New RefWorks: Using RefWorks Citation Manager for Microsoft Word

Instructions for Installing RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) for Windows and Mac.

ProQuest offers several webinars on many different topics each month. Below are links to our schedule of upcoming sessions and recordings of recent ones.

Upcoming sessions and recordings

Informational webinars presented by the RefWorks Product Manager and recordings of past ones can be found at: ProQuest RefWorks Customer Resources

The New RefWorks screencasts are available 24/7 on the RefWorks YouTube Channel. Click here to begin watching.

RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) is a plugin for Microsoft Word that lets you run a simplified version of RefWorks inside Word. RCM is a newer, more modern version of Write-N-Cite.

RCM is available through the Microsoft Store and can be installed directly from Microsoft Word. By default, Office automatically updates RCM whenever a new version becomes available. RCM requires that Internet Explorer is installed for Microsoft Windows users, and that Safari is installed for macOS users.

To find the right add-on for your operating system and writing tool, see Finding the Right Writing Tool Plug.

Note: If access to the Microsoft Store is blocked, see the article: Enabling RefWorks Citation Manager.

Features:

• Provides read-only access to your RefWorks account, enabling you to view and insert your previously collated references into your document, formatted using previously defined citation styles. Changes to references can be done only from your RefWorks account.
• You can add inline and footnote citations. You can configure RCM to add new citations to a bibliography at the end of the document. As you add or remove references, RCM automatically updates the bibliography.
• Every time you log into RCM it automatically synchronizes with your RefWorks account. You can also synchronize your account by clicking the refresh icon or selecting the Update Document and References option in the Main Menu.

Note:

• Documents written with Write-N-Cite are not recognised by RefWorks Citation Manager, and vice versa.
• Documents written using RefWorks Citation Manager and a legacy RefWorks account cannot be opened with a new RefWorks account. This will be supported in the future.

Using RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) With Your Operating System and Version of Microsoft Word

To determine whether RCM is compatible with your operating system and version of Microsoft Word, see the table below. A 'Yes' in an operating system column indicates RCM is compatible with the Word Version in that row.

*Note: The MacOS X information in the table above is relevant for MacOS X versions 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, or 10.11 (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan) and Sierra 10.12.

This section describes the actions you can perform with the RefWorks Citation Manager.

• Insert a citation – Do one of the following:
  • Select Quick Cite for a reference. That reference is added as an inline citation.
  • Select the check boxes for one or more references. A preview of the citation is displayed. For citation styles that support both inline and footnote styles, select the relevant option. Click Insert Citation. For citations in footnotes, first create a Word footnote, and then place the citation in it.

Note: If configured, citations are also added to a bibliography at the end of the document.

• Edit a citation before inserting it to perform the following:
  1. Select a reference and select Edit. The Edit pane appears. The reference's citation preview appears at the top and its bibliography preview appears at the bottom.

     

     Preview and Edit

  2. Select In-text to insert the citation inline and select Footnote to insert a footnote citation.
  3. Optionally configure whether to replace the page numbers, include/hide the author, include/hide the publication year or add a prefix or suffix to the citation. The preview of the citation and the bibliography entry refreshes accordingly.
  4. Select Insert Citation. A citation is added and, if configured, a bibliography entry.

• Edit an existing citation – Double-click anywhere in the citation. The citation information opens in the right sidebar.

Editing Existing Citations

Edit the information and click Update Citation.

Important: It is recommended to edit citations using the RCM Edit pane. However, edits that cannot be made with this pane can be made directly in the citation content controller. These edits are not synced with RCM and therefore are overridden when the document is updated (for example, when a new citation is added or when the RCM refresh button is selected. It is recommended to make manual edits when document writing is completed.

• Delete a citation – Select Delete Citation. The citation is deleted.
• Edit citation font – The citations and bibliography font is based on the document font (displayed in the Word ribbon) and is updated whenever the document font is changed. If you are using more than one font in your document, see Introducing the Updated RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM).
• Add references to a citation – Select Add references to the citation, select references from the list, and click Add. The references are added to the citation.

Additional RCM Options

This section describes the options available from the Main Menu.

Main Menu

• Cite references – return to the References List pane.
• Change citation style – opens the Citation Settings pane from where you can select a citation style from a drop-down list or from one of the sub-menus. All citations and the bibliography are updated to the new style.
  • There are three drop-down lists that help you find styles: Recent Styles, a custom list, and Institutional. You can mark a style as a favorite by selecting the star icon next to the style in a list. The style then appears in the Favorite styles drop-down list, which appears if there is at least one style marked as a favorite. To remove a favorite from the list, clear the star icon. The style is removed from the Favorites list when RefWorks is refreshed.
  • When searching for a style in the search box, you can check the CSL Styles check box to include CSL styles in the search.
  • For styles with a footnote format, you can select the footnote format as the default.
  • Styles used in RefWorks appear as recent in RCM and the reverse.
  • You can set the surname display format by clicking Differentiate authors, located below the citation style drop-down menu. Author differentiation settings are saved at the user level; therefore, settings made in RefWorks are reflected in RCM and the reverse.
• Change Project – Select a different RefWorks project from which to select references.
• Update document and references – Refreshes the references from your RefWorks account and updates the document.
• Bibliography – Turn the bibliography On to have new citations automatically added to a bibliography at the end of the document. The default is Off, which reduces processing time for documents with many citations.
• Change Language –  For RefWorks users this also updates the language in the RefWorks interface. For legacy users, only the language in RCM is changed.
• Ex Libris Knowledge Center – Opens the RefWorks documentation at the Ex Libris Knowledge Center.
• Accessibility Help – Opens the RefWorks Accessibility Guide
• Contact support  – display a Support form with which you can contact Ex Libris Support.
• Log out – Log out of RCM.