EndNote 101

What is Cite While You Write?

Cite While You Write (also known as CWYW) is a key feature of EndNote. It allows you to access EndNote from within Microsoft Word to insert citations into your Word documents.  You can insert citations anytime during your writing process. 

You can also use Cite While You Write to insert images (figures) from an EndNote library into your Word documents.

CWYW automatically builds a bibliography from the citations you insert. You can also create a list of figures.

What is a Citation?

A citation is a reference that appears in the text of your document. Typically it includes either the year of publication or a reference number. For example, the following is citation formatted in APA format:

(McInerney, 2002)

The same citation in numbered style looks like this:

[1]

A bibliography entry for this citation (in APA format) looks like:

McInerney, C. (2002). Knowledge management and the dynamic nature of knowledge. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(12), 1009-1018.

With CWYW, you can easily change the formatting (using "output styles") for the citations and bibliographies.  This is a great feature if you want to submit articles to several publishers with different formatting requirements.

Requirements for using Cite While You Write

To use CWYW, you need to have Microsoft Word 2000, XP, 2003, or 2007 installed on your computer. You also need to have EndNote. If you are using a Mac, CWYW is compatible with Microsoft Word for Mac 2004 and 2008.  

It is important to install EndNote after you install Microsoft Word.  When you install EndNote, an EndNote menu is added to the top toolbar (or in versions older than Word 2007, an Endnote submenu is added to the Tools menu). This menu doesn't appear if you install Word after EndNote.

Note: For troubleshooting problems with CWYW, see the FAQ at: http://endnote.com/support/faqs/endnote.

Inserting Citations

You can insert citations as you write your document ("cite while you write"), or if you prefer you can wait and enter the citations after you finish writing.

To insert citations:

1. Open the EndNote library you want to use. Then open your Word document. You can also set EndNote to start when you open Word. (This option can be set in CWYW preferences, by clicking on in the Tools submenu.)
2. In your Word document, position the cursor where you want to insert the first citation.
3. Do one of the following:
   • Highlight or select the citation you wish to use in your Endnote library. In the EndNote toolbar in Word, click on Insert Citation and then Insert Selected Citation(s); or
   • In the EndNote toolbar , click on Find Citation. The EndNote Find Citations dialog box appears.

   In the dialog box, enter text (such as the author or title) in the Find text box to identify your reference. 

   EndNote searches all fields in its library records to find matches.

4. Click on the reference you want to cite to highlight it. Then click Insert.