Software Review

EndNote X2: Software for References & Bibliographies

EndNote X2,  Windows or Mac, Thomson ResearchSoft,   2008

US$249.95 download,  US$299.95 CD,  Student download US$90.59

A trial version of Endnote is available free of charge.

An academic review of EndNote X has been published here.

Para leer esta crítica en español clic aquí.

EndNote is well known amongst Ph.D. students who tend to prefer this software for their biographical work.  Examples can be seen on YouTube.   But for pastors and seminary students it can be a useful program for more than simply making a book list, as it enables a cataloging of all the various articles,  books and web sites consulted.  Finding someway of keeping track of such information is important and saves having to repeat work.

This is a new version with its main improvement being in its ability to find and catalogue materials on the internet.  This online search facility within the program means that information can be quickly obtained from the world’s biggest libraries, such as the Library of Congress. 

EndNote provides the ability to remember a reference and include it both as a footnote, endnote and in the bibliography.  For writers using a large number of titles this is a considerable time saver.    For those involved in a local church teaching ministry with handouts,  it makes it quicker to produce recommended reading lists.

The new version X2 works well with Word 2003 and above, where it appears with its own menu.    It can also be used easily with OpenOffice and early versions of Word, although without the separate menu.

Not matter where a quote is from, including a web page, blog o interview;    and no matter what style is required,  it can be produced by Endnote. 

The main disadvantage is that the program is in English which means not only are all the menus in English but any accompanying words in the reference like “Volume 1” or  “1^st edition” appear in English rather than “Tomo 1” or “1^era edición”.  But these can be easily edited.

Other things to bear in mind are that while EndNote can automatically download bibliographical references from the internet.   It cannot incorporate automatically a list of books prepared in Word.  These will have to be copied and pasted into the EndNote library.  Also,   with the program having access to 3500 different styles and hundreds of online libraries,  it means it can be slow to load up unless a reduction is made in some of the options available.  The program has suffered some negative criticism by purchasers in Amazon.

The company has provided 11 excellent training videos lasting a few minutes each and covering the main use of the program.   For those who would like to work with the many advanced features of the program a 729 page manual is available online.  A guide in Spanish is available for EndNote Web,  which is the format of EndNote situated on the internet.

In the competitive world of software the product is not without its rivals.  At present Endnote’s owners,  Thomson Reuters,   are in a $10 million court case with Zotero, a free,  open source software produced by George Mason University in Australia.   This works as plug-in to Firefox and performs a similar function to EndNote and has the advantage of using a Spanish interface.

In summary:

Usefulness for the pastor or student

• Provides a quick way of making book lists or citing texts in an handout or essay.
• Enables the making of a library of the various publications and web information used during studies.
• Reference material accessed through the internet can be easily stored in the program.
• Flexible in the source of references obtain and the way they are produced.

But,  also consider the following negative aspects:

• The program interface and training videos are in English.
• The software is not the most intuitive and requires some amount of learning.
• It is only useful for those who are accumulating quite a number of references.

This program is more than a citation tool for PhD theses.  It is a cataloging system which enables references to all those useful bits of information found during sermon and article preparation to be kept in one place and used again.

David E. C. Ford,  Profesor de Nuevo Testamento,  Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia,  Medellín,  Colombia