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EndNote 2025

Editing referencing styles

To make amendments to the appearance of in-text citations, click on Templates in the left hand pane beneath the heading Citations. Amendments can be made directly to the template in the right hand pane.

For example, if using a numeric style, to make all the citations superscript, highlight the text Bibliography.Number to select it and then click on the superscript button towards the top of the screen

 

To add additional fields to the citation, e.g. to add page numbers:

  • Click in the citation text where you want the new field to go, e.g. after Bibliography Number, and press the space bar.
  • Click on the Insert Field button and select the field that you wish to insert. It will appear in the template.

If you are using an Author/date style, you may wish to change the way authors' names are displayed using the options in the left hand pane under Citations:

  • Author lists: Change the number of authors that are displayed before abbreviating with et al.
  • Author name: Change capitalisation and display of initials or full first names. Use the buttons at the top of the pane to select bold, italic or underlined text.
Tip: On a Mac there are no buttons to edit the text. Go to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and use the Font options to edit the text

To select the format for journal names in your EndNote Output Style:​

  • Click on the Journal Names heading in the left hand pane.
  • Select either Use full journal name, or select one of the abbreviation options.

To make amendments to the appearance of references in a reference list or bibliography, click on Templates in the left hand pane beneath the heading Bibliography. Amendments can be made directly to the template in the right hand pane.

There are different templates for different reference types. Where a reference type is not listed, the reference uses the Generic template.

You can highlight a field and change the formatting, for example to bold or italic, using the icons at the top of the screen.

 

To add additional fields to a reference template:

  • Click in the template text where you want the new field to go.
  • Click on the Insert Field button and select the field that you wish to insert. It will appear in the template.

If you are using an Author/date style, you may wish to change the way authors' names are displayed using the options in the left hand pane under Bibliography:

  • Author lists: Change the number of authors that are displayed before abbreviating with et al.
  • Author name: Change capitalisation and display of initials or full first names. Use the buttons at the top of the pane to select bold, italic or underlined text.
Tip: On a Mac there are no buttons to edit the text. Go to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and use the Font options to edit the text.
You may wish to edit one of the standard EndNote referencing styles in order to meet publisher or department requirements.

For example, a journal publisher may have asked for Vancouver style, but with the citations in superscript. In this case you may choose to create your own version of Vancouver style and amend the citations so that they all appear in superscript.

To edit a style:

  • In EndNote, go to the Tools menu.
  • Go to Output Styles and select Open Style Manager.
  • Locate the style you wish to edit and click to highlight it.
  • Click on the Edit button.
  • Select the part of the style you wish to edit from the menu on the above, such as:
    • Citations
    • Bibliography
    • Journal titles
  • Edit as necessary in the right hand pane.
  • Close the style and you will be prompted to save it. You are advised to save a copy with a different title so you retain the original styles.

The information in this box is adapted from: https://library-guides.ucl.ac.uk/endnote

Style Editing Guide for Windows and macOS