lists when importing or pasting references and Update lists during data entry to remove the check mark. The feature will be turned off.

Delimiters

EndNote has predefined term lists for authors, keywords, and journals. When you enter multiple terms into those fields and EndNote updates the term list, it needs to know when one term ends and the next term begins. We call the punctuation that separates the terms "delimiters."

The following information applies when entering data into EndNote manually. For the Author fields, author names must always be entered one name per line. Carriage returns (end of line marks) are the only valid delimiter for this field. Journals normally have just one journal name per reference in this field, so delimiters are not needed here. Keywords are the most complex of the three. By default, EndNote uses carriage returns (end of line marks), semicolons, and backslashes (\) as delimiters for the Keywords field. If you would like to use other delimiters, see Delimiters Used for Separating Terms.

Using the New Term Command

To manually add terms to a term list:

From the Library menu, select Open Term Lists and select the term list that you want to modify.
On the Terms tab, click New Term.
Enter the term and click Save Term to add it to the list. You can then replace the text in the dialog with a new term and again click Save Term to save the new term to the list.
When you have entered your last new term, click OK to add it to the list and close the New Term dialog.
Click Close to dismiss the Terms List dialog.

If you are entering terms into the Journals term list, you will have options to enter different forms of the journal name. See Important Points About Entering Journal Names for more information about using the Journal lists.

Note: The Save Term (or Save Journal) button is unavailable (dim) if the new term already exists in the term list.

Copying Terms Between Lists

You can copy terms from one list and paste them into another as a way to quickly transfer terms between lists. This is particularly useful because term lists are specific to an individual library.

To copy terms between lists:

From the Library menu, select Open Term Lists, and then select the list with terms you want to copy. Hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple terms; use the Shift key to select a range of terms.
Right-click and select Copy from the list, or press Ctrl+C to copy the highlighted term(s).
Open the target list where you want to add the terms.
Click in the list, and then right-click and select Paste, or press Ctrl+V to paste in the term(s).

Copying Terms from Other Sources

You can copy terms from any text, and paste them into a term list.

For example, to copy a word from a paper you are writing and paste that word into a term list, first select the term in your word processor and copy it. Then switch to EndNote and open the desired term list. Click in the list, and then right-click and select Paste, or press Ctrl+V to paste in the term(s).