PocketCites Documentation and Download

Because a number of software products already exist to handle the storage and transfer of database records to the Palm, PocketCites takes advantage of them. Therefore, PocketCites requires the following software:

(Available from Palmgear or directly from Land-J. A demo version is distributed with FM Sync for JFile.)

PocketCites contains an EndNote export style, a FileMaker database specifically designed for EndNote, supporting import/export files, and a set of scripts (internal to the database) which automate the import and export of EndNote records. Once initially set up and once familiar with the process, it is easy and close to automatic.

In a nutshell: From EndNote, you save (an) export file(s) to the "import/export files" folder and then let FM Sync handle the rest. Importing records into EndNote is also easy: simply import the file(s) generated for you (using FM Sync and the PocketCites FileMaker database).

Although the initial setup involves several steps, once completed normal operation should run smoothly. Please follow these steps exactly--especially running the first import and export scripts before the first HotSync.

We will assume that all the required software mentioned above has already been installed.

For convenience, a PocketCites Setup Assistant is provided. It can automate many of the following setup steps, but it is not a substitute for following these setup instructions. At minimum you must still unstuff the distribution archive and put it in your FileMaker Pro folder before running the Setup Assistant. You will still need to set an import file in the PocketCites database and configure FM Sync correctly as well.

Hint: It may be helpful to create an alias to the PocketCites import/export files folder inside the EndNote folder because EndNote's export and import options often default there. You could also add it to favorites. (†)

If you are using EndNote 3.0, the same principles apply as above, but are accomplished somewhat differently:

See these sample settings dialogs for FM Sync (for JFile 3) and FM Sync Pro (for JFile Pro).

(†) The Setup Assistant will open the HotSync Manager's Conduit Settings for you.

You should now be able to open the PocketCites database file in JFile on your Palm. The one thing you will want to adjust from within JFile is the column widths. Do this as described in the JFile documentation, by tapping each column heading from the list view. I recommend the following settings:

Reference Type: 15 (or make it an invisible column by setting it to 0)
Year: 30
Volume: 20
Number: 20
Abstract: 80
Notes: 80

Note that several fields are pop-up fields. These are: Reference Type, Year, Place Published, and Publisher. You can edit or add to these in PocketCites using the "Change pop-up menu value lists" in the Script menu. Be careful changing the Reference Type pop-up value list, because they must exactly match EndNote's reference types. In general, only change the Place and Publisher list.

Note that you may also edit JFile column widths and pop-up lists directly in FM Sync before a HotSync if you prefer.

Entering New Records in JFile:

Try entering some new records into JFile. In general you enter records as you would in any JFile database. Here are a few things to keep in mind, however:

Multiple authors should each be separated by a semicolon (";"). (See PocketCites Settings notes.)
Use the pop-up list for Reference Type, or if you enter your own, make sure it is defined in EndNote.
Title 2 (Secondary Title) is used for the titles of Journals, Magazines, Newspapers, or Books (in the case of books sections) depending on the Reference Type. (See PocketCites and EndNote field name table.)
Editor is used for Editors in Book Section, Edited Book, and Conference Proceedings reference types. (This field is mapped to Secondary Author within EndNote.)
Recall that to view and edit long fields such as notes, tap on the field name in Database Item view.

Importing Records from JFile to EndNote:

During HotSync, FMSync, using the PocketCites scripts, will generate a new file in the "import/export files" folder. The name of this file depends on the name of the import file you have set in preferences. If your import file was "Palm.txt", the export file will be called "PC-Palm.tsv". (.tsv refers to tab-separated values.) Import this file from EndNote:

Note for EndNote 3 users: The import dialog in EndNote 3 does not contain the "Text Translation" option, which does not need to be used.

I also recommend that you both import and export records via a different library than your primary or default library. This way you can avoid unwanted mistakes, unexpectedly truncated fields, etc. The included "Palm" library can be used for this purpose. This library can be opened from the Scripts menu on PocketCites' main menu bar.

Once you're comfortable with the default PocketCites settings, the Set Preferences screen allows you to fine-tune the way PocketCites handles file import and export and the conversions necessary to move citations from EndNote to JFile and back.

