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Sunday 19 June 2016

How To Import PDF Files Into Mendeley Desktop

Good Day Y'all

Today I will be discussing how to import Portable Document Format (PDF) files into Mendeley Desktop on PC. This post is being made at this time due to popular demand. In subsequent posts, I will be explaining in details, with step-by-step pictorial guide on how to make use of various citation managers like Mendey, Endnote, Zotero.

Mendeley PDF import
Mendeley



These are indispensable tools which make writing out research articles easy and fun to do. They can be used to in-text citations, create reference/ bibliography, change citation formats depending on the publishers requirements etc. One can choose from thousands of citation styles ranging from Havard, American Psychological Association (APA), Vancouver, Nature, MLA, etc. These citation managers are so feature rich and realy simplifies the work. Just imagine having to do all the above manually.

Now back to the topic of this post. 

Step 1: Create a new folder under Mendeley Desktop into which you will be importing your PDF files especially heavy ones like Textbooks.

Step 1a: Click on the folder icon with a green cross on the top of the Mendeley Desktop window, just below the view tab. This will create a new folder, which you can then rename, for example, as Textbooks. Press enter when done. This changes the name of the newly created folder into Textbooks.

PDF import on mendeley
Mendeley PDF import

PDF import using mendeley
Mendeley import



Step 2: To import PDF files into the Textbooks folder, click on the "Add Files" tab at the top. However make sure that you select the newly created "Textbooks" folder, so as to ensure the added files will be saved inside the folder.

PDF import using mendeley
Use Mendeley


Step 3: A dialogue box will then appear. Navigate to where you have saved the PDF file you want to import. Click to open/import the file.

Import PDF in mendeley
Mendeley


Step 4: Wait for some few seconds as the PDF file is completely import and synxhronized. That is all. You have successfully imported the PDF file into the Mendeley Desktop. 

mendeley import
PDF import 


Step 5: You can open and read the PDF file within the Mendeley Desktop by clicking on the small PDF icon attached to the imported PDF file. You can read, annotate and even add notes to the PDF file using the Mendeley Desktop.

Mendeley pdf import
Mendeley

PDF in mendeley
PDF Mendeley


Step 6: Ensure you compare the imported PDF extracted bibliographic metadata with that inside the opened PDF file. This is necessasy especially for some textbooks in which the metadata may not be completely or correctly extracted. When you are done making the the necessary corrections in the metadata, click on "Details are Correct" tab. However, most PDF research articles have their metadata correctly read and extracted by Mendeley Desktop.

Guide to import PDF in mendeley
Mendeley guide


Step 7: A final important but optional step is necessary especially for those with limited internet data or poor network connection. You can decide to unsynchronize your "Textbooks" folder. This has the advantage of limiting the data usage and also the time spent in synchronizing heavy files due to poor internet network. To do this, click on "Edit Settings" tab. Then untick the "synchronize attached files" box. Click on "Save & Sync". Thats all. 

Mendeley guide
Mendeley

mendeley import of pdf
PDF mendeley

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