Using Referencing Software with Long Documents

Long essays, Masters dissertations and PhD theses

If you are using referencing software to help you with referencing your PhD thesis, Masters dissertation, final year long essay, or even to write a book for publication...

You will probably be creating each chapter of your text as a separate document in MS Word.

Word templates and long documents

To help you manage your assignment, consider creating a template for your documents. This will establish common layout or margins for the page as well as line spacing, and font sizes/styles for headings, sub-headings, paragraph (body), bulleted, indented or footnoted text.  Set your template up so that it matches the submission requirements of your department (check your student or programme handbook).

Use this template to construct your document.  Write each chapter (introduction, chapter one …, conclusion, etc.) as a separate document, and apply the template to each of these documents (so that formatting is the same across the board).

Use the referencing management software (RefWorks or EndNote) in the normal way to insert your citations into each document as you go...

Save each document as a separate file. See these instructions for full details about establishing Word templates:

Prior to merging your documents together...

Note: users must unformat the citations in their chapter documents prior to merging them into a single document.

Otherwise you may end up with mini bibliographies left at the end of each chapter when you compile your separate documents into a single file

Instructions for RefWorks users who wish to unformat their documents

If you have already formatted your chapter documents (to see what they look like with proper citations and references in them), you may want to unformat the documents before you try merging them together.

  1. Open your chapter document
  2. Open and log into (if you haven't already) Write-N-Cite (WNC) using either the button in the "Add Ins" tab (Word 2007) or on the toolbar (Word 2003)
  3. Using WNC to unformat the citations in a paperClick on the "Tools" menu in WNC
  4. Select Display Unformatted Citations
  5. Click on the Unformat button
  6. Repeat this for each document
  7. Save the documents (you may wish to save copies of them)

You will be left with coded place-markers for your citations that look something like this {{216 Frost,Jack; }}

Instructions for EndNote users who wish to unformat their documents

The usual default is for EndNote's Cite While You Write to automatically format a paper - so it is likely that each of your chapter documents will include a bibliography and correctly formatted citations. You will want to remove these before you merge the documents together.

Word 2007 users:
  1. Click on the "EndNote X2" (or X3) tab
  2. Click on Convert Citations and Bibliography
  3. Select Convert to Unformatted Citations
  4. Do this for each document
  5. Save the documents (you may wish to save copies of them)

Unformatting Endnote citations in Word 2007

 
Word 2003 users:
  1. Open the Word Tools menu
  2. Select EndNote X2 - Unformat citation(s)
  3. Do this for each document
  4. Save the documents (you may wish to save copies of them)

You will be left with coded place-markers for your citations that look something like this {Frost, 1952 #216}

 

How do I merge my chapters/documents into one, and get a single document with a merged bibliography at the end of the file?

Creating a single, merged document:

The easiest way to do this, is to insert the contents of each individual document (separate Word file), into a new document.

  1. Open a new word document
      • You can base this new document on your established Word template (see the section on long documents above)
      • If you wish, this new document can double as the title page, dedication, abstract, and even foreword etc. section for your thesis - simply enter the relevant text and information using the format and layout prescribed for your dissertation
  2. Save this document - give it a meaningful file name (e.g "thesis-final-v1")
  3. Use MS Word to create a new page break at the end of this document:

        Expand for full instructions...

      • Make sure that your cursor is placed at the end of the document
      • Click on the Insert tab in the MS Word ribbon
      • Select the "Page Break" button

        Screen shot of the page break function within MS Word 2007

      • A new page will be created at the end of this new document
  4. Now insert the text from the first of the separate documents that will make up your thesis: (e.g."Table of Contents", "List of Figures", "Introduction" or "Chapter 1"):

        Expand for full instructions...

      • Make sure that your cursor is inserted in the new page break that you have just created at the end of your document
      • Click on the Insert tab in the MS Word ribbon
      • Click on the extra options arrow for the the "Object" button
      • Select the option for "Text from file"

        Screenshot of the the Text from file command in MS Word

      • An Insert File dialogue box will open: browse to find the source document for the text that you wish to insert (e.g. "Chapter 1")
      • When you find the relevant document, click on it to select it
      • Click on the "Insert" button
      • The contents from the source document will be inserted into your new "final" document
      • Watch a video of this process
  5. Repeat steps 3-4 to insert the content from each of your source documents in the correct order (e.g. "Chapter 2", "Chapter 3", "Conclusion", "Appendix A", etc.)
  6. You should now have all of your content, in the right order, contained within a single word document
  7. Save the document, and save a copy of it (just to be on the safe side - e.g. "thesis-final-v1-backup")

(Alternative method) Using master and subdocuments:

Some people may prefer to use the "master document" and "sub document" functionality within MS Word. This is a bit more complex and requires more setting up. You will need to create a "Master document". This can be either a new word file (saved to your drive) or the document for the very first pages of your thesis (e.g. the bit for your title page, dedication, abstract, etc.). Then insert all your chapter documents (separate Word files), into the master document as "sub documents" - in the correct order (e.g. Contents, Introduction, Chapter 1, and so on...).

If you are interested in working in this way...