When using PocketCites with FM Sync, PocketCites should be set to run two main scripts: the Import from EndNote script before a HotSync and the Export to EndNote script after a HotSync.

There may be times when you would rather HotSync only the citations already in the JFile or FileMaker databases. You can turn the actual Import and Export of files on and off. (Perform Import and Perform Export options; These settings override everything else in their sections.)

You may also prefer to run the import script only when you've exported a new file from EndNote and placed it in the PocketCites folder. This would mainly be useful if you always export a file with exactly the same name from EndNote, as there would then be no need to open the PocketCites database before a HotSync. In this case, you can set PocketCites only to import when the selected import file is newer than the last file successfully imported into PocketCites.

When you import citations into PocketCites for transfer to JFile, you are rather likely to get many duplicates, especially if you are using the same import file or if you frequently update your citations in EndNote and then wish to transfer them to JFile. There are two ways PocketCites handles this.

First, you can set PocketCites to clear all records before an import. This method may result in the matching records in JFile also being removed by FM Sync or with FM Sync confusion about which records to maintain, so use this option with care. This option, if set, will override the preferred (default) method, removing duplicates.

The default method is to remove duplicates. PocketCites will remove duplicates one of two ways. It will always retain the first instance of the citation, so that it will be properly sync'ed with JFile by FM Sync. However, you may wish to retain changes you've made to a citation in EndNote. To handle this, PocketCites defaults to the "merge records with incoming data" option. This will merge citations field-by-field with the newly imported citations, thus making sure that changes made in EndNote are properly transferred. This method may take some extra time, especially for large databases.

PocketCites will always remove duplicates on import unless it is set to "clear all records". On export, removing duplicates is generally not necessary, so you may turn it off.

Due to JFile limitations and EndNote oddities, some problems could be encountered if your EndNote fields are too long or they contain carriage returns. PocketCites will automatically strip carriage returns (i.e., ¶, or the return character) from your import file. Carriage Returns will be replaced by the text you specify in preferences, defaulting to "…"

When entering or changing citation records in JFile, you may now safely enter line breaks and PocketCites can generate an export file that will be properly imported in EndNote. EndNote requires that authors be separated by semicolons (;). If you turn the "Restore ; for authors and "…" for Keywords, Abstracts, and Notes" option on, PocketCites will convert line breaks in Author, Editor, and Translator fields to ";" and will replace line breaks with "…" or the character you specify. Since this may take some extra time, this option defaults to off.

Note: After importing records back into EndNote, you can select the "Change Text" option to replace the specified text with a carriage return if you choose. "…" can be typed with option-; (option-semicolon) and a return is option-return.

PocketCites will also limit your keywords, abstracts, and notes fields to the value you specify. This can be adjusted as desired. If the "Using JFile Pro" option is selected, this value will be set to 3990 (JFile's limit) when you click the Set Defaults button. For older versions of JFile, the default is 480.

One of the most common difficulties people have in setting up PocketCites has to do with the folder locations. When in doubt, re-set the folder and file locations by pushing the Choose a Folder and Choose a File buttons.

Advanced users may wish to change the default settings for the Details and List views. These are actually layout numbers as are described on the preferences screen. In most cases there is no need to change these values.

You can set options to close the database and quit FileMaker after an export and/or a HotSync.

You can move from record to record with the Next and Last buttons on some views, and can perform a Find with the Find button. Enter your searches in the appropriate fields, and PocketCites will find everything that matches all fields entered. If you hold down option and click on Find, PocketCites will return to display all citations in the database. The small buttons to the left of the citation in list views will bring up the detail view for that record.

Note the script menu on the main menu bar. Some duplicate buttons available in the views. You can also change pop-up values for certain fields, go to EndNote, open the "Palm" EndNote library in the PocketCites folder, and open the Wooden Brain Concepts web page in your default browser. In the case of problems, you can also send Wooden Brain Concepts a log of the results of imports and exports via e-mail. (Clicking on the Wooden Brain icon in the preferences screen has the same effect.)

