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EndNote 21 for Windows: Help & Index

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FAQs, Guide Map, Video Demos, PDF guides, Top Tips, and Further Help

FAQs

 

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Installing and Managing an EndNote Library

The security settings on a Windows PC may prevent unknown apps from being downloaded on to your computer.

To allow the download, you may need to temporarily change your settings:

  1. Search for Windows Security in the Start menu (Windows 10) or select Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Security (Windows 11).
  2. Select App & Browser Control and click on the Reputation-based protection settings link.
  3. Under Potentially unwanted app blocking untick Block downloads (Windows 10) or turn off SmartScreen and Potentially unwanted app blocking (Windows 11).
  4. Download EndNote then immediately restore the security settings.

Some students have reported receiving an error message stating, “EndNote21_setup.exe isn’t commonly downloaded.”

This is a built-in feature of Microsoft Edge, which alerts users that the download site is not a common location for application installation files. It advises users to ensure the file is from a trusted source.

To proceed, hover your mouse over the text, click on the ellipsis, and then select “Report this file as safe.”

Alternatively, use a different browser to download the installer such as Mozilla Firefox or Chrome.

error message for EN 20 download

 

EndNote 21 CWYW is compatible with MS Office 365 / MS Word 365 locally installed desktop version only. See more details at Windows compatibility and system requirements

If you accidentally delete your EndNote library (the .enl file) but still have the associated .Data folder, you may recover your deleted library from the Data folder by using Notepad:

  1. Open Notepad from your computer
  2. Save an empty file under the same name of the deleted EndNote Library (.enl) in the same location as the .Data folder.
    Note: the two files (the .enl file and the .Data folder) must be under the same name and in the same folder.
  3. Open the EndNote library and you should see the library recovered.

EndNote is not designed for compatibility with cloud service such as OneDrive, SharePoint, Dropbox, Box Sync, Google Drive or iCloud. Saving a working EndNote library in cloud servers can lead to file corruption over time. That is one of the common reasons why the library may get damaged frequently.

You may save a backup copy or a compressed copy of your EndNote Library in the cloud storage, but do not open or use the Library directly from the cloud.

If you ever need to use the backup copy of your EndNote library, download the copy of the files to your computer’s local hard drive, and then work from there.

See more at the EndNote and Cloud Services page.

  • If the author is an organization (i.e. a corporate author) type a comma after the name, e.g. enter United Nations, for United Nations; and enter NSW Health, for NSW Health.
  • If the corporate author has a comma in their name, enter two commas in the place of the comma, e.g. enter University of Newcastle,, School of Law for University of Newcastle, School of Law

See the Guidelines for Entering Records for more details

Using EndNote with Word

This is only an option for author-date styles (e.g. APA or Harvard)

In Word:

  • Click on Edit and Manage Citation(s) from the EndNote toolbar.
  • From the Formatting drop-down menu, choose Show Only in Bibliography (or Exclude Author & Year).
  • The citation will still be in the document, but it is no longer visible (you may need to remove the extra space).
  • The reference will now only appear in your bibliography.

With numbered-style referencing this will not work, as by their nature, these styles require the references in the bibliography to be numbered and would look odd with gaps in the in-text numbering.

Screenshot for showing EndNote references only in bibliography

 

This may happen due to several reasons. Please read the instructions for restoring a missing EndNote toolbar on the EndNote Support website.

If you get a "cannot edit range" or "A COM exception has occurred" error message when using EndNote in Word, it is likely due to the installation of the Mendeley plug-in in Word. You need to remove the Mendeley plug-in before using EndNote with Word. See details at the EndNote Support website.

 

If your in text citations are displaying in {curly brackets} and your reference list has disappeared, it means that the EndNote Instant Formatting function is turned off and Word has stopped formatting the EndNote codes in your document.

  1. Open the EndNote 21 tab in Microsoft Word.
  2. Make sure that the Instant formatting is on.
  3. Click on Update Citations and Bibliography.

Your in text citations should now be formatted correctly in your chosen referencing style.

 

 

EndNote is correctly conforming to the APA 7th manual to use initials in the in-text reference if there is more than one author with the same last name in your document.

However, if you still want to remove the author's initials, follow the steps below.

  1. Open your EndNote library and make sure APA 7th style is selected.
  2. From menu bar, click Tools > Output Styles > Edit APA 7th.
  3. In the APA 7th.ens window, click Ambiguous Citations under Citations.
  4. Untick the box of Include the author initials or full name in citation.
  5. Save and close the style window.

A screenshot of removing author initials in EndNote citations

 

 

You can create your bibliography categories and assign the relevant references to them. EndNote will create the bibliography with the references under each of the categories.

  1. Open your Word document and click the EndNote 21 tab
  2. Click the Categorize References dropdown menu and then select Configure Categories
  3. Click the + next to Category Headings to add your categories e.g. Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, etc.
  4. Ensure the categories are listed in the order as they will display in your bibliography
  5. Click All References in Bibliography
  6. Select the references, and drag and drop them into the relevant categories
  7. Check the Uncategorized References folder to ensure all references are assigned to a category
  8. Click the OK button

Your bibliography will be formatted under the categories

You can edit your categories such as to delete or rename a category, re-order the categories, or move references (using drag and drop) from one category to another.

 

To combine several chapters into a thesis with a single bibliography at the end:

  1. Create a copy of each chapter you wish to combine. Work with the copied chapters, leaving the originals as back-up.
  2. Open each of the copied chapters and from the EndNote tab, select Convert Citations and Bibliography - Convert to Unformatted Citations. All in-text citations will be converted to the unformatted state - for example {Smith 2009 #290}.
  3. Copy each of the chapters in turn into a new document, and add a section break between chapters.
  4. Click Update Citations and Bibliography to reformat the document.

Remember to use only one EndNote library for all of your chapters, or you will have issues when you try to combine them later.

You may get error messages when you try to use EndNote with Track Changes visible.

To turn off the visibility of the Track Changes:

  1. Click the Review tab in Word
  2. Select No Markup option from the drop-down menu right to the Track Changes

EndNote should now be working again without the error messages.

See more details at the Issues with Track Changes from the EndNote help site.

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Getting Started 

Adding References

Attaching Files

Managing the EndNote Library

EndNote & Word

Help & FAQ

Ask the library

Printer Friendly PDF User Guides for Printing and Downloading

 

EndNote Overview
EndNote Library
EndNote and Word

Further Help Information

 

  • Within EndNote – click Help to access the EndNote Training Portal and other resources

 

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Library help