Documentation
The main source of documentation is JabRef's built-in help pages, accessible from the Help menu.
There is an online copy of these help documents (English version, French version, German version). Note that the online copy may not always be in sync with the latest JabRef version.
For German readers, a more comprehensive user manual (PDF) written by Dominik Waßenhoven is also available. We hope to offer the user manual in other languages in the future.
Installation
Installing Java
Go to the Sun Java download page, download the "jre" version for your operating system and install it.
Web Start
If you have Java installed you can run the latest version of JabRef directly through Java Web Start by clicking the link below. Make sure your browser uses the "javaws" program when opening .jnlp files. For security, Web Start will ask your permission before it gives the application access to your local computer. You can only run JabRef in this way if you are willing to grant this permission.
Run JabRef with Java Web Start
Linux
You must have Java 1.5 or newer installed. Most current Linux
distributions offer both Java 1.5 and 1.6 from their
repositories. For instance, in Ubuntu 7.10, if you have enabled
the non-free repository, you can install Java by
typing the command
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre
and entering your password, or by installing the package
sun-java6-jre in Synaptic.
Your Linux distro might offer JabRef through its repositories - e.g. Ubuntu
offers JabRef in its Multiverse repositories, and Debian offers
JabRef in its unstable
version. After installing the application through the package
manager, you can typically run it from the standard application
menu (for instance, Ubuntu places it in the Office
category).
If this is not the case for your distro, you need to download the file
JabRef-X.X.jar (where X.X is the JabRef
version you want) from our download page. To run it, open a terminal and type:
java -jar $DIR/JabRef-X.X.jar
where $DIR is the directory where you placed the jar file,
and JabRef-X.X.jar is the name of the jar file.
Windows
Installer
The simplest way of installing JabRef on Windows is by downloading the.exe installer. Simply run the installer, and it will install
JabRef and add it to the start menu.
Running the jar file
It is also possible to run JabRef using the.jar files
available from our download page. Normally you can run it by simply double-clicking
the .jar file. Alternatively you can open a CMD shell and run it in the same
way as running a .jar file under Linux.
Mac
Mac users should download the OSX zip file available from our download page. This zip file unzips into an application directory which is run similarly to other applications. Recent versions of Mac OS X should come with Java 1.5 or 1.6 preinstalled.