Mendeley: Using the legacy Desktop software

Great news, you can choose to use both.  Your Mendeley library content is stored primarily online, "in the cloud."  You can choose to use either the new Reference Manager and Cite tools, or the legacy Desktop and Cite-O-Matic tools, and you are even able to install them all on one computer if you would like.  Reasons to choose one over the other follow.

Choose Reference Manager and Cite if

• You use Microsoft Word 365,
• You are a new Mendeley user,
• You do not plan to create citations in your word document from a shared group library, or
• You do not plan to use any of the features described below, which are not yet available in Reference Manager and Cite.

Choose Desktop and Cite-O-Matic if

• You are already using it and like it,
• You do not want to migrate an existing Word document with citations to the new format,
• You want to create in-text citations using items in a group library,
• You want to sort your library using tags,
• You want to copy and paste quick formatted citations, or
• You want to export annotated pdf files from your library.

It is very likely that most of the features of Desktop will be available in Reference Manager in the future.  Check the Mendeley blog for the latest updates

Mendeley Desktop is a reference manager that allows you manage, read, share, annotate and cite your research papers. 

You can download Mendeley Desktop here.

You can also manage your references in the Mendeley Web Library, which allows you to access the items in your Mendeley library from any web browser. You can achieve many of the core Mendeley features (such as uploading new references, reading papers, highlighting and annotating) from any device with internet access, without the need to install any software.

Install the Mendeley Web Importer -- Install the Web Importer into your favorite web browser to import references and documents academic databases.

Save articles to your Mendeley Library as you browse.

When updating or adding documents in Mendeley Web, make changes to your Library of materials  by clicking on the "Library" tab.

Note: Remember to sync in Mendeley Desktop to make sure your changes are active everywhere you access Mendeley.

You can add files to Mendeley by:

• Dragging and dropping a pdf into Mendeley
  
• You can also add files by selecting file and then clicking add files or folder. 
• Another way to add files is by selecting file and then clicking "watch folder" to choose a folder to put on watch. Mendeley Desktop will now automatically add files that are added to that folder.
   

Export references directly from other Elsevier products such as Science Direct or Scopus to Mendeley by:

• When reading an article click the export button then choose "Save to Mendeley"

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Import your Endnote, Refworks or Zotero library to Mendeley

You can edit PDFs that have been added to your Mendeley Library. You can do this by double clicking to open the file in a seperate tab within Mendeley Desktop. You now have the option to:

• Highlight text in multiple colors
• Add sticky notes to specific locations
• Make document-widevnotes
• Search within Text

If you export a pdf file from your Mendeley Library in the web Mendeley, it will save a pdf copy without your annotations and highlights.  However, in Mendeley Desktop, the default setting is to export with your annotations and highlights.  If you, like me, occasionally add annotations while reading a paper that you would not want to share, please remember these settings!

To use the citation generation features, including the Citation Plugin that allows you to add citations to your papers as you write, you will need to install Mendeley Desktop software on a computer.