Registered users can now customize PocketCites so that only desired fields appear in JFile, in the order desired. Beginning with v1.2, PocketCites automatically imports and exports all fields in EndNote's Generic reference type. The fields that actually are synced to JFile are determined by the tab order of the fields included in the layout set in FM Sync. Normally, you should set the layout to "Palm". You may also use "Palm (All Fields)".

Since registered users have access to the FileMaker layouts, they may create any layout order they wish, using any fields. To do this, one would duplicate the "Palm (All Fields)" layout and remove or adjust the fields as desired. (Note that to access layouts, you must now hold down the option key while launching PocketCites. This will bring up a password dialog. Enter the password provided to registered users here.)

While I cannot fully support such customization, I will be of assistance wherever I can. The chief restriction is that "Reference Type" must always be the first field. They layout need not look beautiful to be functional; just include the desired fields and set the tab order.

Beginning with PocketCites version 1.5, it is possible to HotSync multiple databases in a single HotSync. As long as they are all kept within the PocketCites folder, you may duplicate the PocketCites database in the finder as many times as you like, naming them whatever you wish. The name of the database will be the name of the JFile database as well, unless set differently in FM Sync.

You will then go through the relevant setup steps for the new database, including adding the database in FM Sync and setting the options, setting an import file, and running the import and export scripts, as described above.

This software is offered as Shareware. Although I would like to distribute it as Freeware, I've put a considerable amount of time into this project, when I should be writing my doctoral dissertation. I would thus very much appreciate some minimal compensation.

This is a fully functional version, except that it has a built-in nag screen and an irritating vocal reminder each time you HotSync, export, or close the database. After you have paid, I will e-mail you a Shareware Code to disable the nag screen.

To pay via Kagi, you can pay on-line using a credit card via a secure server or by snail mail using cash or a check.

Note: also that the demo version of FMSync allows syncing up to 25 records. In many cases, this may be sufficient for the purposes of PocketCites. But I would still encourage you to register FMSync. It is a well-conceived conduit.

You now can put the PocketCites folder anywhere you'd like, though the default is the FileMaker folder. Change the location in preferences. If you put it at the top level of your hard drive, you can set this in a pop-up menu. If you want it somewhere else, move it there first, then hit the Choose a Folder button. Make sure to run it the first time from within the FileMaker folder, though.

Beginning with version 1.5, PocketCites uses Tanaka's AppleScript Scripting Addition to perform many functions. It is distributed with PocketCites and must be found in the Scripting Additions folder. Only one version of Tanaka's OSAX can be present in the Scripting Additions folder because older versions cause conflicts.

When importing tab-delimited text into EndNote, EndNote requires the first line specify the default field type, and the second line specify the field names. However, FileMaker Pro cannot export tab-delimited text with field names at the top of the file. To solve this problem, the above PocketCites merges your "toendnote.tmp" file with "en-fieldnames.txt", to create the PC-*.tsv file which you import in EndNote. Do not delete the "en-fieldnames.txt" file or PocketCites will fail. There is a locked backup in the PocketCites working folder.

The author cannot be held responsible for any damage this software may do to your data, to your computer, to your sanity, to your appetite, or anything else. Using this software constitutes an agreement to these terms.

Thank you to Rob Tusk for help with FM Sync and support of this project, to ISI ResearchSoft for EndNote and for encouragement, and to Land-J for JFile.

Thank you to Bill Cheeseman for taking the time to share his knowledge of AppleScript.

Because of the way FileMaker Pro handles import and export (developers cannot directly specify file locations but the file locations are determined relative to the location of the database), exact folder locations and performing the set-up steps correctly are very important. If you encounter file location errors, run through the set-up steps again, including choosing files and folders and removing and re-selecting the database in FM Sync.

I will offer technical help only to registered owners via e-mail: woodenbrain@kagi.com. Immediately after encountering replicable problems, please e-mail your logs by selecting that option in the scripts menu or by clicking on the Wooden Brain logo in the preferences view. The provided Copy File List to Clipboard script provides additional information about PocketCites files.

