Troubleshooting

Citations with Proper Names in the Article Title (APA and others)

RefWorks makes all words in the article titles lower case. Proper names must be recapitalized in your final document.

Reference List Spacing

Use the instructions below to fix the problem of excess line spacing; this occurs in APA, MLA, and perhaps other output formats.

After creating the References list in your document using Write-N-Cite and Microsoft Word, modify the Final Document using this process:

1. Highlight all the references
2. Go to FORMAT / PARAGRAPH / SPACING
3. Change BEFORE: from 12 pt to 0 pt

ERIC Documents Using And Others for multiple authors

This is really a problem with the ERIC database and not with RefWorks. ERIC abbreviates a long author list to Deering, Paul D.; And Others. Proper APA citation requires that the first six authors be listed and then et al. added to the list if there are more than six. The original document should be consulted so that the RefWorks record can be edited with the additional last names.

For example, you would enter all authors on the Author field as follows:

Cugy,D.; Penide,D.; Paty,J.; Balan,J.; Vinclair,J.; Cugy,S.; Lenain,J.-L.; Giordanella,J.-P.

RefWorks then has enough information to create a correct author entry which is

Cugy, D., Penide, D., Paty, J., Balan, J., Vinclair, J., & Cugy, S. et al.

ERIC Documents in the Reference List

After exporting ERIC documents into RefWorks, click on the Edit button for each record.

1. Change the drop-down box for Ref Type to Report.
2. Add a period and two spaces after the title.
3. In the Identifying field box, enter ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EDXXXXXX. (You can find this number in the Notes field.) For ERIC documents which are papers presented at conferences, several additional modifications need to be made. See example 52 on page 260 of the APA Manual
4. Add a comma, a space and a month after the year. Example: 1995, November
5. Copy the name and place of the conference out of the notes field and paste it after the title. On the final version of your document, you will have to recapitalize proper names.

RefGrab-It and Windows Internet Explorer

According to the RefWorks instructions about RefGrab-It, you should be able to drag and drop the icon into the toolbar. Even when you follow all their directions about selecting and displaying Links and having your toolbar unlocked, you still can't successfully drag the icon to the toolbar.

Here is a way that does work:

• Go to the RefWorks tools menu and open the page for RefGrabIt.
• Right click on the link for RefGrabIt.
• Choose Add to Favorites and put it in your Links folder.
• Now it should show up in your Links bar. (Be sure that your Links bar is visible.

Since the public machines don't allow a Links bar, people won't see the icon. The RefGrabIt link will, however, be under the Favorites menu.

Using One Line/Cite View on the Macintosh

When you come to the last step of the process, Create Bibliography, RefWorks creates a file whose name begins with Final- which you download to your computer. The file is supposed to be a Microsoft Word document, but a glitch in the software causes it to create an Excel icon:

If you try to open this file by double-clicking on it, you will get an error. Instead, just drag the Excel icon onto the Word icon in your Dock or Applications folder or wherever it is. The file should open fine.

This problem has been reported to RefWorks.