All guides: EndNote Desktop guide: Groups, tags, sorting and locating your references

Grouping references

What are groups?

Groups make it easy to break a large EndNote Desktop library into sub-categories. A group creates a ‘folder’ for the references that already exist within your library.

Groups are useful for organising your references into different courses/subjects, different chapters for your thesis/dissertation, or different sub-topics for your assignment or literature review topic.

There are two types of groups you can create: a basic group and a smart group. You can also create group sets to group together any of your basic or smart groups.

What are basic groups?

With basic groups, you manually drag and drop any existing references into your group. The references are still kept in All References folder; basic groups only contain copies of them.

Create a basic group

On the left panel of your EndNote Desktop library: right-click on MY GROUPS > Create Group, or from the toolbar menu Groups > Create Group.
Name your group whatever you like (e.g. a topic you are researching). The basic group is now created.
Now drag-and-drop some references from All References into your new group.
A copy of the references you dragged-and-dropped are now in your new basic group.

my groups icon

basic group has been created under my groups

A basic group is identified with this icon basic group icon .

What are smart groups?

With smart groups, EndNote Desktop will automatically place into the smart group any future or existing references that contain your search criteria within any field within the reference, e.g. title, author, abstract, keywords, etc.. The references are still added or kept in All References folder; smart groups only contain copies of them.

Create a smart group

On the left panel of your EndNote Desktop library: right-click on MY GROUPS > Create Smart Groups, or from the toolbar menu Groups > Create Smart Group.
Name your group whatever you like (e.g. a topic you are researching).
Press the Author drop-down list, scroll up and select Any Field.
In the text box, type a word that commonly appears in your references (e.g. in title, author or abstract), e.g. "vaccinations". Press the Create button. The smart group is now created.
A copy of any existing references that contain that word in any field are now automatically put into your new smart group. Also, a copy of any new references you will add in future that contain that word in any field will also automatically go into your new smart group.

create smart group window

smart group has been created under my groups

A smart group is identified with this icon smart group icon .

What is a group set?

A group set allows you to group various simple groups or smart groups together.

For example, if you are undertaking several courses/subjects, you could create a group set for each of your course/subject codes. You could then create simple groups within every group set for each of your assignments, e.g. assignment 1, assignment 2, etc.

some examples of group sets

Another example is if you are only undertaking a thesis or dissertation in your studies, you could create a group set for each chapter of your paper, e.g. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. You could then create simple groups or smart groups within every group set for the references you use for each chapter and categorise those references into sub-topics, e.g. sub-topic A, sub-topic B, etc.

other examples of group sets

Another example is if you are researching a topic, you could create a group set consisting of sub-topics. For example, you topic could be about long-term unhealthy eating and impact on health. You could create group sets as sub-topics for your topic, e.g. causes of unhealthy eating, psychology, health consequences, management & treatment, etc. You could then create simple groups or smart groups within every group set for the references you use for each of these sub-topics, and categorise those references into further sub-topics, e.g. sub-topic A, sub-topic B, etc.

more examples of group sets

A group set is identified with this upside-down triangle icon group set tirangle icon .

Create a group set

On the toolbar: Groups > Create Group Set > give your group set a name (e.g. EEET2449, Chapter 1, etc.).

On the left panel of your EndNote Desktop library: right-click on the MY GROUPS on the left panel > select Create Group Set > give your group set a name (e.g. EEET2449, Chapter 1, etc.).

Tips for groups

When you create a group and populate it with references, the references are still kept in All References folder. You are not moving your references from the All References folder; you are simply creating copies of them in your groups.
You can have the same reference in multiple groups.
If you delete a reference from a group, it will only delete it from that group, not from the All References folder or any other group the reference may be in.
If you delete a reference from the All References folder and that same reference is also in a group, it will delete the reference from both All References and that group.

You can add custom colour-coded tags to any existing references in your EndNote Desktop library. This categorises your references similar to groups.

Create tags

On the left panel of your EndNote Desktop library: right-click on MY TAGS > select Create Tag [OR press on + icon next to MY TAGS] > select a colour > give the tag a name, e.g. Chapter 1, Unread, EEET2449 > press Create Tag button.

From the EndNote Desktop toolbar, go to: Tags > Create Tag > select a colour > give the tag a name, e.g. Chapter 1, Unread, EEET2449 > press Create Tag button.

create tags

endnote tags choose colour and name

Add a tag to an existing reference

Drag-and-drop the reference into the particular tag located under MY TAGS on the left panel of your EndNote Desktop library.

Right-click on the reference > Manage Tags > select tag(s) from list > press OK button.

add tags to existing references

Sorting existing references by column heading

Sorting by column heading
Add new column headings

In the middle pane of your EndNote Desktop library, you can sort existing references by column heading, either in ascending or descending order (e.g. alphabetically by title, author or reference type; numerically by year or record number; by references that have a PDF attached/paperclip icon).

Sort by column heading

Click on the column heading of the references you want to sort, e.g. Author. To sort the references in the opposite order, click on the same column heading again.

sort by column heading

You can also add new column headings to give your references more descriptors.

Add new column headings

Right-click on any column heading in the middle pane of your EndNote Desktop library, then tick the column heading you want to show, e.g. Record Number, Rating.

tick new column heading

Once you have added a new column heading, you can sort your references by that (in ascending or descending order).

sort by new column heading

Locating existing references

You can search for and locate existing references in the middle panel of your EndNote Desktop library. This lets you find any existing references more quickly and easily.

Use either Advanced search or Simple search. You can toggle between both.

Advanced search lets you search for a keyword within a specific field for more precise searching, e.g. "polymers" in the Title field. Basic search searches in any field.

Clear search to start another search.

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