Quick Tip: Using the Groups feature

Endnote allows you to display your citations together in custom made Groups

The My Library panel on the left hand side of the screen allows you to drag references into groups so that you can group by e.g. thesis chapter, course code or research topic. References can be added to as many different groups as you wish.

On one level this could replace the need for adding keywords or course codes into your references, especially as it is much easier to see if references have been added to more than one group. However at present there is no way to limit your search to references in a particular group when using the 'Find Citation' button in Word. If this feature is important in your work then you may wish to continue adding keywords etc into the keyword field. You can use the Groups feature to single out those references you wish to change.

Creating new groups

• Right click on the My Groups section in the Groups panel and choose Create Group

OR

• Choose References/Groups/Create Group from the Endnote toolbar

The default name is New Group but you can overwrite this with your own choice of name

Adding references to a group

Once you have created a group it is very easy to add references into it

• Highlight those references you wish to add (you can select more than one by holding down the ctl key as you click with the mouse)
• Drag these references over to your chosen Group-make sure you keep your finger down on the mouse key as you do so
• Your references will be added into your Group-references can be added to more than one group
• Click on the name of the Group to see the references associated with it
• Click on All References to see your full library

Smart groups

When you right-click on My Groups, you have the option to create a Smart Group.  This allows you to tell EndNote to look for certain criteria, eg author names, title words, keywords, etc and automatically pull these references into the Smart Group.   

Any references subsequently added to the library which satisfy the criteria will also be added to the Smart Group

Renaming groups

• Select the Group you wish to rename and right click with the mouse
• Choose the Rename Group option and add your chosen name

Deleting groups

• Select the Group you wish to rename and right click with the mouse
• Choose the Delete Group option and add your chosen name
• You will see a prompt asking you to confirm if you wish to delete the Group

Note that references are not deleted from the Library-just from the Group