This update introduces a lot of new features, including a PDF viewer, OpenOffice.org integration on Mac OSX and Linux, and many more. Interface issues, and a number of bugs are also addressed in this release, as well as improvements to the overall stability.
Just to give you a teaser – this is how it looks like to add notes to PDF documents:
- Built-in PDF viewer for viewing PDFs directly in Mendeley Desktop
- Support for annotating PDF files (syncing notes to and from Mendeley Web is planned for the next release)
- Many additional online lookups (CrossRef, PubMed, Google Scholar)
- Public document collections (reading lists) which can be embedded on other websites
- OpenOffice.org Writer plugin for Mac OSX & Linux
- Improved native user interface for Mac OSX
- Individual synchronization and privacy settings for each document collection
- Auto-save changes and undo functionality for quick document detail editing
- Flagging documents as favorites
- Marking a document as read, or unread
- Detecting duplicate documents when importing library files or PDFs
- Merging together document authors, tags, keywords or publications
- Editing document details, or tags for multiple documents simultaneously
- New “Trash” collection so you can restore deleted documents
- Changes to the toolbar and terminology in light of usability tests
- Better handling of documents with unconfirmed details
- More robust synchronization between Mendeley Desktop and Mendeley Web
- Search results are presented in a much easier to read format
- Searching for documents now searches the document details, as well the PDF text
- Detect and handle duplicate citation keys being used when exporting to BibTeX format
- Improved full-text indexing stability for search
- Allow documents to be renamed without the file organizer being enabled
- Clean up the formatting of exported citations
- Handle tags and keywords properly when exporting to BibTex format
- File organizer stability fixes
- Corrections to various citation styles
- Plus many more…
So no time to waste – visit our download page and give it a try, would be great to hear what you think! 🙂 Also, thanks a lot for all the feedback from our leadusers who helped us polishing this new version.
Please note: As part of the upgrade process, if you have an online account already, Mendeley Desktop will need to perform a full sync when it next starts. This may take some time depending on the size of your library. It is a one-off sync that is required to ensure compatibility with an upgraded sync method.
If you have suggestions how to improve managing research papers with the Mendeley reference manager please let us know by visiting our feedback forum. If you encounter any problems using Mendeley or have questions to ask, please e-mail us at support@mendeley.com.
Mendeley Blog 
Bad surprise … I just downloaded the new Mendeley Desktop (on my Mac), installed it, launched it … and had a plain library. All my 2000+ entries were gone. What about importing the old library data?
Well … the data came back after synchronizing (would be nice to have a note on this – otherwise more people will get a schock …) – but not the configuration of the tool – that is quite annoying.
The Windows, Mac, and Linux downloads have been updated, but the xUbuntu repos still have 0.6.5. Is that coming shortly?
And to think that I was just about to switch to Zotero solely for OpenOffice support… Thank you for the terrific app!
Michael, what parts of the configuration were missing? Sorry about the data, but glad it came back; that is not intentional, and hasn’t happened for us. If anyone else has the problem and /doesn’t/ get their data back, please could you send your local database file (see http://www.mendeley.com/faq/#howto-recover-database) to support@mendeley.com and we’ll look into it.
Reece: we had a slight problem packaging the documentation of all things for debian-based systems. We hope to have this sorted out later today.
Well done guys…. I count 6 changes that I was specifically looking for!
Can’t wait to install on Ubuntu *nudge*
Just posting to hassle you guys for Ubuntu repo update. Still sitting with 0.6.5.1 here…
I’m just testing the static Linux Version and I’m really impressed. A lot of great new features. And the OpenOffice-Plugin for Linux works really good!
Now I’m waiting vor this version coming in the repo!
[…] Mendeley released a new version (0.9) yesterday which includes many new impressive features, including a slick highlighting and annotation system in the desktop software. Check out the complete list here: http://www.mendeley.com/blog/academic-features/mendeley-desktop-v0-9-0-released/ […]
I have similar problem like Michael. I downloaded Mendeley 0.9.0, installed it (previous version: 0.6.5.1), launched it and all my collections disappeared (synchronization doesn’t help). So now Mendeley lists only my library entries (my library is small – 30 entries, I’m still testing Mendeley:)).
Moreover, after update Mendeley deleted the pdf’s attached to five entries from its folder (I use file organiser, but without the rename document file option). In Document Details->File section it shows a chain with warning sign opposite to path to the file.
I’ve tried the –repair-database option, but without effect.
Fixing my library is easy in my case – I’ll do it manually. But for people with larger database it could be hard.
My list of bugs and behaviours is longer – but I’m not sure where I should send it. Should I use Feedback->Report a Bug form or write to support@mendeley.com? There’s no clear information about it on the web, in my opinion.
One of the Mendeley behaviour is not what I’ve expected:
I use Mendeley on two computers: work and home. I add reference with pdf file named: JPhysCondensMatter_21(2009)_013002.pdf at one computer and uploading it to the mendeley web.
