What is Reference Manager ?

Reference Manager is an “Add-in” for Word 2007 that enhances Word 2007’s inbuilt bibliography feature. It essentially makes it possible to import and export articles using standard formats such as BibTex, RIS, etc. Currently, Reference Manager has four features:

1. Import from Website: Given a URL, this utility will automatically pull all the reference details. Check below for the list of compatible websites

2. Import from text file: If you have citations in BibTex, RIS or any other standard format, use this utility to import your citations into word.

3. Export: Export references in Bibtex and other standard formats

4. Search & Import: Search and import new articles. Currently, search functionality is limited to Memento Search. Thus, it can only retrieve those articles that are present on Memento

Checkout the  video to learn more about reference manager add-in

To download, click here

Is Reference Manager free?
Yes, Referece Manager is complete free. I developed this tool mainly to streamline my thesis writing process. I am so used to word that I wasn’t able to adopt any other writing tool such as LaTex. However, lack of ability to import articles made my life a hell. Finally, last month, I decided to write this add-in.

What are the system requirements to install this add-in

1. Internet – Reference manager calls Memento, an online bibliography manager, to import and export articles. Essentially, all the back-end process is done by the Memento server and the Reference Manager (or Memento) add-in simply provides a nice interface to integrate Word 2007 and Memento’s web-service.
2. Windows XP or Vista – I don’t know whether you can *.exe file on Mac
3. Microsoft Word 2007 or later – Of-coure !.  :)

How to Install
Note: I don’t have any other windows machine than my development machine. Hence, I can’t guarantee that installation will work perfectly. Try it and let me know if you are having any problem. I can, then, work on getting a cleaner installation file. In general, the installation process should be simple.

1. Download the zip file from here
2. Unzip the downloaded file and place it at some secure place such as under your documents folder.
3. Click on setup.exe. Depending on your system’s configuration, you might also have to install VSTO 2008. In any case, the setup.exe will report any problems. Just follow them. Also, if you find any problem, please let me know so that I can take appropriate actions so that other users won’t have to deal with the same problem.
4. Once everything is install properly, Open Word and check if there is a “Memento” tab or not. If there is, you are good to go. Enjoy

List of Compatible Websites