When I add in-text citations using RefWorks Citation Manager (RCM) it freezes with the words 'Formatting, please wait' in the text rather than the reference. How do I fix this?

Answer

This can be caused by the use of track changes or because of some other formatting that you've added to the document. It can also be caused by manual editing of references, which is why we would advise against doing this if possible. Below are some steps you can take to resolve the problem.

  1. Make sure that you have track changes turned off in the document and that all changes have been accepted.
  2. Log out of RCM, quit Word, re-open Word and log back into RCM. This will ensure that RCM is updated to the latest version. Does it work now?
    If not....
  3. Delete any citations you have manually edited (i.e. clicked inside the citation and made changes) and re-add them using RCM. Within your document, citations are inserted as separate “block” elements. When you click on them, you’ll see a bounding box that delimits the citation. To delete the citation, you must delete the bounding box. Highlight the citation you wish to delete and use the backspace key or delete key to remove it.
  4. Save changes and close Word. Re-open Word and allow RCM to load then save the document (do not close it) and see if you can continue your work.
  5. If you still have problems, then this may occur when coding from a source outside of RefWorks Citation Manager is inserted in the document. To repair the document, all of the foreign coding must be removed, save the document and attempt to insert citations again. If you are unable to, coding still remains that needs to be removed. This coding typically comes from Word itself and can include, but is not limited to, track changes, tables, images, and templates. If you are unable to remove all of the coding, you will need to remove the coding you can, copy and paste the text (keep text only, no formatting) into a new document, and re-cite your citations in the new document.

    If you are going to add a lot of formatting to a document e.g. using a document template, or adding lots of graphs, you might want to use RCM with a plain text document, adding citations and keeping the plain text version as a working draft then copying and pasting the contents into another document where you add formatting, graphs, images or a document template.

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  • Last Updated 29 Jul, 2019
  • Views 4184
  • Answered By Anna Richards

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Comments (2)

  1. Many thanks Anna for trying to help, but the sub-text to this advice appears to be that RefWorks isn't very good and should be avoided. Why would anyone design an add-in to Word that won't work if you have things like tables in your document?
    by Richard on 15 Jun, 2020
  2. Hi Richard There is a new version of RefWorks Citation Manager (which this FAQ relates to) which aims to address these issues. If you are experiencing this problem then you may want to update RCM. There are also other features in RefWorks that you can use to add a bibliography to a Word document that don't involve using RCM, such as Create a Bibliography or Quick Cite. If you find RCM isn't working for you but you still wish to use RefWorks to insert references into a document then have a look at these.
    by Anna Richards on 15 Jun, 2020