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RefWorks at Kent State University: Reference Lists and Writing Papers

Quick Reference Lists/Bibliographies in RefWorks

Quick Reference Lists or Bibliographies

Here below are 3 sets of steps to quickly create a short reference list or bibliography according to a style you choose.  

A. Print a quick list to paper, to copy and paste to email, etc.

1. As you look at a list of references on your RefWorks site, make sure that the light grey References tab indicates Selected, and then click in the box left of the references you want to include in your short reference list or bibliography.

2. When done clicking in the boxes to make choices, in the middle of the screen find and click on the small picture of a printer. A Print window will open showing a number of references to be printed, and you can choose a style (e.g., APA, etc.).  

3. When you click on Print References, your list will be shown in a new window for printing (or a print window connected to a printer will appear).  You may have to click on "click Here" in the green pop up window in lower right hand corner. You may also choose to print immediately.  Or, you can close the print window and your list should also be displayed in a window so you can copy and paste, or save, or take other steps to print your list.

B. "Right click" to print a list to paper, to copy and paste to email, etc.

1. As you look at a list of references on your RefWorks site, make sure that the light grey References tab indicates Selected, and then click in the box left of the references you want to include in your short reference list or bibliography. 

2. When done clicking in the boxes to make choices, use your mouse to "right click" on the word Selected.  A small pull down menu appears.

3. Print window will open showing a number of references to be printed, and you can choose a style (e.g., APA, etc.).  

4. When you click on Print References, your list will be shown in a new window for printing (or a print window connected to a printer will appear).  You may choose to print immediately.  Or, you can close the print window and your list should also be displayed in a window so you can copy and paste, or save, or take other steps to print your list.

C. Exporting a quick list to Word, RTF, Open Office, HTML, etc.

1. Click in the boxes next to references to include in your list.

2. Near middle of screen (in the light grey References tab) find and click on the yellow folder with the down arrow, and select My List.  You will see a message at right of screen that references have been added.

3. In the darker grey tool bar area click on View, and from the pull down choose My List.

4. When looking at the list of references in the My List, in the light grey References tab click on All in List if you want to have all those references in the quick list you are creating. 

5. On the screen find and click on the Create Bibliography button.

6. In the Create Bibliography window, note the style you will be using (or choose different).

7. Next, note or choose the File Type (HTML goes to a browser window that you are looking at, Word to a Word file, etc.).

8. VERY IMPORTANT - In the References to Include pull down menu, choose My List.  Important: usually you do *not want to print a list of *all your references.  After choosing My List, click the Create Bibliography button.  A message at right will indicate process is completed.  If you choose HTML then the list should appear in a browser window.

Working with papers

Working with papers (e.g. Microsoft Word, or Open Office)

      Note: these 16 steps below work.  

      But you may want to see/use steps below in red.     

      OR, ask about "drag and dropping" to cite and format your papers.

The steps below require you to be connected to the Internet.  The steps walk through using RefWorks to automatically format citations and references in papers you are working with according to a style you choose (e.g., APA, MLA, etc.).

1. Log on to RefWorks (RW).

2. Start Microsoft Word (MW), or other word processer, and open a document you wish to work on. At this point you are logged into RefWorks, and you have MW running.

3. In MW document click in front of a period of a sentence where you wish to put a citation, and press spacebar.

4. Now switch over to RW.

5. Bring up a screen with references.

6. Find a reference that you want to cite and on the line for that reference, at the right, find a click on { } . A Citation View window will appear.

7. Click Select; then "copy" that selection (use Control-c keys; or Command-c on Macs).

8. Return to your MW document.

9. "Paste" in the copied 'code' (use Control-v keys; or Command-v on Macs).  The inserted code may seem strange, but complete all the steps below to see what happens.

10. Save your work (Control-s keys; or Command-s). This should save an updated version of your Word document to the My Documents area (or pick another location; Macs to the Desktop ?). Save your work after every citation insertion.

11. Return to RW, and continue selecting citations to insert in your Word document, alternating between RW and MW. When finished with this selection activity, of course save your work. [Note: This is a 'core' document that can be modified...but save it...as you work...leave the RW code that you see *in the paper. This will allow RW to create updated versions of your core paper.]

12. Return to RW. At the screen with a list of references, click on Bibliography.

13. In the Create Bibliography window, select your choice of Output Style from the pull down menu (e.g., APA, MLA, etc.).

14. Find and click next to Format Paper and Bibliography.

15. Next to Document to Format, click Choose File.  Find the Word document you are working on and double click on that.

16. In RW click on Create Bibliography.  You will see a message indicating processing of your paper.

17. RW will create a new draft of the paper. If it doesn't display automatically, you may have to click to download it. Again, typically you should see a message that indicates "Your document was processed successfully." You will see that the version created by RW has "Final" as a part of the filename. This "Final" version is only the "latest" draft (or final) that you have had RW create. You may have to look a bit find the downloaded file on your computer.  You can create updated drafts, of course. Again, it can also be a good idea to save the version that has the "code" that RefWorks inserts; that version can be added to or modified for new drafts of the paper.

IMPORTANT TIP:  "Write-N-Cite" is a Microsoft Word plugin that you can get directly from RefWorks that provides a process like you see above. That tool can automate your writing and citing process even further.  After you login, you can find it under "Tools" on RefWorks. 

Step by step instructions on using Write-N-Cite may be included in this guide in the future. In the mean time this information from RefWorks can be consulted

Note: There is a new "RefWorks Flow" (or Proquest Flow) plugin that also works with Microsoft Word.  Do not use both with the same paper.  Also, varying your RefWorks login to your RefWorks database between "Flow" and "Write-N-Cite" is probably not a good idea. At this time both methods are possible, but at some point there may be a transition to the "Flow" method.  

Also consider getting/using this pdf from RefWorks about Write-N-Cite.