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EndNote21 Desktop: 7. Add and Annotate PDFs of Full-text

Created by Health Science Librarians

Find Full-text PDFs through Endnote

What is Find Full Text?

  • EndNote uses data stored in your references to search the Web for the corresponding full text file as a PDF or URL.  Once found, the file is automatically downloaded and attached to the appropriate reference.

Connecting Find Full Text to the UNC Libraries

NOTE: The Find Full Text feature works best when your computer is connected to the UNC campus network.  To improve retrieval of full text files when off-campus, do the following:

1. In your EndNote library, select Edit > Preferences from the menu bar.  The EndNote Preferences dialog box will open.

Edit preferences

2. In the left column, click on Find Full Text.

3. Check all four boxes for Web of Science, DOI, PubMed, and OpenURL.

4. Copy and paste the following text into the field called OpenURL Path:

http://vb3lk7eb4t.search.serialssolutions.com/

5. Verify that the information in the dialog box matches the box picture below.

6. Click the Apply button. Then, click OK.

EndNote Preferences Find Full Text Open URL Path

 

To Find Full Text

  1. In your EndNote library, click on the reference(s) for which you would like to find full text files. 
  2. Click on the Find Full Text button find full text button in the toolbar along the top OR select References > Find Full Text
  3. A box will appear with EndNote's Find Full Text copyright and usage notice.  Click OK.
  4. A search script will appear under Find Full Text in the Groups panel in the left column.  This indicates the number of PDFs or URLs that EndNote was able to find.
  5. Click on Found PDF or Found URL in the Groups panel in the left column to view the references for which full text files were found.
  6. The PDFs EndNote finds will be automatically downloaded and attached to the appropriate reference.  EndNote finds more articles when you are on-campus and fewer when you are off-campus.
    Find Full Text

Not Finding Full Text?

Where to find the full text

You may not get the full text even if UNC Libraries provide access to the article and you are on campus.  There are a few reasons for this:

  • EndNote may not have a find full text agreement with the publisher of the journal you need, even if the UNC library has access.
  • The article you are looking for may be too new for the PDF link to be available.
  • The article you need may be buried in a large full-text database that does not allow individual articles to be found.
  • The article you are looking for is in a supplementary issue of a journal.

If you are off-campus, you can try logging into a campus VPN and attempting to download the full text while connecting to the VPN.

Manually Attach a PDF to a Reference

If the full text is not found using Find Full Text, then you can manually attach the PDF to your references.  Some aggregator databases, such as ScienceDirect or  EBSCO databases such as CINAHL or PsycInfo, provide a URL that will take you to the full text instead of providing you a PDF.

Find Article URL    

Clicking on the URL will allow you to access the article by entering your Onyen and password.  If there is no URL, you can try typing the article title into PubMed or Google Scholar and using the Find@UNC button to locate the PDF or to request the article through Interlibrary Loan. 

You may want to save the PDF in the same folder as those EndNote locates automatically.  To do that, find the .Data file with the same name as your library, open the PDF folder, and save the PDF.

Endnote .Data PDF File folder

Once you save the PDF file to your computer, you can attach it to the EndNote citation by selecting + Attach PDF in the PDF of the reference window.

Attach a PDF

Annotate PDFs

Open and annotate PDFs in the PDF Viewer Panel

Opening the PDF Viewer Panel

  1. Double click on a reference with an attached PDF file (indicated by the presence of a paperclip symbol).  This will open the reference window. 
  2. Click on the PDF tab above the toolbar.  The PDF Viewer Panel will open.

Using the PDF Viewer Panel

The toolbar at the top of the PDF Viewer Panel has several options that allow you to add notes, highlight text and find words and phrases within the PDF document.  You can hover your cursor over an icon to view text explaining its function.

Annotate a PDF

Add Notes

  1. Use your cursor to highlight the text in the PDF document where you wish to add a note.
  2. Click on the Sticky Note icon in the toolbar at the top of the PDF Viewer Panel to add a comment. 
  3. A Sticky Note icon will appear next to the highlighted text.
  4. Double-click on the Sticky Note icon to display a text box.  Type your notes in the text box.
  5. Click the Save PDF button in the toolbar to save your changes.
  6. To delete a note, click on the Sticky Note that you wish to remove and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Highlight Text

  1. Use your cursor to highlight the text in the PDF document that you wish to highlight.
  2. Click on the Highlight Text button in the toolbar at the top of the PDF Viewer Panel.  The selected text will be highlighted in yellow.
  3. Click the Save PDF button in the toolbar to save your changes.

Annotate PDFs in Adobe Acrobat

  1. You can open a PDF in Adobe Acrobat by selecting the icon next to the envelope on the far right of the PDF window. 
  2. Highlighting and other Annotations you make in Adobe Acrobat will appear in the EndNote PDF viewer,

Using the Find Feature

  1. Enter words or phrases in the search box in the toolbar at the top of the PDF Viewer Panel. The Find feature searches within the PDF document that is currently open.
  2. Click on the Next and Previous buttons to navigate to the next or previous instance of your search word or phrase.