First expand and read these instructions: they will tell you how to set up the framework for working with Master and subdocuments

  1. Create a new folder location in which to save your Master document, and the documents for each chapter that you will be merging into it (i.e. the "subdocuments")
  2. Save copies of each of chapter documents to this new folder
  3. Create your "Master" document - this will be the document that you insert all of the other documents into. It can be either:
      • a new blank document (using the MS Word template that has been set up for your thesis)
      • or the document for the first page of your thesis (i.e. the title page)
  4. Save the master document to the same folder as the subdocuments

Now follow the appropriate instructions for:

Word 2010 and 2007: using master documents and subdocuments

Follow these instructions to insert your chapter documents into a master document.

First set up the master document:
  1. Open your master document
  2. Click on the "View" tab in Word
  3. Click on the button for Outline in order to select the outline view of your document
    (subdocuments cannot be inserted unless the master document is in outline view)
    1. if necessary, establish headings for the master document and each chapter (press the enter key twice after each chapter heading to create a break in the text between each heading - this is where you will insert the chapter subdocuments)
    2. or if your chapter documents already have their own headings (which will be the case for most of you), just put in entry points for your subdocuments (press the enter key to create a new line for the insertion of each chapter, leave a line break between each entry point)
  4. You can save the master document at this pointA master document in outline view
 
Now insert the subdocuments:
  1. Put your cursor at the entry point where the first subdocument is to be inserted
  2. Now click on the "Outlining" tab in Word
  3. Click on the Show Document button
      • more options appear
  4. You can now click on the Insert button
  5. Select the subdocument to be inserted at this point (it will be in the same folder as the master document and all your other subdocuments)
  6. Select it and click "open" to insert it
  7. Repeat steps 4-6 in order to insert each of your subdocuments in the correct order
      • remember to put the cursor at the point where each subdocument is to be inserted
      • there must be a line break (a blank line) between subdocuments
  8. When the process is complete, save the file (you may save it as a copy, or a new file if you wish - e.g."final-draft1.docx")Inserting subdocuments into a master document

MS Word will create a next-page section break before each inserted subdocument, and a continuous section break afterwards.

This will format your paper so that each inserted section of the long document begins on a new page.

To see the effect of merging your chapter documents into one document, simply change the "View" to Print Layout.

Word 2003: using master documents and subdocuments

Download and read the detailed help sheet on using master and subdocuments in MS Word 2003:

 

Formatting your final merged document in order to get a single bibliography at the end of your thesis:

In order to get a single bibliography at the end of your thesis, you must format the final document using the reference management software, follow the appropriate instructions below:

Refworks users:

Open (if you haven't already) your final document

  1. Create a new page break at the very end of your document - your cursor should now appear in a new page at the end of your document
  2. Open and log into (if you haven't already) Write-N-Cite (WNC) using either the button in the "Add Ins" tab (Word 2010 and 2007) or on the toolbar (Word 2003)
  3. Click on the "Bibliography" menu in WNC
  4. Select the citation ("Output") style to be applied to your document (e.g. APA, Harvard, etc.) from the drop-down menu

      • Tip: those in use by academic departments are listed under "University of Kent Specific"

  5. Click on the Create Bibliography button
    Formatting a paper using WNC

Endnote users:

To format your final document and set the citations and bibliography to your required style

Word 2010 and 2007 users:

Open (if you haven't already) your final document

Create a new page break at the very end of your document - your cursor should now appear in a new page at the end of your document

  1. Click on the "EndNote X4" (or X3 or X2 - depending on the version that you have installed) tab
  2. Select the citation ("Output") style to be applied to your document (e.g. APA, Kent Harvard, etc.)
  3. Click on Update Citations and Bibliography buttonFormatting a paper in Word 2007
Word 2003 users:
  1. Open (if you haven't already) your final document
  2. Create a new page break at the very end of your document - your cursor should now appear in a new page at the end of your document
  3. Open the Word "Tools" menu
  4. Select EndNote X2
  5. Select Format Bibliography...
  6. Choose the correct referencing style (in the With output style drop-down menu under the "Format Bibliography" tab)
  7. Click on the OK button

 

This will create a new, complete document, with a single merged bibliography at the end.

You may now carry out the final formatting of your merged document (layout, pagination, addition of an index or any other necessary content after the bibliography, etc.).

Tips:

Make back-up copies of your chapters and final merged/master documents, so that you always have something to fall back on if there is a problem with merging, formatting, or paginating the final document.

Finalise your document chapters before you merge them together. Make any major or necessary changes to your text in the original chapter documents (rather than directly editing the newly-merged document).

Ask the Help and Enquiry Desk if you experience difficulties with word templates, managing long documents, merging documents or using master documents and subdocuments.

If you find that RefWorks or Write-N-Cite cannot process your document for some reason, then contact RefWorks Support (use the Help function within RefWorks). If you send a copy of the file to them (as an email attachment), they will process it for you and send it back (allow time for this!).

EndNote Users:

If you still end up with additional "mini" bibliographies left at the bottom of each chapter, manually delete these from the final version of the document. Do not use Endnote to reformat the document after this point, or it may replace the mini bibliographies again.

To report errors or suggestions for this page:

Please contact Jason Harper