Working with very large Word documents (e.g. a full thesis).
Working with one very large document that has many references in it can slow down the Cite While You Write (automatic formatting) process a lot. In this case you have two options:
1. Unformat your document using the "Convert to Plain text" menu option so that the in-texts appear like this: {Smith, 2019 #23}. Your document is temporarily un-linked to Endnote so processing is much faster in a large document with many references. You can reformat it anytime you wish.
2. Split your document into multiple chapters and work on them separately. If you need to recombine all the chapters at the end, unformat each chapter as in 1. (above). Paste these unformatted chapters together into one.
Reformat with "Update Citations and Bibliography" option in the Word toolbar.
It is common to want to move a whole section of text (with in-text references) to another section of a document. If you do this while the text is formatted with Endnote it can cause some corruption to occur and errors to appear. It's easy to avoid this problem by unformatting from Endnote first by using the "Convert to Plain Text" option in the toolbar.
Now you can cut and paste safely, then reformat using the "Update Citations and Bibliography" option in the Word toolbar:
Honours and HDR students will want to send drafts in preparation to a supervisor for correction or review. This can cause serious document corruption if done the wrong way. The safest option is to NEVER let another person touch your "master" document - send them a copy. The following procedure is one recommended as being simple and safe.
Student: Make a "plain text" copy of your Word document. (Word - Endnote toolbar - Convert Citations and Bibliography – Convert to Plain text). This will make an exact copy, except it is now connected to Endnote (you will need to save and rename it). Send this copy to your supervisor. They will usually mark it up using Track changes (which interferes with Endnote functions) and send it back to you.
Supervisor: Edit and annotate the copy only, usually using Track Changes function. Send the corrected version back to student.
Student: Fix up your master document in line with supervisor’s comments.
