Configure Categories Dialog in Microsoft Word

This feature allows you to add categories to your Microsoft Word documents. When EndNote creates the bibliography in Word, it organizes your citations based on the categories set.

There are two ways to create category configurations: Use a style with categories configured in it or configure custom categories manually. If using a style with categories configured already, you can still customize that configuration in Word.

Using Styles with Defined Categories

Styles can include category definitions based on reference type. When using such a style, all references of a reference type defined in the Categories section of the style will automatically be sorted in Word. One example of such a style is APA 6th CV, which has the following preset categories.

Publications
Book

Journal Article

 

Manuscripts under review

Unpublished Work

 

Manuscripts in Progress

Manuscript

 

Conference Presentations

Conference Proceedings

 

Posters

Conference Paper

Using or creating a style with categories defined makes it very easy to organize categories based on reference type, as long as all the reference types you are using are included in the style. See Reference Type Categories Output Style for information on creating or editing styles with defined categories.

Group References by Custom Categories in Word Manually

If you don't want to use a style with defined categories, or want to use categories that are not based on reference type, you can create your bibliography categories manually when you first begin writing a paper or at any time during a writing project.

  1. Open your Microsoft Word document.
  2. On the EndNote 2025 tab, select Categorize References > Configure Categories to open the Configure Categories dialog.
  3. Create your categories by clicking the Category Headings (+) button, entering the name of your new category, then pressing Enter. Repeat until you have created the categories you need for your paper.
  4. Using the drag-and-drop method, drag a specific reference to the appropriate category under the Category Headings section. A reference can only appear in one category.
  5. Continue this process until all references are assigned a category.
  6. Check the "Not Yet Assigned to a Category" section to ensure that all references have been assigned to a category.

You can modify your categories at any time. For example, you can rename a category, delete a category, move a category, or move references (using drag-and-drop) from one category to another.

The left panel contains two groups: References and Category Headings. See details below.

The upper-right panel shows the list of references within the group or category selected at the left. The lower-right panel shows the details for the reference selected above.

References

This section displays the references in your paper, and which of those references have not yet been categorized. Select a reference to see details for that reference at the right.

  • All References in Bibliography: Select this group to see all the references in the bibliography in the right-side of the window. The following fields appear at the top of the right panel for each reference.
    • Author
    • Year
    • Title (of publication)
    • Reference Type
    • Category (name of the category that you defined under the Category Headings section)

The lower part of the panel displays detailed information about the reference. For example, Reference Type, Author, Year, Title, and more.

  • Uncategorized References: This displays each citation that has not been assigned to a category. Select a reference to see the details for that reference in the right panel. Use the drag-and-drop method to assign an unassigned citation to a category.

Category Headings

This section displays all the categories that you have defined for the paper. The default categories for a new document containing categories, when your are not using a style, are Primary Sources and Secondary Sources. Create categories by clicking the Category Headings (+) button in the upper left corner of the dialog. This will display a blank text field. Enter a unique name to identify each category. For example:

Category Headings
References
Suggested Reading

To rename categories, select the category, then right-click and select Rename from the list. Type the new name for the category, then press Enter.

Delete categories by clicking the minus sign (-) to the left of the category. Deleting a category does not delete any references from your paper. Any references assigned to that category will be added to the Uncategorized References list.

Note: For the "Suggested Reading" category above, the references should appear in the bibliography but not in the text of the document. See the Show Only in Bibliography section of Editing Citations in Word for information on how to hide references in the text but have them appear in the bibliography.

Displaying the Categories in the Bibliography

To display the references in your paper in the categories you have created, on the EndNote 2025 tab select Categorize References > Group References by Custom Categories. This is a toggle, so select the option to Group References by Custom Categories again if you ever want to disable the categories display.

Important Points About Categories
  • Use styles with categories defined for automatically assigning references to categories based on reference type.
  • Organize categories based on how you want the categories to appear in the bibliography in Word.
  • Enter a unique name to identify each category that you want to create in the current document.
  • Use drag-and-drop to add references to the appropriate bibliography categories.
  • Go to the "Uncategorized References" list to see if any references have not been assigned to a category.
  • If you delete a reference from a particular category, the reference is only removed from the category. The citation remains in your document and the reference goes back to the Uncategorized References section.
  • EndNote maintains all references in the All References in Bibliography list. A reference added to any defined category will still appear in the All References list.