Unformatting Citations in Microsoft Word
Unformatting reverts formatted citations to temporary citations, removes the bibliography, and turns off instant formatting.
Note: Unlike formatted citations, unformatted citations require that you have the original corresponding EndNote library open in order to format the paper again. Unformatting removes The Traveling Library. (A synced copy of the library will probably not work for reformatting the citations because the record numbers will be different. You should use the original copy of the library.)
To unformat citations:
- Determine which citations you want to unformat:
- To unformat a particular citation, highlight only that citation.
- If the citation you want to unformat is part of a multiple citation, highlight the multiple citation. All citations within the delimiters will be unformatted.
- To unformat a section of the document, highlight that section.
- To unformat the entire document, either select nothing or highlight the entire document.
- On the EndNote 2025 tab, select Convert Citations and Bibliography, and then select Convert to Unformatted Citations. If you are unformatting the entire document, this unformats all of the in-text citations and removes the current bibliography.
You can tell when a paper is unformatted because the citations appear in the temporary citation format (such as {Smith, 1999 #25}).
Unformatted citations are temporary placeholders that do not reflect final output. You can format the paper again at any time. To save the formatted paper as text with formatted citations, see Removing Field Codes.
Note: When you unformat citations, Instant Formatting in Microsoft Word is disabled. To format your paper, select Update Citations and Bibliography on the EndNote 2025 tab.