EndNote: Output Styles

If your output style is not doing what you need it to do, then it is worth taking a little time to figure out how to edit it. Editing a style is not difficult and it helps EndNote do what it should be doing:  correctly fomatting references in the style you need. The ability to edit a style is one of EndNote’s major advantages over other reference managers.

1. 1. Open an EndNote library. Under Edit select Output Styles.
   2. Choose the second option from the top which is Edit "The name of your Output Style".If the style is not listed, then select that style using New style, close the Output Style box and repeat step 2.
   3. In the left hand column there are many ways to edit an Output Style. Some of the most common changes can be made in the following places (listed in order of appearance in the left hand column).

Page numbers => 123 or 123-5 or 123-25 or 123-125

Journal names => Full journal title or journal abbreviations with and without periods

Citation -- Template => How the citation appears in the text of the Word document.

Citation -- Author name => Form of author in the text of the Word document.

Bibliography -- Template => Controls how citations appear in the bibliography. This is probably the most important section. 

Bibliography -- Author name => Determines the form of author in the bibliography (or references).

Bibliography -- Title Capitalization => The default is “Leave titles as entered”. But it makes more sense to choose what your style uses:  “Headline style capitalization” or “Sentence style capitalization”. If you select one of these, then use the Change Case option in Preferences to handle words that must be capitalized in particular ways (e.g., geographical names, gene names, acronyms, and irregularly capitalized words such as EndNote). See the Change Case section.

Output styles -- Finding and downloading
Output styles -- How to Edit

The right output style can make writing papers much easier.

Don't be intimidated about editing an output style.

Edit an output style to make it do what you need!

While in EndNote21 desktop, click on Tools to determine the output styles.

EndNote X9, X8, X7, X6, and X5 load the “top 500” styles. EndNote X4, X3, and X2 load only the “top 100” styles. Since there are over 5,000 styles, the one you need may not be loaded. EndNote does this so that it works faster with Word. The downside is that unless you are using a popular style like APA, MLA, or Chicago, you may need to go to http://www.endnote.com to download the style required by the journal in which you plan to publish. At the EndNote website, choose Styles from the pull-down menu for Download and locate the style you need. Save the style to your computer at c:\program files\EndNote\styles.

Still can’t find the output style you need?

If EndNote has not created a style for the journal that you need ...

Look for a style that is close to what you need. The Style Finder can help.

Edit the style to more closely match the requirements of the journal to which you are submitting (see Output styles – How to edit).