Research Guides: EndNote: Use EndNote with Word

Add citations & a bibliography

Microsoft Word [Cite While You Write] for macOS: 2016 (version 15.21.1 or later), 2019, Office 365 (locally installed desktop version only).

You can use EndNote with Word to:

Automatically insert citations from your EndNote library into your document in your preferred citation style.
Automatically generate a bibliography of your citations.
Customize citations and the bibliography in your research paper to the desired style or format required by a publisher or a journal.

Take a look at the following video to get an overview:

CWYW for Macintosh: Adding Citations to a Word Document (1:10 mins from 4:41 to 5:50 mins)

Cite While You Write (CWYW) feature

The Cite While You Write (CWYW) feature that allows you to work with Word is available after you have installed EndNote. The EndNote X9 tab will appear in Word on the toolbar.

Choosing a style

Select your preferred style from the Style menu in the EndNote X9 tool bar in Word. If you change the style later EndNote will automatically update the bibliography.

Inserting in-text citations and creating a bibliography

Place the cursor in the text of the Word document where you wish to insert a citation.
Click on Insert Citation on the EndNote X9 toolbar in Word.

Find the citation you want from your library. Double click on the citation or click Insert to add it to your document.
As you insert citations, they will automatically be added to a bibliography at the end of your research paper in your chosen style.

Change the format or layout of the bibliography

To add a title, double spacing, and more to a bibliography, select the down arrow on the EndNote X9 toolbar in Word. Select Configure Bibliography.
Under Format Bibliography, are options to conveniently link your in-text citations to the citations in your bibliography, and underline links.

To make changes to a citation you have inserted into your document, use the Edit & Manage Citation(s) function on the EndNote X9 tab in Word.

Note: Do not make the changes directly to the Word document because when EndNote updates the document all changes will be lost.

Highlight the citation in your research paper you wish to edit.
Select Edit & Manage Citation(s) on the EndNote X9 tool bar in Word.
Select from the options under edit reference button to make the changes or under Edit Citation to add page numbers, and more.

To Fix errors in citations and in the bibliography of your research paper

Any errors or incomplete data in citations or in your bibliography may be because the corresponding reference in your EndNote library has errors.

Note: Do not make the changes directly to the Word document because when EndNote updates the document all changes will be lost.

Highlight the citation in your research paper you wish to edit.
Select Edit Library Reference(s) on the EndNote tool bar in Word.
A window of the reference will prompt you for making the necessary changes.
Click on the internal close button which will prompt you to save the changes.
Select Update Citations and Bibliography to update your Word document.

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Styles not preloaded with the EndNote software

EndNote has over 6,000 citation styles to choose from, including popular styles such as APA 7th, and many styles required by journals. Only the most popular styles are pre-loaded with the software. If the style you need is not available, you can go to the EndNote Output Styles webpage, search for the style and download it to EndNote.

Download a new citation style

1. In EndNote Desktop, select Edit > Output Styles > Open Style Manager.
2. Select Get More on the Web.
3. This will take you to the EndNote Output Styles webpage. Search for the style you need then click on Download.
4. Open the downloaded file to add it to EndNote. Select File > Save As. Give the style a name, then click Save.
5. Close all open windows to return to your EndNote library. Select the new style from the Style menu.

More features

To combine multiple Word documents that contain EndNote citations into one document, the references from all the documents must be from the same EndNote library.

Save a back-up copy of your documents.
Open the first Word document, select Convert to Unformatted Citations and save. This will be the "master" document.
In the next Word document, also select Convert to Unformatted Citations. Copy and paste the text into the "master" document. Do the same for other documents.
With the master document open in Word, select Update Citations and Bibliography.

A bibliography will be automatically generated with references from all documents.

Journal Abbreviations

Some referencing styles use journal abbreviations (e.g. IEEE) while other styles use the full journal name, (e.g. APA 6th). You can switch between abbreviations and full journal names by uploading the Journal Term Lists. These have full journal names and their common abbreviations. Depending on which style you use EndNote can change the reference automatically to the abbreviated or full name of the journal.

Before you upload the Journal Terms List, you must delete any existing journal terms in your Terms List folder. These have been generated by existing references in your library but might not be correct.

Delete existing terms

Go to EndNote Desktop:

Select Tools tab > Open Term Lists > Journals Term List.
Select all the titles (Hold down the command + a keys).
Click Delete Term.
Select Close.

Import a Journal Term List

Select Tools tab > Open Term Lists > Journals Term List.
Select Lists > Journals > Import List.
Select a relevant subject area, and click Choose.

Edit a style to display full journal names or abbreviations

You can edit an output style so it will automatically display the full or abbreviated journal name in a reference citation.

Go to Edit tab > Output styles > Open Style Manager.
Choose from the list of styles and click on Edit.
Select Journal Names on the left side of the dialog box.
Depending on the style, select Use full journal name or Abbreviation and save the changes.

Preview the style

To check that the abbreviation is working go to EndNote Desktop. Choose the style you have edited from the style menu. Select a record in your library and select Preview using the Layout button.

Below is a reference in IEEE style with the journal title abbreviated.

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You can keep track of the references you have cited in a Word document by referring to the auto-group feature available in your EndNote Desktop library. This is useful if you have a large number of references in a document and want to check that they are the correct ones.

Click on the Update Citations and Bibliography feature in Word to generate a list of all the references you have used in a Word document.

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The references from your Word document will be grouped together in your EndNote desktop library. You can go through the references to check that the information in each one is complete and edit if necessary. Note that this list will disappear when you close your library.

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Convert to Plain Text

Research paper finished?

When you have completed your paper and wish to send it off for review, you need to remove the Cite While You Write (CWYW) field codes in the citations and bibliography of your Word document.

To do this, in Word select Tools > Convert to Plain Text. A copy of your document without links will open in a new window.

Note: You cannot reverse this step.