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EndNote21 Desktop: 8. Cite While You Write in Word

Created by Health Science Librarians

About Cite While You Write

Why Use Cite While You Write (CWYW)?

  • CWYW allows you to use your EndNote references to insert citations in a Microsoft Word document.
  • CWYW automatically creates a bibliography from the inserted citations.
  • CWYW allows you to change the format of your citations and bibliography.

How do I get Cite While You Write (CWYW)?

  • Need to have Microsoft Word installed on your computer before you install EndNote.
  • When you install EndNote on your computer, an EndNote menu is automatically added to your Microsoft Word toolbar.

EndNote 21 menu in Microsoft Word

If your Cite While Your Write (CWYW) add-in does not appear in Word:

  • In Word, click on the File menu, then Options, then Add-ins.
  • At the bottom of the screen, where it says Manage, check that COM Add-ins is displayed then click Go.
  • Tick the check box for EndNote Cite While You Write and click OK.
  • If the EndNote toolbar does not appear, restart Word.
  • Click on the EndNote tab to view the CWYW toolbar.

If you do not see the Cite While You Write option in your Add-ins, you may need to reconfigure your EndNote installation settings.

Inserting Citations

Note that before you can insert a citation into a Word document, you must have the document and the desired EndNote library open on your computer. You can then insert the citation from the Word or EndNote interfaces.

We recommend saving your Word document locally to your computer (e.g., in the documents folder) or saving a copy locally. Saving documents to the cloud can sometimes corrupt the file. For more information on collaborating in shared documents, view Step 9 of this guide. 

To insert a citation from within Word:

  1. Click on the EndNote menu tab in the Word toolbar.
  2. Click Insert Citation and choose Insert Citation... from the drop-down menu.

    Insert Citation from EndNote 21 in Microsoft Word

  3. The EndNote Find & Insert My References dialog box will appear.  In the text box at the top of the dialog box, enter text (author's last name, year, title, keyword) to search for the reference in your library. Or if you want to search through all articles in your library, insert an asterisk (*). Click the Find button.
  4. In the results of your search, click on the reference that you want to cite to highlight it. To highlight multiple references, hold down the Ctrl key while you click on references.
  5. Once you have selected your references, click on the Insert button.  The selected references will be inserted into your Word document and displayed as defined by the current Output Style.

Insert citation in Microsoft Word

To insert a citation from within EndNote:

  1. In EndNote, highlight the references that you wish to cite.  To highlight multiple references, hold down the Ctrl key while you click on references.
  2. Once you have selected your references, click on the citation style from the drop down menu in the bottom left corner. Then click Insert to add the selected references to your Word document.

Note: Save your Word document after inserting citations.

Insert a citation from the EndNote desktop app

 

Editing Formatted Citations

To modify, add or delete formatted citations:

  1. In your Microsoft Word document, click on the citation that you wish to edit, becoming grey. 
  2. Click on the EndNote menu tab in the Word toolbar.
  3. Click on Edit & Manage Citation(s).  The EndNote Edit & Manage Citations dialog box will appear.

Edit & Manage Citation(s) in Microsoft Word with EndNote 21

Modify Citations

  1. In the EndNote Edit & Manage Citations dialog box, click on the citation you wish to edit.
  2. From the dropdown menu next to Formatting, choose how you want the in-text citation to appear.  For example, you can choose to Exclude Author or Exclude Year from the citation.
  3. Add a prefix or suffix by typing text in the Prefix or Suffix boxes.  The text will appear before (prefix) or after (suffix) the citation.
  4. Add page numbers to the citation by entering numbers into the Pages box.  Page numbers will only appear for Output Styles that contain a cited pages code, for example, MLA and Chicago.
  5. Click OK to close the dialog box.

*Note: If any of the reference information is incorrect or missing, you can edit the reference information in the EndNote desktop app. 

