Using word 2007 with CWYW disabled, I just tried to unformat my citations and found that it would not go. No error message came up, but nothing changed on screen. When I tried to reformat citations, my unformatted citations in the opened document were deleted. I was able to resolve the issue by restarting my computer. However, now I am left to try to recover this document because EndNote deleted many of my references. Please advise so this does not occur again.
Are you sure they were deleted and that you weren’t using a style that has no citation template? The formated reference would appear to “disappear” following formating. Did you try unformating them again?
I tried changing the citation format with no effect and trying to put it back to unformatted citations also didn’t do anything. When I rebooted, things worked normally, but I had to put back in the missing citations (which didn’t create double citations).
Sounds like the document was corrupted during the multi step process of formating the fields.
The obvious solution is to have the document backed up I guess. During a crash, the program usually offers the opportunity to recover a backup, but that might not be the best option, and better to go back to the unfomatted version, than a partially formated version.
The best is to make a copy before you manually run the CWYW steps. Easier to do, when you work with CYWY off, as you do. I used to do that, but more recently trust CWYW these days, and I haven’t had any problems such as those you describe with the short time I worked with Word 2007 on a WinXP, or more recent experience with Word 2010 on a 64 bit Win7 machine.
But if this happened to me even once, I would revert to the CYWY off and make sure I backed up the document before formatting.
Thanks for your reply and very practical suggested solution. I also work with CYWY off and have for several years and have recommend that others do the same. Glad to hear it is getting better though.
Here’s hoping the problems with EndNote/Word can be fixed before too long.
I’m pasting Thomson’s most recent reply to this same question below. I suspect their suggestion will just be a waste of my time, especialy since the problem is not currently occuring. It also strikes me that it is convenient that Thomson is so quick to blame Word for the problem (not that I think Word is without bugs). I’m curious if you think it is worth trying what Thomson recommends.
Thanks,
Dan
Thanks for your email with the results.
As you are facing the issue even with new Word document, your Microsoft Office Word settings may be damaged. We have step-by-step instructions on our website which should help you to delete the Word Data registry key and Word options registry key. These instructions are available at:
If the issue persists for any reason after following the steps from the above link, please follow the below steps for resetting Word normal template.
Close all MS Office applications and Reference Manager.
Go to the folder “C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates”
Note: If you cannot find the specified folder your windows preferences may be set to hide the folder. In this window go to Tools / Folder Options / View tab (if you do not see the Tools menu in Window 7 press the ALT key) and make sure that “Show hidden files and folders” is selected.
Rename “Normal.dotm” to “NormalOLD.dotm” and delete any files that start with ~$
Go to the folder
“C:\Users\User Name \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word” and delete any files that start with ~$
Start EndNote and then start Word.
Now copy the contents from the old document and paste into a new document made after the new normal.dotm file is made.
Now, try to insert few citations into Word document and check the functionality. Please let me know if you need further assistance on this case.
I would try binning the word startup normal.dotm if this occured more than once. They can get corrupted.
The co-dependence of Word and Endnote are intricate and if the complicated field replacement steps are interrupted, I can see how the fields could be come corrupt. The travelling library embedded in the fields is a possible source of corruption, and while it can help collaborators, most of us rarely use it and I still wish there was a way to turn it off.
As more people ask for more “wouldn’t it be nice” features, the program grows and **** happens.