EndNote essentials

Cite While You Write (CWYW) toolbar

The Cite While You Write (CWYW) function allows you to insert references from your EndNote library into your Microsoft Word document, and instantly format the citations and reference list in your chosen referencing style. Click on the EndNote tab in the Word ribbon to access the toolbar (referred to as the CWYW toolbar from now on). Click on the drop down arrow in the Style: box to select the referencing style you are using in EndNote.

Cite While You Write toolbar in Microsoft Word

Insert citations



  1. Place the cursor where you want to insert the citation in your Word document
  2. Click Go to EndNote in the CWYW toolbar
  3. In EndNote, highlight the reference or references you want to insert and click the Insert Citation icon Insert citation button -quote marks in the toolbar
  4. Your document will now show an in-text citation and a corresponding entry in the bibliography.

You can also find and insert citations from the CWYW toolbar in Word:

  1. Place the cursor where you want to insert the citation in your text
  2. Click the Insert Citation icon in the toolbar and an EndNote 21 Find & Insert My References box will open
  3. Enter keywords/author name etc. in the search box and then click Find to locate matching references in your library
  4. Select the required reference and click Insert
  5. If you would like to exclude the author or year from the in-text citation you can do this by clicking the drop down arrow next to the Insert button and choosing the appropriate option from the drop down menu.

Edit in-text citations

Changes to in-text citations should be made using the Edit & Manage Citation(s) function in the CWYW toolbar. If you need to alter reference list entries, this should be done in your EndNote library.



  1. Select the citation you want to edit (citation will be highlighted in grey)
  2. Click on Edit & Manage Citation(s) in the CWYW toolbar
  3. Under the Formatting drop down menu you can choose to exclude the author or year from the in-text citation, or display the citation as Author (Year)
  4. To add page numbers (if required for your referencing style) enter the page number in the Pages field (Note: if this doesn’t work for your selected style, enter the details in the Suffix box, e.g. p. 25)
  5. To add a prefix, type the word in the Prefix box followed by a space. For example (see Smith, 2017)
  6. Once necessary changes have been made click OK.

Want to abbreviate organisation names in-text? Watch Abbreviating organisation names in-text for APA to find out how.

Remove citations from your document

While EndNote formatting is active you should avoid manually deleting citations from the Word document. Invisible field codes may be left behind which can affect the document formatting or lead to the citation reappearing when you close and reopen the document. To safely remove citations:

  1. Click on Edit & Manage Citation(s) in the CWYW toolbar
  2. Select Edit Reference and Remove Citation
  3. Click OK.

Convert document to plain text

It is recommended that you convert your finalised document to plain text before submitting for assessment or publication. Converting to plain text creates a second copy of the document which isn’t linked to your EndNote library. Creating a plain text copy also allows you to make manual changes to your references.

  1. In the CWYW toolbar click Convert Citations and Bibliography (Windows) or Tools (Mac) and select Convert to Plain Text
  2. A new unsaved document with no field codes (not linked to EndNote) will be created
  3. Save it with a new file name (your original document with the field codes will be unchanged and still be linked to EndNote).

It is important to keep the original document with the EndNote formatting in case you need to make changes to it later (EndNote citations cannot be reactivated from a plain text copy).

Configure bibliography

The Configure Bibliography function allows you to format your reference list (e.g. change the font, size and line spacing) in the Word document.

  1. In the CWYW toolbar click on the small arrow in the right corner of the Bibliography section (Windows) or click on Configure Bibliography (Mac)
  2. Select the Layout tab to change the font, font size, line spacing, and add a Bibliography (Reference list) title
  3. Click OK to apply the changes to your Word document.