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EndNote 21 for Mac: Help & Index

Using EndNote to manage your references and create in-text citations and reference list on a Mac computer

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FAQs, Site Index, Top Tips, and Further Help

FAQs

 

Tip: Press the Command + F on a Mac keyboard to find the keyword on screen quickly.

Installing and Managing an EndNote Library

The security settings on most macOS may prevent you from opening your EndNote download. The default settings for these computers do not allow any files to be opened unless they have been downloaded from the App Store.

To override your security settings and open EndNote anyway, follow these 3 steps:

  1. Use Finder to locate the EndNote installer downloaded.
  2. Control-click (or right click) the EndNote icon, then choose Open from the shortcut menu.
  3. Click Open.

You can also grant an exception for EndNote to open by clicking the Open Anyway button in Privacy & Security settings. This button is available for about an hour after you try to open the app.

  1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Privacy & Security in the sidebar.
  2. Go to Security, then choose Allow apps downloaded from: App Store and identified developers.
  3. Click the Open Anyway button.

EndNote should now be opening without the error message.

Watch our video on Installing EndNote on Mac Laptops for details

Some students reported the following error message when trying to install EndNote on their Mac: “Word can’t load an add-in. Your add-in isn't compatible with this version of word." The workaround for this is to set Word to open with Rosetta.

  1. Quit EndNote and Word.
  2. Open Finder and go to the Applications folder.
  3. Highlight the Microsoft Word app file by clicking on it once. Note: You do not need to launch Word, just highlight it.
  4. Go to the File menu at the top of your screen and choose Get Info.
  5. Under General, check the option for Open using Rosetta.

EndNote 21 CWYW is compatible with MS Office 365 / MS Word 365 locally installed desktop version only. See more details at Macintosh 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

Syncing issues can arise from a variety of factors, but a good initial troubleshooting step is to perform a configuration reset.

To reset your syncing configuration:

  1. Launch EndNote.
  2. Navigate to the "EndNote 21 menu > Preference/Settings > Sync".
  3. Click on "EndNote Defaults" on the bottom left and then hit "Save".
  4. Close and quit EndNote program completely.
  5. Reopen EndNote and try syncing again.

See more at the Syncing your library page.

Using EndNote with Word

On some Macs, attempting to use the EndNote Cite While You Write tools may result in returning to the EndNote library, or an Error message. The reason is that some macOS includes new Security & Privacy functions which can prevent EndNote from being able to correctly automate.

To correctly set these options:

  1. Click the Apple icon
  2. Click System Preferences
  3. Click Security & Privacy
  4. Click the Privacy tab (along the top)
  5. Click the Automation options, along the left
  6. Here, make sure both "Microsoft Word" and "EndNote 21" are turned on.

With this automation turned off, the Cite While You Write functions will not work.

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.
FAQs

 

 

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 Categorize References and then 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 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.

Tip: Press Command + F on a Mac keyboard to find the keyword on screen quickly.

Getting Started 

Adding References

Attaching Files

Managing the EndNote Library

EndNote & Word

Help & Index

Ask the library

Video Demos (Across Platforms of Windows and Mac)

Print-friendly PDF User Guides for Printing and Downloading

 

EndNote Overview
EndNote Library
EndNote and Word

Help and Further Information

 

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

 

EndNote help Mac

Library help