On second computer I do the sync. Everything looks fine, except the file name in file organiser folder. Imported file is named: Author – Year – Title.pdf. I’ve expected the original file name.
Just installed the 0.9 version on an XP machine, and after starting to sync with the server, it just pops out an error message that says ”There appears to be a problem communicating with the server. A report has been filed by the server.” Under ”details” it reports ”63404364 The client sent through a document with an empty title.” My email address and password are unchanged.
So at present, Mendeley doesn’t appear to be usable for me. Any suggestions?
Hmm. OK, I took that error message at face value, found an entry w/out a title, and entered it; Mendeley may now be syncing properly. Ignore previous post for now!
great work with mendeley and great update. however, today mendeley web is way too slow, i cannot loguin. mendeley desktop display error messages when i try to sync the lybrary. i suppose that those are temporary issues.
keep up the good work.
Ho Ho Ho … and aaaand 0.9 😀 .. just to be an a*s … when is a jaunty (ubuntu 9.x) deb coming out 😀 ?
kp up the gr8 wrk… 😀 ..
N
Debian and ubuntu packages for Mendeley v0.9. now live in repositories. Packages for ubuntu jaunty available as well.
in the words of sacha baron cohen, wha wha wee wha…. 😀 ..
thanks a lot guys…
keep up the gr8 work on this awesome piece of software…
N
Looks nice. Just found a crash bug (possibly SEGFAULT). I did this:
1. Install fresh 64 bit mendeley on ubuntu.
2. Try to enter my username/password, get it wrong.
3. Go to the options thing and try again. Hit ‘Apply’.
4. Got it wrong again!
5. Try a third time, hit ‘Apply’.
6. It works, hit ‘OK’.
7. Instant crash.
Yeah I know there’s a bug reporting tool, but it insultingly only lets you report 10 bugs.
Thank you all for the terrific application, seems more than promising; (re)installed nicely on both ubuntu and windows.
one thing: the search option is disabled on both ubuntu and windows desktops -even though I logged in. no problems with syncing though. did I do something wrong -do I need to uload the pdfs as well or disable any firewalls, other obstructions?
Thanks again for this great application,
E. Ayca
Hi Emre, thanks for your comment. I forwarded your question to support@mendeley.com, and we’ll try to help you as quickly as possible. Please send further support queries directly to support@mendeley.com.
Thank you
Jan
Just wanted to say thanks a lot for this release. I recently gave a presentation in my department on using Mendeley for collaborative articles and now I have to update everyone with the new features…sigh. I’m loving the ability to annotate PDFs (but why can’t we share those notes?).
I have 2 comments based on minor issues I had with the upgrade. I think it’d be a good idea to inform users of changes to the interface. For example, it took me a while to figure out how to edit the settings for uploading documents in specific libraries during syncing. I also don’t think Mendeley should default to uploading my whole library…why not keep the previous settings (which were to only upload metadata)?
Anyway, thanks for a great piece of software. Can’t wait for the next version 🙂
“Public document collections (reading lists) which can be embedded on other websites”
Documentation?
Hi Steve – in v0.9.1 we ship a Getting Started Guide which explains the key steps to set up a Public Collection. In addition, we are currently preparing some teaching materials which should explain in more detail how to do it. Here’s a short description:
1. In “My Library” in Mendeley Desktop, create a new collection in the left pane.
2. Click on that collection, and then click on “Edit settings” in the upper right corner of the center (library) pane.
3. Set collection access to “Public”, add a description if you like, and click on “Sync” in the tool bar.
4. After sync, in the settings you will see a link (http://www.mendeley.com/collections/ etc.) – this is the link to the public collection. If you drag & drop items in that public collection in Mendeley Desktop, they will appear on the public collection web page (the link) after sync.
5. Click on the link, and the public collection page in the lower left corner you will see the embed code which enables you to embed this document feed / reference list into other web pages.
Ahh… ok. So you can access the Getting Started Guide from the Help menu.
It appears that this is just a PDF in: ‘Mendeley Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/FAQ.pdf’ (on OS X)
It would be great for that PDF to be more explicitly linked from your site (including from the release notes).
It appears that you may only make your own libraries public (not shared collections). It also appears that the public libraries do not include any PDFs that have been uploaded. Bummer on both counts, but that’s not to discount the usefulness of Mendeley overall. It just means that this feature is not tremendously useful for my purposes (but I can imagine it being useful for others).
What is the timeline for adding synchronization of notes to the Web? This is a critical feature for me, and this states it is coming in the “next” release.
Hi Matt – sorry to keep you waiting. We should have said the “next major” release, which will be version 1.0 (or one of the 1.0 Release Candidates). Currently, the timeline for this is by the end of this year, or at the latest, sometime in January.
I tried to test the back up and restore, it failed..archive zip was small in size compared to my library; I had to sync from web, and in this regard, I have another question; sync will look at things like time stamp or updated done on files and chose the latest or would it just overwrite the desktop based on the web.. can you guys elaborate more on this in your FAQs ,. cheers