EndNote 17+

Oh my, they have done an itty-bitty update! Ok, so here is what they still don't have, which software produced even by one-man bands (as opposed to huge multi-nationals) does have: autofill of journal/book details; 'smart' (query) groups'; different style options with import of styles from Zotero; any way to see annotations in a list, separate from the PDF file; easy export of PDF annotations; library switching; an easy way to view static and smart groups...Is this really the best these folk can do? On the very limited plus side, a very nice UI.

Endnote for iPad is likely intended as a companion app to the desktop experience, itself sometime of a frustrating experience. Here, papers are marked as favourites - but the desktop uses star ratings. Here, syncing with your online library occasionally just stops working, so you have to delete the app and reload everything. Except it crashes. So now I have to manually look through around 2,000 items and choose to make the attachments available offline.

Crashes, glaring conflicts with the companion apps, and no real confidence that it might change anytime soon. I’m pretty locked into Endnote but look at the alternatives before you commit.

While it does some things well, like allowing you to view your references, downloading references from websites is clunky and so is downloading pdfs to attach to a reference.

The worst though is the pdf viewer/editor which is confusing. There are two annotation pallets, depending on how you pull the function up. Secondly, the thumbnail/page selector is at the bottom of the screen meaning closing the app changes the page you're on so I have to find my page each time I close the app. So annoying!