EndNote: Troubleshooting

Due to some technical issues, Find Full Text is not currently (March 2023) finding and adding documents on all devices. We anticipate this will be resolved in our next software upgrade.

Normally, Find Full Text will be successful at locating and adding some PDF articles which have a DOI. Not all documents will be retrieved.

Things to check:

EndNote Preferences (EndNote > File > Preferences > Find Full Text) should be configured with:

OpenURL Path: https://librarysearch.stir.ac.uk/openurl/44UST_INST/44UST_INST:VU1?

Authenticate with UR: http://ezproxy.stir.ac.uk/login?url= 

The Cannot Edit Range error when using EndNote's Cite While You Write tool (i.e. via the EndNote tab in Word) to cite references in a Word Document may be due to a conflict with Mendeley.

1. In Word, click File > Options > Add-ins
2. At the bottom of the Word Options box click the Manage drop-down menu (its normal default is COM Add-ins) and select Word Add-ins and click Go.
3. Untick or deselect Mendeley from the list of add-ins and click OK.

You should now be able to add EndNote citations normally. If you have any citations created when experiencing the 'cannot edit range'  error (these are usually enclosed in curly brackets {}) you will probably have to delete them.

If EndNote citations and references still do not appear or format correctly, you may need to uninstall the Mendeley Word Plugin

1. Close Outlook and Word.
2. Open Mendeley Desktop 
3. From Tools, select uninstall MS Word Plugin.

Hopefully you can now cite EndNote references to your Word document. You may need to click Update Citations and Bibliography. Also check that Instant Formatting is switched on.

Citations may be corrupted if you are showing the Markup when using Track Changes in Word. Always use Track Changes in 'No Markup' or 'Final' mode (depending on your version of Word. See further articles below from EndNote:

EndNote libraries can become damaged. Common reasons are:

• Your library is on OneDrive or other cloud storage. See further information about EndNote and Cloud Filestore.
• Your library may be open on different devices at the same time.
• You may have left EndNote open on your device for a prolonged period. It is advisable to close EndNote when not actively used.

See the EndNote support guidance for Recovering Library Files for instructions on file recovery.

Alternatively, if you regularly sync your library with EndNote Online, you can create a 'new' library and pull in all the references from your online version:

• Before you start the following process, it might be helpful to login to EndNote Online to test your password.
• In desktop version of EndNote: File > New > give Library a name and file location on your hard drive.
• Edit > Preferences > Sync > Enter your EndNote Online email address and password > Save.
• Click the sync button.

Switching between formatted and unformatted citations can help avoid your document becoming corrupted.

Switch to Unformatted Text when you are:

• Cutting, Copying Pasting sections of text which may include citations (when moving text between documents, make sure both documents are set to 'unformatted citations').
• Performing other complex editing
• Inserting text into a master document (e.g. merging chapters).
• If inserting citations to a very long document is taking a long time or even causing the document to 'hang'.

What is Unformatted Text vs Formatted Text

Formatted citations what you expect to appear in your final version e.g. Harvard references will look something like this (Jones, 2009 p.21).

Unformatted citations are temporary placeholders. Regardless of referencing style they are very basic and appear in curly brackets. Codes are used to denote page numbers or different formats of the citation e.g.:

Switching to Unformatted Citations.

• Make sure EndNote is open on your desktop when you are working with unformatted citations
• In your Word document click the EndNote tab
• Click the Convert Citations and Bibliography menu
• Select Convert to Unformatted Citations

Returning to Formatted Citations

• In your Word document click the EndNote tab
• Select Update Citations and Bibliography

If you are using Cite While You  Write and your in-text citations and author names in the bibliography are incorrectly formatted you may need to edit these in EndNote. The incorrect formatting usually derives from poorly defined metadata in the source you imported it from (e.g. database or web page etc.).

When trying to save a customised style you may see the following error:

"You are saving the file outside your style folder"

Any customised or additional styles added to EndNote must be saved outside of your Program files in a folder called Style Folder.  

1. If your version of EndNote is updated, the new version might not include the file path to your Style Folder. To check the path to the style folder:

• In EndNote go to Edit > Preferences > Folder Locations
• Check the file path in the Style Folder box. If it is blank, or simply says 'EndNote\Styles, you will need to find the folder on your computer or create one - see instructions at 2. below.
• Once you have located or created a Style Folder, update the preferences it to 
  C:\Users\UserName\Documents\EndNote\Styles
  
   

2.Check whether you have a style Folder on your computer or create one at:

• This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users >Your user name e,g MSM4 > Documents > EndNote > Style

[Alternatively, create the folder in the same location as your EndNote Library e.g. instead of in Documents, your EndNote Libary might be stored at PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users >Your user name e,g MSM4 > EndNote Library - make sure you enter this file path in the EndNote preferences }

PLEASE NOTE: After making these changed, the first time you use Select Another Style Endnote may appear not to be responding. It may need some time to refresh - see above Select Another Style - not showing more styles.

Check the guides on this EndNote help page. Check the tabs at the top for more information.

If you can't find what you need contact library@stir.ac.uk

EndNote has thousands of styles and it can take some time to load them all for the first time (e.g. if you have newly installed/reinstalled EndNote, a new computer etc.or if you have customised or created a new style). Users have reported delays of a few minutes up to 15 minutes depending on how old or powerful their computer is.

Unfortunately, there is no timer or progress bar to show that EndNote is working to load the files.

• We suggest that you click 'Select another style' , leave EndNote open but do not work on it or any document that has EndNote citations for at least 15-20 minutes

If possible, don't have many other computer applications running on your machine and don't use your computer while EndNote is loading the styles.

This feature helps prevent you from accidentally deleting or editing EndNote fields.

1. Go to Word's Options - Advanced: File > Options > Advanced

2. Scroll down to the Show Document Content section and find Field Shading drop-down box. This is usually set to 'When Selected'.

3. Change the Field Shading drop-down box to Always.

4. Select OK to save the changes.

Your EndNote in-text citations and bibliography will now appear in grey shading. Do not delete or edit this text directly in Word as this can leave computer code behind which may corrupt your document. Use Edit & Manage Citations button in the EndNote toolbar  to make changes.

if yoiu see EN ADDIN and parts of your reference in angled brackets <> instead of your in-text citation, Word is showing you the computer code which holds the reference information. 

The quick fix is: Press ALT+F9 (Option+F9 on macOS) on your keyboard to toggle field codes. If this does not resolve the issue, see the Clarivate Support page.for more guidance.