Basic Instructions for Using Format Paper

This topic describes how to create formatted citations and bibliographies for your papers without using Cite While You Write for Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer.

The basic steps are covered here. More details about how to switch between programs and various tips for citing references are described in the sections following these basic instructions.

Citing references is a straightforward process of copying temporary citations from EndNote and pasting them into your word-processing document. While writing a paper in your word processor, you can have EndNote running in the background so that it’s easy to switch between the two programs when you need to cite a source. Although you can enter the EndNote temporary citations into a paper at any time, most writers find it convenient to enter the citations as they are writing the paper instead of waiting to insert them after the text is written.

Note: The Format Paper command works on Rich Text Format (RTF) documents or OpenOffice Writer (ODT) documents. See Word Processor Compatibility for Format Paper. You create your paper and insert citations with your word processor. You can scan OpenOffice Writer documents directly. When you are ready to scan and format citations for other document types, you must first save a copy of your paper as RTF, and then scan that copy of the paper.

Cite While You Write is available for OpenOffice Writer 3.x or 4.x documents. See Overview of the Cite While You Write Process in OpenOffice Writer

To practice using the Format Paper feature, you can follow this procedure using one of the example documents found in the EndNote C:\Users\Public\Documents\EndNote\Examples folder. We recommend experimenting with the Sample_RichText.RTF or Sample_OpenDocType.ODT file.

Citing References in a Paper

To cite a reference in a paper:

Start your word processor and open the paper you are writing. As an example, you can locate and open Sample_RichText.RTF found in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\EndNote\Examples folder. If you use OpenOffice Writer, you can use Sample_OpenDocType.ODT as an example.
When you are ready to cite a source, position the cursor in the text where you would like to put the citation.

…a commonly documented phenomena |.
Start EndNote and open your library, or libraries, (if not already open). See Opening a Library if you need help with this step.
Select the reference(s) in your EndNote library that you want to cite. Press the Ctrl key while clicking on the references to select multiple references; press the Shift key to select a range of references.
Select Copy (Ctrl+C) from the Edit menu, then return to your word processor and Paste (Ctrl+V) the temporary citation into the text of your document, or drag-and-drop the selected citations from EndNote into your paper. The pasted citation appears in EndNote’s temporary format: first author’s last name, year of publication, and record number, all enclosed in curly braces:

{Wiegrebe, 2008 #60}

If multiple references were selected, their citations appear together within one set of delimiters in the order in which they are listed in the Library window.

{Wiegrebe, 2008 #60;Gorresen, 2018 #2469}

This citation is not the final citation, but rather a temporary citation that will be formatted later. The number in the temporary citation is not a bibliography number but a unique record number. When you format this paper, EndNote builds a bibliography based on the temporary citations that it finds in the paper, and reformats them according to the selected style.

Continue following steps 2-5 to insert citations as you write your paper.

Formatting the Citations and Bibliography

To save your document:

When you have finished adding citations, save the changes to your document.
If the file you created is not an OpenOffice Writer document or an RTF document, save a copy of the file as RTF. From the File menu, select Save As. In the file dialog, set the type of file as RTF. RTF retains most styles and formatting.
Close your document. You can leave your word processor running.

To generate the bibliography:

Return to EndNote.
Select Format Paper from the Tools menu, then Format Paper… (If you have previously formatted a paper and want to reformat it, you can also select it from the list of previously formatted papers.)
Navigate to the RTF or ODT file you created, and select it.
Click the Open button.

EndNote opens the Citations dialog and begins scanning the open library, or libraries, for matches to the temporary citations in the document. When scanning is complete, The Citations dialog lists the citations found in the paper together with the number of matching references in the open libraries. See The Citations Dialog for Format Paper.

The citations in the Citations dialog appear in the order they are cited in the paper. If a reference is cited more than once in a paper, it is listed more than once in this dialog; however the reference will appear only once in the bibliography.

Every citation listed in the Citations dialog should have a "1" next to it in the Matches column, meaning that EndNote found exactly one reference in the open library, or libraries, to match the citation in the paper. When all of the citations in the window have a "1" next to them, you are ready to go on to the next step of formatting a paper. If a "0" or a number greater than one appears in the Matches column, you may need to resolve mismatched citations.
Check the Citations dialog to make sure that EndNote was able to find matching references for all of the citations.
Select a style from the Output Style menu on the Citations dialog. Enter a starting bibliography number if you wish.

The individual styles listed are the styles that are currently selected as your "favorites" in the Style Manager. If you need to choose a style that is not in the list, choose Select Another Style… (If you chose Select Another Style…, select a style from the list and click the Choose button). If you do not see the style you want in the full list of installed styles, see Installing Additional Output Styles.
In the Citations dialog, click Format to have EndNote create a copy of your paper complete with formatted citations and a bibliography.
You are then prompted to name and save the formatted copy of the paper.

By default, EndNote adds the name of the output style to your existing filename to create the new file name. You can change the name of the formatted document by typing a new name in the text box. You can also change the location where EndNote saves the file. By default EndNote saves the formatted file in the same location as the unformatted file.

Caution: Never save the formatted paper with the same name as the original unformatted document. The unformatted document is needed if you ever want to format the paper again.

While EndNote is formatting, the cursor changes to a wait cursor. When the formatting has finished, the cursor returns to an arrow and the Citations dialog remains open. Now that EndNote has generated a formatted copy of the paper, you can open that paper in your word processor.

Switch to your word processor.
Select Open from the word processor’s File menu, and then select and open the formatted version of the paper. Remember that you want to open the file that has the name of the style appended to the file name (or the new name you assigned, if you changed the name).

In the formatted paper, EndNote has replaced the temporary citations with formatted citations and inserted a bibliography.

Making Changes to the Paper

If you need to make changes to the paper (such as to change a citation or add more text), you should edit the original unformatted document, and then format it again. EndNote will generate a new formatted copy of the paper. See Reformatting a Paper.