Compressed Library Dialog
You can save an EndNote library, including the filename.enl file, its associated .Data folder, and all of its contents, to a single compressed file in order to back up your library to or send a copy to a colleague. Later, you can restore the compressed library with EndNote.
Note: EndNote libraries larger than 4 gigabytes or 65,535 files cannot be compressed with EndNote’s Compressed Library command. See Saving a Copy of a Library for information on making backup copies of larger libraries.
Note that EndNote Sync provides a copy of your current EndNote library online, which can be easily synced to a new computer or library file, but it does not contain historical information. This means if you have deleted references in a library, emptied the trash, and synced your library, those references will also be permanently deleted in your online library. Making compressed copies of your library gives you access to historical data.
Creating a Compressed Library File
- Open the library in EndNote.
- From the File menu, select Compress Library (.enlx) to display a Compress Library dialog.
- Use the radio buttons to determine these options:
- Specify whether you want to Create a compressed library or to Create & Email the library.
- Specify whether you want to save file attachments with the library or not.
- Specify whether you want to save all references to the compressed library, only selected references, or only the references in a specific group or group set.
- Click Next to display a file dialog.
- Save the compressed library to a folder on your hard drive. You can change the file name but you cannot use the following characters.
| Invalid Characters for Naming a Compressed Library |
|
|---|---|
| \ | back slash |
| / | forward slash |
| : | colon |
| * | asterisk |
| ? | question mark |
| " | quotation mark |
| < | less than |
| > | greater than |
| | | vertical bar |
- If you selected the Create & Email option, and are using an email application compatible with EndNote, EndNote will launch your email application, create a new email, and attach the compressed library file to the email. Enter additional information to the email, such as a recipient, subject, and message. Click the Send button.
Note: The Create & Email option will only work with Microsoft Outlook.
Restoring a Compressed Library File
Use EndNote to open the filename.enlx file, which will extract the .enl file and the .Data folder to the same folder where the .enlx file is located.
After restoring the compressed library, use EndNote to open the filename.enl file as you normally would to use the library.