Left Justify Reference List

Hi there,

I am having the same problem in two of my documents and I would really appreciate some guidance!  My reference lists are centering rather than left-justifying - this is happening in two separate docs. I am using ENX8.2 and Word 16.16.3.

I’ve made sure that the last line in my document is left aligned. I’ve also followed the advice of a previous thread where I unformatted the citations in-text, copied and pasted the whole thing without the last paragraph into a new doc, and then tried update the reference list, but to no avail.

If you have a work-around, I’d be glad to hear it. Thank you :slight_smile:

Is the title of the bibliography centered? 

Make sure the Paragraphs symbols are showing, and add another paragraph after the Bibliography title paragraph and make it left justified, delete the endnote generated bibliography,  convert to unformatted citations, make sure you still have the extra paragraph (and nothing else after that) and then “update the citations and bibliography”. 

Hi Leanne,

Thank you for your reply and suggestion. Unfortunately my reference list is still centered after taking those steps.

Are there other suggestions you could share?

Please try the steps which can found at:

https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-Wrong-font-for-bibliography-or-bold-or-centered-text?language=en_US

The first reason this can happen is that if Layout information in the Format Bibliography window has specific font information for the bibliography. You can check this by doing the following:

EndNote X1 or Later

EndNote X and earlier

If the issue still exists, then it is likely that the font information is coming from the last line before the bibliography gets created. The easiest way to fix this is to unformat the document, add an extra line with a plain font and no formatting then format the bibliography again. First make a backup copy of the document then please follow these instructions:

EndNote X1 or Later

  • If using Word 2007/2010/2013/2016,  go to the EndNote tab and click the small arrow at the bottom right of the middle box labeled Bibliography. If using Word 2003/2002 or any version for Mac,   go to the Tools menu, the EndNote submenu and select Format Bibliography or Bibliography Settings.
    Word 2016 : go to EndNote tab and click on Bibliography>Configure Bibliography.
  • Select the Layout tab.
  • Make sure the font and size are set to what you want.
  • Click the Text Formatting button.
  • Make sure the option to bold is not checked.
  • Press ok to update your bibliography.
    1. If using Word 2007,  go to the Addins tab and click the Format Bibliography button. If using Word 2003/2002 or any version for Mac,   go to the Tools menu, the EndNote submenu and select Format Bibliography.

    2. Select the Layout tab.

    3. Make sure the font and size are set to what you want.

    4. Click the Text Formatting button.

    5. Make sure the option to bold is not checked.

    6. Press ok to update your bibliography.

    7. If using Word 2007/2010/2013/2016,  go to the EndNote tab and use the pulldown for Convert Citations and Bibliography>Convert to Unformatted Citations. If using Word 2003/2002 or any version for Mac,   go to the Tools menu, the EndNote submenu and select Unformat Citations or Convert to Unformatted Citations.
      Word 2016:  go to EndNote tab and click on Tools>Convert to Unformatted Citations.

    8. Go to the last page of the document and make sure the bibliography has been removed.

    9. Remove any extra lines, carriage returns or spaces after the last character in your paper.

    10. Press Enter at the end of the last line in your paper to add one additional line.

    11. Press space once on your keyboard to create a single space.

    12. Highlight the space and make sure the font settings are to the size, type and formatting you want your bibliography to be.

    13. If using Word 2007/2010,  go to the EndNote tab and click the small arrow at the bottom right of the middle box labeled Bibliography. If using Word 2003/2002 or any version for Mac,   go to the Tools menu, the EndNote submenu and select Format Bibliography or Bibliography Settings.

    14. Click the Instant Formatting tab and click Turn On. Click Ok. Note: You may see a window asking you to select and insert a reference. In this case, see EndNote: Select Matching Reference for more information.

EndNote X and earlier

EndNote X7 and later Only

If none of the above steps resolved the issue delete the EndNote Bibliography style.

Note: If the references are automatically bulleted and number then, please see EndNote and EndNote online: References are automatically bulleted and aligned incorrectly

https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-and-EndNote-online-References-are-automatically-bulleted-and-aligned-incorrectly?language=en_US&ui-force-components-controllers-recordGlobalValueProvider.RecordGvp.getRecord=1&r=6


  • If using Word 2007/2010/2013,  go to the Addins tab and click the Unformat Citations button. If using Word 2003/2002 or any version for Mac,   go to the Tools menu, the EndNote submenu and select Unformat Citations.
  • Go to the last page of the document and make sure the bibliography has been removed.
  • Remove any extra lines, carriage returns or spaces after the last character in your paper.
  • Press Enter at the end of the last line in your paper to add one additional line.
  • Press space once on your keyboard to create a single space.
  • Highlight the space and make sure the font settings are to the size, type and formatting you want your bibliography to be.
  • If using Word 2007/2010/2013, go to the Addins tab and click the Format Bibliography button. If using Word 2003/2002 or any version for Mac,   go to the Tools menu, the EndNote submenu and select Format bibliography.
  • Click the Instant Formatting tab and click Enable. Click Ok. Note: You may see a window asking you to select and insert a reference. In this case, see EndNote: Select Matching Reference for more information.
    1. In Word 2008/2011 click on Format, click on Style. In the Styles box click on EndNote Bibliography, click on Delete and click on Close.
      Word 2016: go to Home tab. Click on Style Pane. In the Styles box click on EndNote Bibliography, click on Delete and click on Close.
    2. In Word 2007/2010/2013/2016 go to the Home tab. Click on the icon on the right end of the Styles bar. Click on EndNote Bibliography and click on Delete.
    3. For Word 2008/2011 : Once the EndNote Bibliography style has been removed click on Update Citations and Bibliography (Tools> EndNote X7 >Update Citations and Bibliography).
      For Word 2016 :go to EndNote tab. Click on Bibliography>Update Citations and Bibliography.

Thank you!  This worked perfectly!

This worked for me on a Macbook:

Open new Word document. Make sure it’s left-aligned.

In the original document ‘select all’, ‘copy’.

Go to the new doc, ‘paste’, go to EndNote tab, ‘update citations and bibliography’.

Hope that helps someone. : )