EndNote for Microsoft: FAQs & Handy Hints

EndNote is Not Appearing in Word

Microsoft
Save and exist all Word documents Open EndNote Click on the EndNote 20/ EndNote 21 drop-down menu at the top of the screen Click on Customizer
Tick the box in front of Cite While You Write for Microsoft  Click Next Open Word and the EndNote Menu should be in the top ribbon

Citations are not Displaying Correctly

When EndNote displays references in your Word document as curly brackets- {Author, year #no.}- and the reference list is missing, the formatting between EndNote and your Word document is likely disrupted. To resolve this:

1. Update Citations and Bibliography

- In Word, click on EndNote from the top menu ribbon

- Click on the Update Citations and Bibliography button. This should fix the issue.

If the error is not fixed:

2. Check for changes inside the curly brackets

If you haven't modified anything within the curly brackets, Word and EndNote should automatically reconcile

- Some of the brackets will remain if any text within a bracket has been changed

- EndNote will prompt you to search for the correct citation to replace the changed citation

- If necessary, delete the modified citation and insert the correct one

3. If curly brackets and code appear where your reference list should be

This error might relate to field codes.

Press Alt + F9

If this does not fix the error:

- In Word, click on EndNote from the top menu ribbon

- Adjust the Instant Formatting settings:

   * If Instant Formatting is Off, turn it On

  * If Instant Formatting is On, try turning it Off and back On

- After making these changes, click Update Citations and Bibliography

If this does not fix the error:

In Word click on File> More... > Options
On the left-hand side of the popup screen, click on Advanced   Scroll down to the Show document content heading   Untick the Show field codes instead of their values box
Click Ok

Journal Titles Won't Capitalise

EndNote stores journal titles in a "Term List'. If the capitalisation within this list is incorrect, EndNote will not correct this error, even if you edit it in the 'Edit screen'. It is easy to fix this error.

In EndNote, click on Library from the top menu ribbon From the drop-down menu, click on Open Term List> Journals Term List
In the popup screen, scroll until you find the journal title you need to edit. highlight the title. click on the edit button
Correct the journal title capitalisation and any other errors in the next popup screen. click Ok
Check that the title is now correct. click Close
Back in Word, click Update Citations and Bibliography

Errors with author names can also be fixed using these steps

How to Enter Complex Author Names

For multi-word surnames- Jan Dirk van Elsas

Instead of entering the first name then surname- enter the surname, first name   For example- Dirk van Elsas, Jan

For authors with titles- Alfred Smith Jr.

Enter into EndNote as: Surname, Initials, Title                                                                                                                                                     For example- Smith, Alfred, Jr

If EndNote doesn't change the author formatting. Close EndNote and open it again. If the author formatting is still not changing, please see the tab Journal Titles Won't Capitalise and instead of opening the Journal Term List, edit the Author Term List.

EndNote is trying to open EndNote Online

When trying to insert a citation into Word from EndNote, a dialogue box may appear asking you to log in to your EndNote online account (as a student, you don't automatically gain access to EndNote Online). 

This box is displaying because the tools for EndNote desktop are not displaying correctly in Word.

To fix this problem, follow these steps:

In Word, go to the EndNote tab Select Preferences In the popup box, go to the Applications tab Select EndNote and click OK

EndNote application version error

When selecting 'Insert Citation' from Word,  Endnote may display "This version of the EndNote application is not compatible with cite while you write" error message.

This indicates that Endnote/Word is not enabled in the automation settings. 

Follow the steps below to change the Automation setting:

1. Quit Word and EndNote. (Ensure to quit the app completely)

2. Click on the Apple icon > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy tab.

3. Choose 'Automation' and make sure that both the options of ‘EndNote 20’ or 'EndNote 21' (depending on which version you are using) beneath ‘Microsoft Word’ and ‘Microsoft Word’ beneath ‘EndNote 20’ or 21 are checked

This ensures that EndNote 20 or 21 can talk to Word and vice versa.

.ris Files not Downloading to EndNote

You may have a problem when importing .ris files into EndNote, especially if the platform you are downloading the .ris files from does not specifically say it downloads to EndNote. Instead of opening in EndNote, the file will save to the computer. To resolve this, you need to make sure that .ris files are associated with EndNote.

1. Click on the Windows Key or the Control Panel

2. Search for 'Choose defaults by file type'

3. Scroll down or search for the .RIS headings (.ris and .RIS-RMB)

4. Click on the '+ Choose a default' button and choose search for and click on EndNote. Click on OK

Your computer will automatically change to the correct EndNote format.

Handy Hints

• When deleting citations/ footnotes and/or References/ bibliography entries, always delete them from the Edit & Manage Citation(s)> Edit Reference drop-down menu> Remove Citation

• Every EndNote library is made up of two parts: the .enl file and the .data folder. Always keep them together.

• Keep EndNote libraries on your computer's local hard drive. Storing and editing libraries on a network drive can lead to corruption and performance issues.

• Uninstall your previous version of EndNote before installing a new version.
• Back up your EndNote libraries frequently. The File> Compressed Library command will let you create backups for most libraries in minutes. Adding the date to the default compressed library name will let you easily find older backups that can be deleted.

• Never put EndNote libraries in any syncing drive or folder; they cause corruption over time. This includes cloud-syncing folders such as OneDrive, OneDrive Business, Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, SugarSync, Box, etc., as well as local network syncing programs such as GoodSync. EndNote libraries contain multiple files, and data is saved to those files in a strict sequence. NonEndNote syncing programs can send data out of sequence, eventually leading to data corruption. Files may appear fine for months, but corruption is building up and will eventually cause problems. We suggest using EndNote Sync if you want your references available on multiple computers.