Mendeley Desktop

​If you have PDFs saved which you want to add to the library, Mendeley Desktop can create a bibliographic record from the PDF. There are three ways to add the PDFs to your library:

1. Drag and drop: Open up the folder where you have saved your PDFs and display it so you can see your Mendeley Desktop library behind it. Click on one of the PDFs and drag it into the references pane of your library.
2. Add files: Click on the arrow next to Add on the top left of the screen, select Add Files and navigate to the folder where the PDF is stored. Select a PDF and click on Open.
3. Watched folder: Mendeley Desktop will automatically import all files that you save to a particular folder on your computer. To set this up, go to the File menu and select Watch folder.

Bibliographic details may not always import correctly. If Mendeley is uncertain about the details of an article it will add the article to the Needs Review collection. When you view this article, you can confirm the details are correct, or if information is incorrect or missing you can correct this. See Editing a reference.

Bibliographic details will be entered automatically only where there is sufficient metadata in the PDF for Mendeley to be able to identify the item. Where bibliographic details are not entered, there are a couple of options to consider:

• Enter the bibliographic details by editing the record.
• Import a record for the item by exporting from online databases or the Mendeley Web Catalog and then attach the PDF file to the record.

Mendeley Desktop continues to be available for existing users but is no longer available to download and is no longer under development. For guidance on using the new Mendeley Reference Manager, Mendeley Cite and Mendeley Web, see our Mendeley guide.