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EndNote

Software to help you manage your references and citations

CWYW

Cite While You Write: Using EndNote with Word

You can use EndNote with Word to insert formatted in-text citations in a Word document using the selected referencing style, and automatically create a bibliography at the end of the document. This is called Cite While You Write (CWYW).

If the EndNote inserted in-text citations require editing, the ‘Edit and Manage Citations’ menu on the EndNote toolbar in Word must be used. Changes that can be made include excluding an author’s name or year, and adding page numbers, prefixes or suffixes.

Only one EndNote library should be used for a piece of writing, references used in one document should not come from different EndNote libraries.

Managing citations

The Cite While You Write (CWYW) function allows in-text citations to be inserted from an EndNote library into a Microsoft Word document. EndNote enters an in-text citation and adds the reference to the bibliography (reference list) in the selected EndNote referencing style (eg APA 7th).

To access the toolbar (referred to as the CWYW toolbar), click the EndNote tab in the Word ribbon.

Two common methods to insert citations using EndNote are described below.

Finding and inserting citations from EndNote:

  1. Place the cursor where an in-text citation should be inserted in the document
  2. Click Go to EndNote in the CWYW toolbar
  3. In EndNote, highlight the reference or references you want to insert
  4. Click the Insert Citation icon in the toolbar.

Your document now shows an in-text citation and a corresponding entry in the bibliography.


Finding and inserting citations from the CWYW toolbar in Word:

  1. Open a Word document
  2. Select the EndNote tab in the Word ribbon
  3. Click the Insert Citation button on the CWYW toolbar to open the EndNote Find & Insert My References box
  4. Enter the author’s name, title or keyword into the search box to locate matching references
  5. Click Find. EndNote displays the matching references. Select the desired reference
  6. Select Insert.

Changes to in-text citations should be made using the Edit & Manage Citation(s) function in the CWYW toolbar. If you need to alter reference list entries, this should be done in your EndNote library.

  1. Select the citation you want to edit (citation will be highlighted in grey)
  2. Click on Edit & Manage Citation(s) in the CWYW toolbar
  3. In the bottom window that opens, click the drop down menu beside Formatting to choose to exclude the author or year from the in-text citation, or display the citation as Author (Year)
  4. To add page numbers (if required for your referencing style) enter the page number in the Pages field (Note: if this doesn’t work for your selected style, enter the details in the Suffix box, e.g. p. 25)
  5. To add a prefix, type the word in the Prefix box followed by a space.
  6. Once necessary changes have been made click OK.

While EndNote formatting is active, avoid manually deleting citations from the Word document. Invisible field codes may be left behind which can affect the document formatting or lead to the citation reappearing when you close and reopen the document. To safely remove citations:

  1. Select the citation you wish to remove
  2. Click Edit & Manage Citation(s) in the CWYW toolbar
  3. In the upper window that opens, select the drop down menu beside Edit Reference
  4. Select Remove Citation
  5. Click OK.

It is safer to cut and paste paragraphs, large chunks of text, and thesis chapters when you are working in unformatted mode. This prevents stray code corrupting your document. Make a copy of your formatted Word document before unformatting in case there are any hidden issues in your Word document.
To switch to unformatted mode:

  1. In the CWYW toolbar, click Convert Citations and Bibliography (Windows) or Tools (Mac)
  2. Select Convert to Unformatted Citations - This step removes the bibliography and creates place holder in-text references enclosed in curly brackets eg {Jones, 2022 #34}.

When the document is unformatted, it is safe to highlight a paragraph or sentence, and cut and paste it elsewhere in your document. References can be deleted in the unformatted mode by removing all the content inside the curly brackets.
To reformat the Word document: In the CWYW toolbar, click Update Citations and Bibliography

It is best to convert your finalised document to plain text before submission. Converting to plain text creates a second copy of the document that isn’t linked to an EndNote library. Manual changes can be made to your references in the plain text version, if required. Save a copy of your Word document (so that all EndNote code is retained) before converting to plain text.

  1. In the CWYW toolbar, click Convert Citations and Bibliography (Windows) or Tools (Mac)
  2. Select Convert to Plain Text
  3. A new unsaved document with no field codes (not linked to EndNote) is created
  4. Save with a new file name (so you can readily recognise)

It is important to keep the original document with the EndNote coding in case you need to make major changes to document later. EndNote citations cannot be reactivated from a plain text copy.