Restoring pdf links to endnote X library

Re: Restoring pdf links to endnote X library
Author: G Wood    Posted: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:06:49 -0400
On 3/26/08 4:11 PM, "Andrew.Fagan "andrew.fagan" wrote: > Hi > > Is there an easy way to restore pdf links in an Endnote X library that > lost their connectivity when upgrading from Endnote 9? > > I get the following error when I open the old link > > 'This URL (/Users/afagan/Documents/Endnote/Full text/Bone > research/W/Wang Characterization of the Scoliosis after pinealectomy > in the Chicken.pdf) could not be launched.' Hi Andrew. Although you don't say, it looks (from the path) that you are using a Mac. That path (it's not really a URL) does not look correct for EndNote X's default storage. Typically, located at the same directory level as your EN Library, you will have a folder of the same name, with the extension ".data". So, for a library named Temp (or Temp.enl) you would have a folder named "Temp.data". Inside there, a folder named "PDF" would hold further folders corresponding to the PDF's actual title (plus a time-based set of digits, to keep items unique.) This is the behavior when adding a new PDF to an ENX.1 library, with the default settings. > The URL in the error message is correct: it. This is unclear. Is the path to the file, as shown in EndNotes 'Attached File' field *actually* the real path to a file on disk? I do not think that the stored path ("URL") could be valid (point to a real, existing file) in this case, or EndNote would happily open it. (EndNote doesn't really open anything, of course, it simply hands off the stored path to the OS, which does the opening.) I know that when others who used EN 9 upgraded, the PDFs in existing libraries were then shown in EN X.1 as being 'Figures' and not 'Attached Files'. That doesn't prevent the file from being found, however, but it is not launched by 'Open File', which uses the 'Attached Files' field. The fact that these are just stored strings bodes well for getting things back to normal for you. > So I don't know quite how > to use 'change text' to correct the path for all the references as I > have seen suggested in an earlier post. Surely I don't have to > manually re enter all the links (which works)? 'change text' will be useful for you if there is some exact portion of the saved path that needs to be changed to match the real path. Otherwise, if you wish your newly added PDF's (the ones you add now in ENX.1) to be stored in the PDF folder, as I've described, then you may need to use some other means to batch-edit that field. In that case, I think AppleScript is going to be your only real solution. You may be able to do it with AS directly, or you may have to export as XML, alter (by script) that XML, and then re-import. Both are possible and not overly complicated (the XML version is more complex, but it may be the only way, as EndNote's AppleScript command set is very limited.) > I prefer retaining my absolute links rather than converting to > relative links. (I did run the conversion and Endnote was unable to > convert about 10% of the links. I was not told why. I have now > reverted to my backup library file because of this). In the ENX.1 model, the files would ideally be stored in the PDF folder, inside the library's ".data" folder. This is not required, however it is the default behavior. I would suggest that you closely examine a stored path from EndNote with the actual path of one of your existing PDFs. You might also try making a new reference, dropping some random PDF into that reference (that is, 'Attach' it), and then inspect the path that EndNote puts into the appropriate field. If you don't know how to get the actual Posix path of a PDF file, you can just drop the file onto the pre-installed application "Terminal", and you can then copy the Posix path (that is, the /-delimited path.) Let us know what you discover with closer inspection. I could probably help you out if you need to resort to AppleScript to make changes. -- Gary

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