Citations & Bibliography Group in Microsoft Word-please help me...

December 16, 2012 8:52 AM

I am trying to make a bibliography in Microsoft 2010 (after the nightmare of doing all of my citations manually, I learned my lesson) and it is not working out for me.

On the references tab, there should be a group called Citations & Bibliography, yet... there isn't. I have tried adding it by customizing the toolbar by going to File, Options and Customize Ribbons, but it says that the Citations & Bibliography is already in the References tab. It isn't. I've tried checking a bunch of online tutorials, but I still can't figure out what to do. I don't understand how else to get the Citations & Bibliography group into the References tab. I've also searched other AskMes, still can't figure it out. Please help, Microsoft 2010-saavy Mefites.

posted by Enchanting Grasshopper to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

My very first question is going to sound really stupid but: do you have the window maximized?
posted by SMPA at 9:03 AM on December 16, 2012

Response by poster: Yes, the window's maximized.
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 9:06 AM on December 16, 2012

Also: try resetting the entire References tab, if you haven't already.
posted by SMPA at 9:07 AM on December 16, 2012

(if you can share a screenshot of what your References tab currently looks like, that'd help a lot.)
posted by SMPA at 9:08 AM on December 16, 2012

Zotero is free, has a fairly full-featured reference management system that integrates with your browser if you use journal articles, and does a nice job of automatically generating bibliographies in Word.
posted by col_pogo at 10:21 AM on December 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm going to second (or, "third" I guess) the use of an external program to handle this. I've used Endnote and found it very helpful.
posted by NYC-BB at 10:22 AM on December 16, 2012

It's possible not all the groups are enabled. Go to File, then Options. I'm not in front of computer now, so this is from memory, but you're looking for Ribbon Settings. Check that the Citations group is enabled on your References tab.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 12:29 PM on December 16, 2012

Best answer: Oh my gosh, I just reread your question on my computer, and I see you already tried my suggestion. I'm sorry for the noise.

Here's a workaround that may work for you. Try adding the Citations group to your Quick Access Toolbar:

File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar. Change the "Choose Commands From" dropdown box to References. Then click once on Citations, and click the Add button. Then click OK.

Hope that helps.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 3:11 PM on December 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm actually using Endnote for another paper I'm working on right now, and it's doing so many weird things that even the subject librarian at my uni doesn't know what to do about it, which is why I'm trying to do my citations through Word with this paper. I'll try Zotero for my next paper.

Resetting the References tab didn't work, but I was able to add add Citations and Bibliography to the QAT, I will use it that way for now. Thanks for everyone's help.
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 2:50 AM on December 17, 2012

If all else fails, a clean install of Word doesn't have nearly as many downsides as it may sound like. You just lose your customizations, which most people don't have many of; when they do a clean install at my job it takes me about an hour to get everything back the way I like it, and I'm a rabid customizer (I have ten things on my quick-access toolbar, I change colors, I use the Word 2003 format...)

I honestly recommend clean installs whenever MS Office starts acting weird, because it's much more of a pain to try and fix things. Always write down your product key, for this exact reason.
posted by SMPA at 6:05 AM on December 18, 2012