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EndNote: Writing Papers in Microsoft Word

Writing papers in Word -- And some tips worth checking out

Insert citations in a Word 2021 document using the Cite While You Write plugin.

    1. Open a Word 2021 document and click on the EndNote21 tab at the top of the page.
    2. Place the cursor where you want to insert a citation(s).
    3. Go to your EndNote library and highlight the citation(s) you wish to insert (use CNTL for multiple citations).
    4. Return to Word 2021. Under the icon called Insert Citation (on the far left of the EndNote ribbon, page top) click on the little arrow and choose Insert Selected Citation(s).
    5. It may take a little while for EndNote and Word to “talk”, but once they do, the citation(s) will appear in Word. After the two programs are “talking”, inserting citations is much faster.
    6. Don't worry if the citation style in the Word document is not what you want because that can be easily changed (see Output styles – How to edit).

Another way to insert citations in a Word 2021 document

    1. Open a Word 2010 document and an EndNote library.
    2. Place the cursor where you want to insert citations.
    3. Click on the EndNote21 tab at the top of the page.
    4. Under the icon called Insert Citation (on the far left) click on the little arrow and choose Find Citation ...
    5. Enter one, or more, keywords to search the EndNote library (e.g., year, author, article title word, etc.).
    6. Highlight the citation(s) that you want to insert. Click Insert.

Tips for getting references to look right in Word

How to handle superscripts, subscripts, italics and more in EndNote references

  • Edit the EndNote record (not the Word document) with the desired superscripts, subscripts, italics, bold, and underlining.
  • Remember that capitalization within article titles is handled by Change Case (see page 6 above).

Special characters, accents, and diacritical marks – An easy and a less easy way

  • Easy way => This works for most Greek symbols. In the article title field in the EndNote record click on the sigma (Σ) button and type “a”, “b” to introduce Greek symbols (e.g., α, β) in the article title. Use the Shift key for some capital Greek letters (e.g., Σ, Δ, Φ).
  • Less easy way => This works for everything. Copy the desired Special Character from the Windows Character Map (Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Character Map) and paste it into the article title field in the EndNote record. You may need to change the font—for scientific symbols, use the Symbols font.        

Why doesn’t the formatting in my EndNote references match the rest of the Word document?

Word --> EndNote ribbon --> Bibliography --> Click on the little arrow (bottom right)

  • The Format Bibliography tab changes the Output Style.
  • The Layout tab controls font size, font style, font format, line spacing and line indentations.                    

How to handle superscripts, subscripts, and italics in EndNote references

  • Edit the EndNote record with the desired superscripts, subscripts, and italics. Remember that capitalization in article titles can be handled by Change Case (see page 6 above).
  • For example, Th4+, UO22+, and italicized ortho are handled in the EndNote record title field.  

Formatting references in Word

EndNote can format a paper in over 5,000 citation styles. Simply choose the desired style format or specific journal (e.g., MLA, APA, Int. J. Cancer, etc.). EndNote calls these "output styles". The same Word document can be quickly and easily formatted in different output styles.

  1. Open the EndNote library used to write the Word document.
  2. Open the Word document.
  3. Click on the EndNote ribbon click on the downward arrow next to Styles (middle of the ribbon).
  4. Click on the style you want. This instantly reformats the paper int the new style.
  5. If the style you want is not listed, choose Select another style and find the style you want to use. As soon as you click on the new style, the paper will be reformatted in the new style. If the style you need is not lised in Select another style, go to Downloads at http://www.endnote.com to download the latest Styles. If the style you need is stillnot there, the best thing to do is to find a style that is close to what you need and then to edit that style to meet the style required by the journal (see Output Styles -- How to edit).

Editing references

In the EndNote record 

Although Word allows one to make changes in the citations within the "gray text" of the cited references section, do not do this! If you ever reformat the "changed" Word document, any changes made within "gray text" will be undone when Word looks back at the EndNote library for details about the citation. Instead, make the changes to the citation in the citation record in the EndNote library.

For author-date styles, edit in the citation in Word

If you are using an Output Style that uses parenthetical author / year in the text of the Word document (Smith, 2000), you can edit a specific citation to make changes such as adding page numbers or suppressing the author or year. Place your cursor on the reference in the text. On the EndNote ribbon, click on Edit & Manage Citation(s) and edit the citation as is needed. This will only change how that particular citation looks -- no other citations are affected. If a page number(s) needs to be included, try the Pages box. If that does not work, then use the Add suffix box to insert page numbers.