Major revision. Now can automatically strip carriage returns, truncate long records to desired lengths. Simplified import and export process. One standard EndNote export style ("PocketCites") is sufficient for most purposes. Added preference settings. User can control whether to delete records before importing, whether to strip carriage returns, whether to truncate keywords, abstracts, and notes fields, how many characters to truncate fields to, whether to remove blank and duplicate records after HotSync, whether to open the EndNote Palm library and/or the EndNote application, whether to close PocketCites or quit FileMaker. The PocketCites folder location can also now be changed. Limited access to ScriptMaker to avoid end-user confusion. Fixed minor bugs. Note field no longer exports as a number. Redesigned layouts for easier viewing in PocketCites. Added editor (secondary author) field.

You'll notice several important changes in PocketCites 1.5. Most obviously, the old "Palm.text" file is no longer used at all. Instead, you name the file you export from EndNote anything you choose, as long as you put it in PocketCites' "import/export folder" and set that file in preferences. Similarly, the export file generated by PocketCites for import in EndNote is named "PC*.tsv" (where * is the set import file name). [This replaces the "IMPORT in ENDNOTE.text" file used in previous versions.] Hopefully, what is lost in simplicity will be gained in flexibility. This also allows you to keep multiple copies of the PocketCites database with separate import file settings, which effectively means you can HotSync more than one database at once. (See customization section above).

For consistency, the "Pocket Cites" folder has been re-named "PocketCites" (without the space) and a new working folder has been added to tuck away temporary files. Tanaka's OSAX is now required and FB replace is no longer used.

Registered users who create custom layouts must now hold down the option key when launching a PocketCites database to access the password dialog.

You'll no doubt notice many other changes. The options to open the "Palm" library and to open EndNote are now in the scripts menu, since they tended to interfere cosmetically with the Conduit Manager when run during a HotSync.

To accommodate these changes, you'll need to go through all the install and set-up steps again. Before installing, do a HotSync and get any necessary new citations into an EndNote library. Then delete the old PocketCites database in JFile. On the desktop, make sure to replace the whole Pocket Cites folder with the new PocketCites folder, and trash the old one after making a backup off-volume. Put the new PocketCites style in the EndNote export styles folder if applicable. It may be helpful to restart. Then repeat the set-up steps.

This is a maintenance release, not a full distribution. OS 9.1 introduced minor changes in AppleScript that caused an "Object not an Element" error for some users when opening PocketCites in FileMaker 5. This error does not affect the functionality of PocketCites, but nevertheless can be irritating and may interfere with a HotSync.

If you are experiencing this error and would like to correct it, please place this version in your PocketCites folder and use it as your starting database rather than the PocketCites FM5 database that comes with the distribution of PocketCites 1.5. You should export your existing libraries from the older databases and re-import them in copies of this database. You may have to delete the old databases from your Palm and set them up again in FM Sync.

This release does supports FileMaker 5 and higher. There is no support for FileMaker 4 and OS 9.1.

Compatibility with JFile 5, FM Sync for JFile 5, EndNote 5, and FileMaker Mobile Edition:

PocketCites 1.5 works with JFile version 5 and FM Sync for JFile 5. The latter is currently in beta release but there are no known problems with using PocketCites together with JFile 5.

PocketCites works fine with EndNote 5. You can the PocketCites for EndNote 4 style with EndNote 5 by placing it in the export styles folder.

Although using PocketCites with FileMaker Mobile is not officially supported, it can be made to work.

That said, some users have got it to work with FileMaker Mobile. Wooden Brain Concepts has tried it with FileMaker Mobile successfully. In order to configure PocketCites for FileMaker Mobile, you need access to layouts to gain access to the necessary access privileges. A password to access layouts is provided for registered users. To open a PocketCites database with this password, you hold down the option key while opening the database to bring up the password dialog.

This means that people who want to use PocketCites with FileMaker Mobile must register the product first. There is unfortunately no way to provide an unregistered demo. Even then, WBC cannot provide full support for using PocketCites with FMM, since it is beyond its intended design. Of course the non-HotSync related features would still be supported. Registered users should be able to get PocketCites to work with FileMaker mobile by following the instructions provided with the FMM documentation, and performing imports and exports manually by using the import & export buttons in PocketCites. Make sure that "Reference Type" is included as the first field in the FileMaker Mobile set-up.

Index

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