Frequently Asked Questions

Q:	Why RefScout®'s PDFManager using PubMed ID?
A:	The main reason- PubMed ID is unique identification number for given publication. Therefore queering of NLM-Entrez PubMed with the list of PubMed ID (PMID) will produce unique results. In addition, if you will save all your pdfs in corresponding maner, PDFM will create search list automatically.
Q:	How to start using RefScout®'s PDFManager?
A:	The usage is really simple and strait forward:    Start program. Press <Ctrl-D> or press button. Using standard windows "Open File" interface browse directory with you collection of pdfs and select any pdf file.    Now you are ready to start search. If you want to check the search list, press preview button . To start search, press "Start search" button .    After you press "Start search" button for the first time, authorisation dialog will appear. Use your RefScout username and password to fill in this form. After you press "Connect" button, PDFManager will ask RefScout server for your registration information and billing status (all billing organized by our partner PayPal) and will start description search. If you want PDFManager to save your username and password, activate corresponding option.   You can monitor search progress using "Progress Bar" in the lower part of the main window. When search finished, "Preview results" button will be activated. Press it to open search results in the Internet Explorer web-browser.    Excel table with the final results you can find (by default) in the directory with your collection of pdfs.
Q:	I've downloaded RefScout®'s PDFManager, but installation does not work!
A:	There could be several reasons for that:    You don't have administrative permission to install something on your workstation.   In general PDFM does not require complex installation. Therefore, you can download PDFM without installation package from our "download" section (file called PDFManager_noinstall.zip). To use this program you need only to extract all files from the archive to your "Program Files" directory.    You have administrative rights on your computer, you was able to download PDFManager but MSI installation package failed to start. The reason- you might not have corresponding installer on your computer. You can download MSI installer for free from Microsoft download page. MSI installer for Windows 9x/Me MSI installer for Windows 2000 or NT For Windows XP or Server 2003 you don't need any additional packages.
Q:	Is there any way to export my PDF library to the EndNote?
A:	Starting from version 1.07 RefScout®'s PDFManager supports import to EndNote (tested with the EndNote 9.0.0). To import complete PDF library to EndNote you just need to make few simple steps:    Run your regular search with the latest version of RefScout®'s PDFManager. RefScout®'s PDFManager will create additional tab-delimited text file in the End Note compatible format. New file "all_pdf.txt" will be saved automatically in the PDFs folder.    Start EndNote application and create new empty database.    In the EndNote open "File" menu and select "Import" option.    Browse text file "all_pdf.txt"; Select corresponding option "Import Option: Tab-delimited" and press "Next" button. New database will contain all information available for RefScout®'s PDFManager about publication including link to your reprint. If you want to know more about EndNote import/export function please read EndNote documentation.

Recommendations

Q:	How to organize collection of pdfs using RefScout®'s PDFManager?
A:	There are no strict rules how to organize your library. Everyone tries to find own way. From my own experience of using PDFM I would suggest to create separate folders for every topic, you are going to investigate, rather than for separate journals or authors. And in addition I have one folder for all pdfs. As one could imagine, search time directly depends on amount of publications in single folder. To retrieve description for one article program need around one second.
Q:	Suggestions concerning processing of search results in Excel
A:	Excel itself very powerful tool for data organization, sorting and filtering. I would describe here only one small option, which might help a lot not only with the PDFM, but also in general.    Freeze header line.   Select cell "A2". Open menu "Window" and select "Freeze Panes". Now, when you scroll table down, header line will be always visible.    Cluster articles according to some criteria (i.e. group together all publications from year 2003)   Select header line. Open menu "Data" and select "Filter">"AutoFilter". Open pull-down menu from the rihgt side of the header cell "Year" and select "Custom..." AutoFilter window will appear. From the left pull-down menu select operator (i.e. "contain"), In the right field type grouping term (i.e. 2003) and press "OK" Excel will automatically display only strings containing "2003" in the cell "Year".