From the search box on the right end of EndNote's tool bar, type your keyword(s), which can be author or keywords and press enter. Any results will appear in the References Pane.
In EndNote X6 the full Search Panel appears at the TOP of the EndNote Window. Use this to do a more controlled search of your references. Using the Search Panel Control "Hide Search Panel-Show Search Panel" you can control when the Search Panel is visible.
Another way to retrieve references is to search from within EndNote using the built-in Connection files. However, not all Connection files will work and most of the Connection files will not function off campus. The exceptions are Library Catalogs and PubMed (the public version).
The most effective use of Connection Files for searching external resources is when you are searching for a known item such as a particular book title, author, or article title.
The Reference Librarians at Pius and MCL Libraries strongly recommend that databases be searched using their native interfaces, and references be either directly imported into EndNote from the database or ejournal or exported from the database as a text file and imported into EndNote.