General preferences are helpful when you always use your EndNote library along with your word processor.
Access Cite While You Write preferences by going to Word's Tools > EndNote submenu, and then select Cite While You Write Preferences.
From the EndNote tab, select Preferences .
Open EndNote When Starting Word: Select this option to open EndNote when you start Word.
Close EndNote When Leaving Word: Select this option to close EndNote when you leave Word. This option does not work if EndNote was already open before you started Word.
Return to Document After Inserting Citations: Select this option to make your Word document the active window after inserting citations with EndNote's Insert Citation(s) command. If this preference is turned off so that the document remains in the background, you will not see the inserted citation in the document until the document becomes the active window.
Enable Instant Formatting on new Word documents: Select this option to allow Instant Formatting in Microsoft Word documents using Cite While You Write. You can also determine how often Cite While You Write scans the document and whether to check for changes to existing citations.
Note: These Instant Formatting settings affect only new Word documents. To change settings in an existing document, see Instant Formatting.
Turn off Word's "Show field codes instead of their values" option when opening or updating documents that include citations: Select this option to turn off the display of field codes within your Word document that includes citations. The default value if off.
You can also turn off this feature in Word.
Click the round Office Button located in the left-hand corner of Word.
Click the Word Options button.
Select the Advanced option.
Clear the "Show field codes instead of their values" check box.
Click OK.
The "Select Matching Reference" window displays when text between the temporary citation delimiters (usually the curly brackets { } or square brackets [ ] characters) do not match up with the author, year, and reference number in the currently opened library. The window may open because:
When formatting a document that was formatted in an earlier version of EndNote if the library that was used for that document initially is not open.
If the author’s name, the year, or the reference number has been corrected or changed in the library after it was already inserted into the paper.
To resolve this conflict, look at what EndNote is searching for in the text box between the Find label and the Search button. Then do the following:
If it is an author, year, and a number (for example, "Smith, 2004 #23"), then this means EndNote cannot locate in the currently opened libraries. Make sure that the library used to insert this reference is open.
Check the reference in the EndNote library. Does the record number exist or is it a different number? Is the name spelled identically? Does the year match? If the author or year for this particular reference has been changed in the library, use the Find box in the "Select Matching Reference" window to enter the correct information, and then click Search. Any matches will appear under the Author, Year, and Title columns. If the correct citation is found, highlight it and click the Insert button.
If the text in the box is not an author, year, and reference number (or just a number if your Temporary Citation settings use just the RefID), then this may be text that was entered between the temporary citation delimiter characters and is unrelated to EndNote. In this case, click on the Ignore button.
Note: While going through the process of matching correct references, do not click on the Cancel button as this action will cancel any changes, and any references inserted in this select matching reference session will be lost. To stop, click the Ignore All button, which will skip past all the rest of the unmatched citations and format the ones that have been inserted. Skipped citations will remain in their unformatted form.