Guides & Tutorials: Reference Management Tools for Academic Writing: EndNote (Mac)

Library Online Courses

Library online courses aim to equip students and staff with essential skills on information searching and citation management. Click to register NOW!

How to use EndNote in 7 minutes

Contact Us for Academic Support

	2766 6863
	Submit your questions via Online Form

The new version of EndNote 2025 has been released. The Library is currently testing it and plans to make it available for eligible PolyU users to download in early August 2025. Please stay tuned for more details.

What is EndNote?

EndNote is a widely used reference management tool to help you collect, organize, and share your references. The user interface is highly customizable. EndNote also allows you to insert in-text citations and format bibliographies in your research paper effortlessly, thus improving your efficiency in writing academic papers or reports.

Major Functions:

Maintain large number of references for your dissertations or research projects
Organize and manage references
Create and format in-text citations and bibliographies in various citation styles instantly
Import citations from databases, library catalogues, websites and more
Search databases like Web of Science, PubMed and others within EndNote
Find full-text articles for references in your EndNote library
PDF management and annotation
Collaborate with other researchers
Work on your references anytime, anywhere

EndNote Desktop (Windows):
EndNote Online Classic:	www.myendnoteweb.com
EndNote Web (For EndNote 21 and EndNote 2025 users only):	web.endnote.com/login

EndNote 21 Compatibility with macOS Sonoma

According to Clarivate’s official documentation, EndNote 21 is fully compatible with macOS Sonoma, and no major compatibility issues have been identified.

As EndNote 20 and earlier versions were not designed for Sonoma, it is suggested upgrading to EndNote 21 for Sonoma compatibility. Please contact Clarivate Support if you encounter any issues with EndNote 21 and macOS Sonoma.

How to use EndNote 21 in seven minutes (macOS)

0:28 Library Creation Process

1:31 Create a New Library Entry

2:45 EndNote Direct Export

3:32 Link up to 45 File Attachments

4:04 Optional Browser Extension

4:54 Export to EndNote Desktop

5:38 Insert Citation Shortcut

6:17 Apply Different Formatting

6:41 Add a New Citation

7:00 Insert Selected Citation

Getting Started

Except where otherwise noted, the content of this guide is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

Click on File. (You should be able to see "EndNote21" next to the apple icon on the top left corner if you launched EndNote 21.)
Select New...

Name your EndNote library. You can use your assignment or project title as the name of the EndNote library.
Click on Save. You can also check the Save as Package to save your EndNote library as a single document. The package will appear as a folder containing both the library (.enl) and data folder (.data) if you open it with a Windows PC.