How do I take the EndNote code out of my document?

There are two ways to create (or change) Word documents so that the EndNote code is removed.

Plain text (PT) documents

A plain text document can be made out of one that already has EndNote code embedded in it; this will strip all the code out. A PT document may be useful if there are referencing errors that you just don’t know how to fix using EndNote, and need to change manually. This should be done at the very last stage before submission and after you have added all your references.  

To convert to a PT document, for PCs, click 'Convert to Plain Text' under the Convert Citations and Bibliography dropdown in the Bibliography block.  For Macs and Word 2016, click the Tools icon and click the 'Convert to Plain Text' option.

Note: You cannot reverse this action and replace the code once the document is plain text. You will be prompted to save a copy of the coded version when you create a plain text one, so that you can go back to the last saved coded copy if you need to.

Unformatted documents

An unformatted document uses "placeholders", appearing as a field code, eg {Smith, 2004 #15}.  The #15 is the record number for the citation in your EndNote library, so when you "re-format" the document, the software can read this and insert the correct reference. 

If you are working on a long document, converting to an unformatted version is efficient, as updating the codes for a large number of references with EndNote can take a long time.

To convert to an unformatted document, click on 'Convert to Unformatted Citations' under the Convert Citations and Bibliography dropdown in the Bibliography block. Note that the words 'Instant Formatting is Off' will appear in the Bibliography block after conversion. 

When you are ready to format the codes again, click the dropdown arrow in the Bibliography block next to 'Instant Formatting is Off', and click 'Turn Instant Formatting On'.  With this type of "codeless" version, you can swap between formatted and unformatted in the one document as needed.

Note: In an unformatted document, the bibliography/reference list will not appear, and there is no grey highlight of the in-text citation when you click on it.