Copying and Pasting References from a Document into EndNote

If you have a bibliography that is too inconsistent or difficult to parse using your word processor (as suggested in Creating a Custom "Tagged" Format), you can use the Copy and Paste commands as an alternative method for getting your data into EndNote and still avoid a lot of re-typing. For example, let’s say you have a paper with a bibliography entry such as:

Blocker, C.

To transfer the references into EndNote:

  1. Open the list of references in a word processor.

  2. Select a reference and copy it using the Copy command in your word processor’s Edit menu. (Some word processors allow you to triple-click a paragraph to select the whole thing at once. That might be a useful shortcut for quickly selecting a reference.)

  3. Open your EndNote library, and select New Reference ( CtrlCommand Key+N) from the References menu to create a new reference.

  4. Put the cursor in the Title field of the new reference and select Paste from the Edit menu.

This will paste the entire reference into the Title field of the Reference window. From here, you can drag-and-drop (or cut and paste) the individual pieces of data into their proper fields. Be sure to remove extraneous punctuation, and make sure author names are each on a separate line. Follow the guidelines for entering references. See Reference Type Preferences for information about setting a default reference type for new references.