Endnote


EndNote and LaTeX

Rather than editing your BibTeX bibliographic entries manually, you can manage your references with a reference management program, such as EndNote, and then export references in BibTeX format.

This guide is suitable if you already have a well-developed EndNote library that you would prefer to utilize rather than start entering references from scratch, either manually or into another BibTeX based reference management program.

Latex uses a citation key to identify the references to be added, this is in the form: \cite {citekey}.  The citekey is often in the form of author:year. e.g.: \cite {berry:1980} but it can take any form, e.g.: \cite {citation01} etc.  Endnote has two bibtex export styles, one that use the Record Number as the citekey: {RN75}, the other that uses the Label field to establish an author/year as the citekey: {berry1980}.

We have also created a unique AuthorYear style that uses the Label and Year fields and a workflow that will make it easier to convert a large EndNote library.

The boxes below show how to export bibtex files from Endnote for the different citekey formats.


Step-by-step EndNote and LaTeX record number citekey guide

Prepare references in EndNote

  1. Import/Create your required EndNote references. For help in creating an EndNote library please refer to the EndNote LibGuide.

Change output style

  1. Under the Edit tab, click Output Style then Output Style Manager. 
  2. Search for BibTeX Export then tick the box to ensure it pops up as an option under Output Style.
  3. The new style addition will only have to be done the first time you required a BibTeX bibliography. In future, it will appear in the drop-down box under Select another style.

Export references to BibTeX

  1. Select your required references by using the Ctrl button and highlighting by right-clicking the references you need or use the Ctrl and a buttons to select all references.
  2. Ensuring the required references are highlighted, and the BibTeX Export library output style is chosen then under the File tab click Export.
  3. Before saving the BibTeX file, change the file extension from .txt to .bib.
  4. Lastly, ensure that you save your BibTeX file in the same folder as your LaTeX document as LaTeX does not have the ability to search every file on your computer.

EndNote and LaTeX using the author-year citekey


Step-by-step EndNote and LaTeX authoryear citekey guide

Prepare references in EndNote

  1. Import/Create your required EndNote references. For help in creating an EndNote library please refer to the EndNote LibGuide.
  2. Label each of your needed references. There is a Label field in every reference option and is normally not pre-populated. This step is required for easy citing in your LaTeX document.

Change output style

  1. Under the Edit tab, click Output Style then Output Style Manager. 
  2. Search for BibTeX Export using EN label, then tick the box to ensure it pops up as an option under Output Style.
  3. The new style addition will only have to be done the first time you required a BibTeX bibliography. In future, it will appear in the drop-down box under Select another style.

Export references to BibTeX

  1. Select your required references by using the Ctrl button and highlighting by right clicking the references you need or use the Ctrl and a buttons to select all references.
  2. Ensuring the required references are highlighted, and the BibTeX Export using EN label library output style is chosen then under the File tab click Export.
  3. Before saving the BibTeX file, change the file extension from .txt to .bib.
  4. Lastly ensure that you save your BibTeX file in the same folder as your LaTeX document as LaTeX does not have the ability to search every file in your computer.

Step-by-step UniMelb EndNote and LaTeX authoryear citekey guide

This method makes use of Endnote’s Style manager to combine the Label and Year fields.  This reduces the need to add data manually to each Label field.  The Copy field option under Tools is also used to make the task easier.  The instructions explain how to create the Output Style as well as how to edit the Label fields [Steps 1-4].  We have also provided a copy of the edited Style at the link below, you can save this file into your EndNote Style folder (usually in the Documents folder of your computer) and then follow Steps 5-11.

  1. Open the Bibtex Export using EN Label field output style
  2. Save As Bibtex Export using EN Label&Year fields style
  3. Edit the Bibliography templates so that the Label and Year fields are in each record type:

bibtex export

  1. Save and close the output style.
  2. Select the EN references you want to edit (whole library, Group etc) and under Tools menu, select Change/Move/Copy Fields.
  3. Select the Move/Change tab, then select Copy Field and choose
    1. From: Author
    2. To: Label.
    3. Make sure Replace entire field is ticked. Select OK.
  4. The next step is easier if the references are all in a single Group.  Open the first reference at the data pane and untick ‘Show empty fields’, this will make it easier to go to the Label field.
  5. Edit the Label field to leave just the first surname, then Click the small arrow to go to the next record.

edit label field

  1. You will be prompted to save the changes for each record, you can select Auto Save to fix this.
  2. Export the file using the Output style you have just created or added from the link below, citekeys should appear as AuthorYear: Zoltowski2010
  3. If you want the citekey format to include a colon e.g.: Zoltowski:2010, add the colon to the end of the author surname in the Label field. You can use the Change/Move/Copy tool to do this. Select the Change Fields tab, tick “Insert after field’s text and untick “Include a space before the new text”

change labels


More EndNote and LaTeX resources