Removing Field Codes

You may need to remove Cite While You Write field codes in order to share your document with a publisher or colleague.

Note: If you are working with master and subdocuments in Word, the Remove Field Codes or Convert to Plain Text command warns that it will strip codes from the original documents. You should first manually save copies of the master and subdocuments, and then remove codes from the copies.

To remove field codes and save the formatted citations and bibliography as text:

  1. Open your formatted Word document.

    If you are working with Master and Subdocuments, work with copies of your documents.

  2. From the Tools menu, go to the EndNote submenu and select Remove Field Codes. From the EndNote tab, select Convert Citations and Bibliography and then Convert to Plain Text. A copy of the document, without field codes, appears in a new document window.

  3. From the File menu, select Save. Click the Office icon and then Save.

  4. Single document: In Word’s Save As dialog, type a new name for this copy of your document and click OK.

    Master and Subdocuments:
    You may be advised to save a copy of the master and each subdocument.

Word saves your document without embedded formatting codes, so you can submit your paper to a publisher or share your final paper with a colleague using a different word processor (including a different version of Word).

Note: The copy does not contain Cite While You Write field codes, so you cannot reformat with Cite While You Write. To reformat, start with the original document, which retains field codes.

If you find that removing EndNote field codes produces undesired layout or other formatting changes to your document, you can remove all Microsoft Word field codes, which may yield better results.

To remove all Microsoft Word field codes:

  1. First save a backup copy of your document, because this will irretrievably remove the links between your document and your EndNote libraries as well as all other Word field codes.

  2. Select all text in the document by pressing Command Key Ctrl+A.

  3. Press Command KeyCtrl +6 to remove all Microsoft Word field codes from the document (not just Cite While You Write codes!) and leave the text, citations, and bibliography as they appear.

Related Topics

Exporting Word's Traveling Library to an EndNote Library

Saving Files for Other Versions of Word and Other Word

Sharing Your Word Documents

Showing Word Processor Codes

Submitting the Final Paper to a Publisher

The Traveling Library

Unformatting Citations

Working on Different Computers