Mendeley basics, with links to mini screencasts and tutorials

1. Mastering Mendeley
Linda Wobbe, Saint Mary‘s College Library
Seven simple steps

2. What is Mendeley?
Mendeley
• Organizes articles and citations you have
collected into a “Library”
• Saves your notes and annotations with each
article
• Formats citations and bibliographies when you
write your paper
You need both:
Desktop Version
Web Version

3. First: Create an Account
• Navigate to Mendeley.com and create a
personal account

4. Download the Desktop Version

5. Install:
Web Importer and
Word Plugin

6. Now you are ready to add articles!
• Move pdf’s into Mendeley Desktop from your computer
• You can also import citations from other reference managers
• If I can do it, you can do it!
– Move pdf’s from your computer to Mendeley desktop
http://screencast.com/t/QJ2QzlhG
– It’s a Library it must be cataloged!
– Check Metadata for each article
– http://screencast.com/t/nvhflLFX
– http://screencast.com/t/WJmh7Nt47eaF
– Sync!
– Click Sync in Mendeley Desktop
– Now you can view your articles from the web
or iOS versions

7. Add new articles while searching
• Search Library databases and save pdf’s into a “Watch Folder”
on your computer http://screencast.com/t/005gADXGs
• From Mendeley desktop, use File > Add Watch Folder to
identify any folder on your computer as a Watch Folder.
Mendeley will automatically add pdf’s from your Watch Folder
into your Mendeley library
• You guessed it – check the metadata for each article
• Sync!

8. Add notes and annotations to your
saved articles
• http://screencast.com/t/Sz6w5EKDRgh3
• The Notes pane applies to the
entire article. I like to record how
I found the article
• Highlight article points you want
to save
• Click “Note” to create annotations
– like sticky notes. You can copy
and paste text or create your own
comments, or both.
• Sync!

9. Cite while you write and create a
bibliography
• From Mendeley desktop, Click the Tools menu in the
toolbar, and install the Word plugin if you haven’t
already done so
• Open Word; in the View menu in the toolbar, open
the Mendeley toolbar
• http://screencast.com/t/r6KFVFYXu
• When you are ready to enter citations,
click Insert Citation and search your library by
author, keyword, year
• When you are ready to create a bibliography, place
your cursor where the bibliography should go and
click insert bibliography
• Use the drop-down menu in the Mendeley Word
plugin toolbar to change styles at any time

10. More to learn
• Collaborating in Groups: : http://community.mendeley.com/guides/groups
• Mobile Mendeley : http://community.mendeley.com/guides/ios
• Mendeley Guides : http://community.mendeley.com/guides
• Mendeley Tutorials : http://community.mendeley.com/guides/videos
• Mendeley Support : http://support.mendeley.com/
• My favorite 5 minute video tutorial
• https://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGv6_HuCYExM
• Contact Linda with your Mendeley questions!
• Lwobbe@stmarys-ca.edu (925) 631-4232

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