Edit citation formatting with EndNote 21 in Microsoft Word

Add Additional Citations

  1. In the EndNote Edit & Manage Citations dialog box, click on the citation you wish to edit.
  2. From the Edit Reference drop-down menu, select Insert Citation.  The EndNote Find & Insert My References dialog box will appear.
  3. See instructions above (Inserting Citations) for how to find and insert a reference from within a Word document.  The new references will be added to the current citation.
  4. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Delete Citations

  1. In the EndNote Edit & Manage Citations dialog box, click on the citation you wish to edit.
  2. From the Edit Reference drop-down menu, select Remove Citation.
  3. Note: Do NOT use the Delete or Backspace key to remove a citation from your Word document.  EndNote codes associated with the citation may not be erased and your document could become corrupted.
  4. When you have made all the desired changes, click the OK button to close the dialog box.

Edit a reference with EndNote21 in Microsoft Word

Changing Output Style

What is an Output Style?

  • Templates that control appearance of in-text citations, footnotes and bibliographies.
  • Styles defined by journal, such as Nature, or publisher, such as American Psychological Association (APA).

How to Change Output Style in Word Document

  1. Click on the EndNote menu tab in Word toolbar.
  2. Click on the Styles menu.  Select the desired style.  Your citations, footnotes and bibliography will now appear in this style.  

Change output style in Microsoft Word

 

Removing Field Codes

What are field codes?

Cite While You Write places field codes around and inside your formatted citations in Word, which allows EndNote to format citations continuously as you write. Removing field codes means deleting the field codes and saving the formatted citations and bibliography as text.

Why would I want to remove field codes?

Journal publishers may request that you remove field codes when submitting a manuscript. You may also want to remove field codes when sharing your Word document with a colleague who is using a different word processor or an incompatible version of Word.

To remove field codes:

  1. Open a copy of your formatted Word document.
  2. Click on the EndNote menu tab in the Word toolbar.
  3. Click on Convert Citations and Bibliography and choose Convert to Plain Text from the drop-down menu.
  4. A dialog box will appear informing you that the Convert to Plain Text command will create a new copy of your document with no field codes.  Click OK.  The new document will appear in a new unsaved document window.
  5. Save the new document.

Note: Once you have removed field codes, you cannot reformat your citations and bibliography.  Make sure you maintain your original documents with EndNote field codes.

Convert Citations and Bibliography to plain text

Tip for Annotated Bibliographies

If you have to create an annotated bibliography, it's a good idea to remove field codes and then paste your annotations in the bibliography. Otherwise, EndNote will think your notes are "errors" and will delete them when Instant Formatting is on, or when you click "Update Citations and Bibliography."

Moving Text with Citations

Move text within a document

If you want to move text around within the same document, you can cut and past as you would ordinarily do.

Move text to another document

To move text from one document to another, do the following:

  1. select the text you want to move. Then open the EndNote menu and select Convert Citations and Bibliography>>Convert to Unformatted Citations (see above).
    Convert to Unformatted Citations
  2. Cut or copy your text and paste it into the new document.
  3. Open the EndNote menu in your new document, and click Update Citations and Bibliography  (see below). (If you are using EndNote Desktop, you might have to open your library file for this to work. If you are using EndNote Online, Word may prompt you to sign in).
    Update citations and bibliography in Microsoft Word
  4. Your citations will be formatted in your new document, and EndNote will create a bibliography at the end of the document.

 

Create a Bibliography

Sometimes you may want to create a document that contains just a bibliography, with no in-text citations. Here is one way to do it.

Creating a Bibliography without In-Text Citations

  1. In the EndNote21 Desktop App select the Output Style in which you wish your bibliography to appear from the dropdown menu at the bottom right corner. The Output Style that you select determines how your references are sorted and formatted in the bibliography. 
  2. Select the references that you wish to include in your bibliography. 
  3. Click copy OR select References > Copy Formatted Reference from the menu bar OR right-click on the selected references and choose Copy Formatted from the menu that appears.
  4. Open a Microsoft Word document.  Place your cursor where you want your bibliography to appear. 
  5. Click on the Paste button in the Word toolbar or select Ctrl + V on your keyboard.  Your bibliography will appear in the Word document.

 

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