🚀 go-pugleaf

Marc,

You are certainly correct that it has been a while since Niles has
offered significant enhancements to EndNote Plus, but don't blast
them too fast.  I, too, get frustrated in dealing with front persons
(i.e., the ones that developers allow to interact with customers and
potential customers) who gladly jot down your favorite suggestions for
improvements, but almost always add the qualification that the list is
long and that they couldn't possibly add this or that feature in the
upcoming release because the feature set is "frozen."  Or, they tell
you that you're the only person that has asked for this feature.  But,
like you, I know that frequently "invention is the mother of necessity"
and that while you or I might be the only one to have thought about a
certain idea, it could be "the biggest thing since sliced bread" if only
they would add it!  Alas, we wait and wait, only to be disappointed when
none of the features we asked for make it into the latest version.

Sometimes the developers come up with some revolutionary ideas of their own
or incorporate someone else's brain-child into a release and we forgive
the developers for not taking some of our ideas seriously.  Other times it
seems that the only thing that will get a developer moving is the
competition nipping at their heels or leaping over them while they sleep.
In fact, the presence on the EndNote List of competitors, including
Personal Bibliographic Software and another (lurking as a "concealed"
subscriber), can only increase the probability that if our wishes are not
answered by Niles, then one of them may make strong overtures towards
EndNote users by addressing a few of the items on our ever-present list of
"missing features." Of course, if you switch to a competitor's program,
you'll soon wonder why they didn't do x the way that EndNote does, stumble
into their products' limitations, and before long, you'll have another
ever-present list of "missing features."  Uggh!

So, what is Niles up to?  I'll leave Avi room to answer,  but let me leave
you with a few thoughts.  Due to non-disclosure promises, I can only tell
you that Niles is not asleep.  The development of the Word Plug-In Module
must have consumed a lot of programming time that Nisus or WriteNow users
could care less about and would rather have seen used on other features.
And some of the features that come in the next release won't affect the way
that you use EndNote if you're a Word user, but may benefit other
word-processing/page-layout afficianados.  But, unlike PBS's Pro-Cite,
EndNote users (both PC and Mac) appreciate Niles' efforts to support more
than the bare essential list of word-processors.  Avi is to be praised highly
for her active presence on this list--the information that she shares with
others at Niles can only result in a company more in tune with our needs
and desires.  The sense I get from Niles is that they do care more about
the individual differences of their users than PBS does and that Niles is
more aligned to the needs of individual researchers and writers than PBS.
While PBS has added networking capabilities to Pro-Cite, Niles broadens
their scope by offering solutions to not only Word users, but also Nisus,
WriteNow, and FrameMaker users.  While starting with support for Mac
users, they've expanded successfully over into the DOS/Windows area.
Finally, while TagLink may not be useful to many of you, that feature is
extremely useful to me and other users of the University of California's
MELVYL System.  If other universities follow and use the Tags format
developed by the UC Division of Library Automation, the benefits to other
EndNote users will become rapidly apparent. The earth isn't the only thing
moving in Berkeley, just ask Avi.

But will Avi tell?


Steve Bang