From high school student to professional, it you are at all serious about scholarly writing or even just expect to do a lot of it (whether you like it or not), this product is for you! My productivity has skyrocketed since I purchased EndNote last year. Sure, there are some improvements that could be made, but all in all, a fantastic product!
Here's how it works: EndNote builds a database of information about the articles, books, and other items you want to cite in your paper. You fill in a template with the bits of information needed to cite a source properly, which might vary for an edited book, a web site, or whatever type of source you are using. (You can even type in or scan in text from your sources as well.) Then, as you write your paper in Word or WordPerfect, you will find an added EndNote toolbar along the top of your page. After you type in something you want to cite, click to open the list of sources, and drop the one you want into the paper. (At this point I always edit the citation by adding the page number). EndNote *automatically* puts this citation into the citation style you choose, and at the same time generates a "works cited" list at the end of the file. It's that simple!!
And even better: if you need to change the citation style -- say you wrote it in MLA style but are submitting to an APA style journal -- it just takes a few clicks to change the style! I have had to go back and clean up citations once or twice when doing this, but it's a lot easier than re-doing the whole paper.
Another nice feature is the ability to download citations directly from some databases and library catalogs, saving you keystrokes. It's a nice program to use to keep track of your personal library as well, since it has searchable keyword fields.
I highly recommend this program! If you are a student contemplating a few years of serious writing in college, this will save you an enormous amount of time. If you write scholarly articles, this will keep you so organized you will have hours more time for research. And if you just collect books and articles of topics that interest you, it's still a great way to keep your information organized.
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