Repeated footnote citations again and again and again.

I’m going out of my mind.  Something is happening in my document where my footnotes are going NUTS!

  1. Ever footnote got shifted down one.  So footnote 54 actually has the citation that goes in footnote 53, etc.  I would fix all of this by hand, except…

  2. Some of my citations in the footnote are now multiplying like bunnies.  So let’s say it should say Ibid.  Now it will say Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.

Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.vIbid.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.

Ibid.Ibid.Ibid.

you get the idea.

I go and delete the entry from the “Edit and Manage Citations window” and it’s still there… 20 repeated entries.  I have to delete the footnote and then reinsert a new footnote.

But as I’m doing this, it’s corrupting other footnotes that were fine a second ago!

I copied into a fresh document.  The errors carried over.

What do I do???

(Using Mac MSWord 2011, Endnote x6)

(Oh, and eventually I’m going to have to combine this chapter with 6 other chapters for my book. I CANNOT afford for the corruption to spread.)

Have you updated your Endnote X6 to X6.0.2 (for Mac OS X)? The update may have addressed this issue.

You can update* by either: 

1.  Going to the Endnote  toolbar  and selecting Help >Endnote Program Updates; or

2.  Going to the software update page: http://endnote.com/downloads/available-updates

*Make backup files of your library and documents as a precaution before updating.

I actually am running X6.0.2…

Great, you’re running the current software version.

  1. Next up is to check whether the repeated “Ibid.” are valid Endnote footnote references which I suspect they’re not. Just place your cursor on the ibid. and see if it becomes highlighted (in a gray color) , which denotes a valid Endnote footnote reference link. Next, delete the invalid footnotes, then reinsert the footnote.

  2. If the problem continues you might be dealing with  corrupted  field codes.   Make a backup copy of your document then  open the backup copy  and unformat  the Endnote  citations which will now appear  within curly  braces.   Now  convert the document to plain text  to remove the links  (the option is available  in the Endnote tab  within the MS  Word  ribbon). . Next, delete  any invalid  footnote citations  then format/update  the document  to establish  the Endnote links.   Check the document  see if the problem  continues.

I would call tech support!  www.endnote.com/support