To get started with Mendeley, you'll need:
To add a citation for something from the Camosun library collection, the most reliable approach is to start from the page describing that item. If you are capturing an article citation, you will likely capture a more complete citation than if you start from within a PDF.
To add a citation like the one above to your Mendeley account, click on the 'Mendeley' plug in in your browser. It will look like this:
If your Mendeley account is not open, you will prompted to open it and log in.
To make sure all the citation details are correct, click on the pen icon to review and, if necessary, edit the citation information.
To save the citation, click the 'Add' button, displayed above. You can also specify the folder into which you would like to add this citation.
You can also get citations from the Mendeley website, where you can search the combined total of all the Mendeley libraries that exist. This can be particularly useful when wanting to add a government document or stakeholder report that you might otherwise have to enter into your library manually. Search for the document title to see if someone has created the citation entry already and just add it to your library.
You can search all of Mendeley from the Mendeley website or you can access it from the 'Tools' menu in the Mendeley Reference Manager.
To add a webpage citation, click on the 'Mendeley' icon in your tool bar. A pop-up window will appear with the beginnings of your citation information. Fill in whatever blanks you can, such as 'last updated' or 'author'.
Sometimes, for example when you want to add a government report, you may have to enter your citations manually. In which case:
Because citations for different types of material - books, articles, films - require different information, you first need to select the type of material you are describing. Then fill out the form.
Synchronizing your Mendeley collection means keeping it up to date across computers, devices, and your cloud-based back up. This should happen automatically, but you can ensure it has happened by clicking on the 'sync' icon in the top right corner of your Mendeley Reference Manager software.
You can organize your Mendeley library into folders. To create a folder in your Mendeley Reference Manager:
Click on 'New collection', on the left side of your Mendeley Reference Manager software.
Give the folder a name.
The same citation can be stored in more than one folder. To copy a citation into another folder, locate the citation and click and drag it into the second (or third) destination folder.
Cite while you write
You can insert citations from your Mendeley account directly into your paper as you write, in whatever citation style you would like (APA, MLA, etc.). When your paper is done, Mendeley can semi-automatically generate your bibliography from all the citations you inserted using the Mendeley plug in.
To insert citations into your paper you must first have the the Microsoft Word plug-in installed.
When you are ready to insert a citation, make sure you have left your cursor where you want the citation to appear and click on 'Mendeley Cite' button. This button is under the 'References' menu in Word.
If neccessary, you will be prompted to log into your Mendeley account.
On the right side of your Word document, you will be presented with a search box to find your chosen citation within your Mendeley account. Type a keyword or two from the citation, such as the author's name or a word from the article title.
Check off the article title and click on 'Insert Citation' at the bottom of the screen.
If you would like to add a page number to your in-text citation, click on the citation preview.
A text box will appear where you can type it in. Your citation will be auto-inserted in the text.
Repeat this process throughout your paper for every citation you want to insert.
When you have finished your paper and you want to generate the final reference list, place your cursor where you want your that reference list to appear in the Word document. Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the citation selection window and check off 'Insert bibliography'.
The bibliography will be generated where you left your cursor.
Mendeley's help pages: https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mendeley-reference-manager/
