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Mendeley

Folders in Mendeley Desktop

  1. Click on the + folder icon in the top navbar.
  2. Enter a unique name for the folder.
  3. Hit Enter.
  1. Click on the + folder icon in the top navbar.
  2. Enter a unique name for the folder.
  3. Hit Enter.
  4. Drag the new folder into the folder where you want it to live.

References in Mendeley Desktop

  1. Click on the reference you want to edit. Details about the reference will appear in the right sidebar.
  2. In the right sidebar, change the information in the appropriate field(s).
    • NOTE: Be aware of what you edit in the reference as you cannot reset the field values once you save over them. To get the reference back to its original form, you will need to re-import it.
  1. Right click on the reference you want to delete.
  2. Click on "Delete Documents" from the pop-up menu.
    • NOTE: This only moves your items to the Trash, where they will stay until you permanently delete them.
  3. Click on the Trash tab at the bottom of the left sidebar.
  4. Right click on the reference you want to delete.
  5. Click the "Delete Documents" button.

Deduping in Mendeley Desktop

  1. Select the folder or group where you want to dedup.
  2. Click on the Tools tab of the menu bar.
  3. Select the "Check for Duplicates" option from the drop-down menu.
  4. The system will list all of the duplicates it found in your folder or group.
    • The record sitting at the top of all the duplicates is a merged record created from the combination of all the duplicates.  
    • You can view the details of each record by clicking on the arrow next to the merged record to expand the duplicate list.
    • At the right end of the duplicate records, there is a confidence field, which indicates how sure Mendeley is of whether the records duplicate each other.
    • In the Details tab of the right sidebar, each field of the record has a checkbox next to it.
      • For the Merged Record: If the checkbox is filled, it means that the field information is consistent across the duplicates. If the checkbox is not filled, it means that there are discrepancies in that field across the duplicates.
      • For the Duplicate Records: If the checkbox is filled, it means that the field information is used in the merged record. If the checkbox is not filled, it means that the field information is not used in the merged record.
  5. Check among the duplicates to ensure that the system is pulling the correct metadata for fields with discrepancies in the merged record.
  6. When you are finished checking/editing the merged record, click the "Confirm Merge" button in the right sidebar.
    • NOTE: You can undo the merge using the Edit → Undo option from the top menu bar. Each of the duplicate records that were used to create the merged record will be moved into the Trash, where you can either permanently delete or restore them.

Mendeley Desktop Deduping

Getting New Citation Styles in Mendeley Desktop

  1. Click on the View tab of the menu bar. 
  2. Click on "Citation Style" from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click on "More Styles" from the sub-menu.
  4. Click on the "Get More Styles" tab in the pop-up window.
  5. Use the search box to search for the citation style you want to download.
  6. Click on the appropriate style from your search results.
  7. Click on the Install button.
  8. Click on the Done button when you are finished installing all the new citation styles you want.

Mendeley Desktop Installing New Citation Styles

Sharing/Groups in Mendeley Desktop

  1. Click on the "Create Group…" link in the left sidebar.
  2. Enter a unique name for your group and a description if applicable.
  3. Choose the type of group you want to create.
    • NOTE: Only private groups can share full-text PDFs.
      • Public: everyone can view and interact with
      • Invite-Only: everyone can view but only members can post
      • Private: only members can view and interact with
  4. Click the "Create group" button.
  5. Enter email addresses to invite people to the group and click the Send invites button OR click the Skip button and send out invites later.
  1. In the left sidebar, right click on the group you want to delete.
  2. Select "Remove Group" from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click the "Delete group" button.

PDFs in Mendeley Desktop

You only have so much space available in your Mendeley account. In order to get more space, you will need to upgrade your subscription. You can check the amount of free space you have by going to your "Settings & privacy" in the web version of Mendeley and then clicking on the Subscription tab in the left sidebar.

  1. Click on the reference that you want to add a PDF to.
  2. In the Details tab of the right sidebar, scroll down to the "Files:" section.
  3. Click on the "Add File…" link.
  4.  Choose the appropriate file from your computer.
  5. Click the Open button.

Mendeley Desktop PDF Reader Screen

  1. Read: unlike the web version of Mendeley, Mendeley Desktop allows you to read and annotate your files without an internet connection
  2. Select Text: the A with a cursor icon next to it allows you to select text from a PDF, which you can then copy, highlight, or add notes to
    • NOTE: The Desktop version of Mendeley also allows you to select whole sections of text via drawing a rectangle over it as opposed to dragging the cursor line by line. 
  3. Scroll: the hand icon allows you to scroll up and down in the document
  4. Add Notes: the note icon allows you to add your own notes that you can pop out or hide as needed; you can also change the color of the notes  
  5. Highlight: the highlighter icon allows you to highlight the text; the colored dot next to the highlighter icon allows you to change the highlighter color
    • NOTE: The Desktop version of Mendeley also allows you to highlight whole sections of text via drawing a rectangle over it as opposed to dragging the cursor line by line. 
  6. Export or Print: you can export or print your annotated document by going to the File tab of the menu bar and selecting the appropriate option from the drop-down menu