To create your free account go to https://www.mendeley.com and click the "Create a Free Account" button. When creating your account you can use whatever email address you would like, it is not necessary to use your FDU email address.
Mendeley will then ask a series of questions to complete your profile such as your area of study, academic status, and your institution. These choices have no effect on your account.
Once you've successfully created your account you can download and install the Desktop App. Mendeley also works equally well from the web based version which will sync with the Desktop App.
Mendeley comes with a Microsoft Word plugin which allows you to insert citations and bibliographies in to your Word document without having to cut and paste or leave Word.
To install the plugin Word both Word and Outlook must be closed first. Next open the Mendeley Desktop App. Go to Tools >> Install MS Word Plugin. Then restart Word.
* For Windows users the plugin will appear in the References tab of MS Word.
* For Mac users the plugin will appear in the Add-ins tab of MS Word.
Mendeley also provides a Web Importer tool which allows you to import citations, and sometimes the full text article, directly from your browser in to your library.
To install the plugin from the Mendeley app click Tools >> Install Web Importer.
Depending on which browser you use the importer will be in a different location but regardless of the browser it will function the same.
In Chrome and Firefox the plugin appears in the upper right corner of your browser, while for Safari and Edge users, the Mendeley plugin shows up in the bookmarks or favorites bar.
Example of Chrome Plugin
Sometimes there is a conflict with your browser's security settings and the plugin. Follow the steps below to resolve this issue:
Chrome
Click 'Customise' (three black lines on the top right of the screen), and then 'Settings'. Click 'Show Advanced Settings' at the bottom of the page, then click 'Content Settings...' under 'Privacy'. Then, under 'Cookies' click 'Manage exceptions...' and allow mendeley.com, then click 'Done'.
Mozilla Firefox
Click the Menu button at the top right and click 'Options'. Then, under the 'Privacy' tab, either set the 'History' drop down option to 'Use custom settings for history' tick 'Accept Third Party Cookies'. Add www.mendeley.com to the 'Exceptions' box. Click 'Save Changes' to save.
For more information you can have a look at Mozilla Firefox's page on enabling and disabling cookies.
