Mendeley’s Citation Plug-in will save you time by helping you cite references as you’re writing new research. Mendeley will do all the work for you! Installing the Citation Plug-in takes only a single step. From Mendeley Desktop, click ‘Install MS Word Plugin’ and Mendeley will do the rest. The plug-in works not only for MS Word, but also for LibreOffice.  Once the plug-in has been installed, you will see it in your word processing program.

Learn more about the Mendeley Plug-In feature and adding citations in the Mendeley Minute below. 

To install an in-text citation:

• Point your cursor where you want to add the citation 
• Click ‘Insert or Edit Citation’  A new window will pop up

• Type in the name of the author, part of the title, or the year of the citation and Mendeley will show you a list of matches from your library.

• Select the article or book, and click ‘ok’ to automatically cite that text in Word

If you can’t remember the author or title of the article you’re looking for, or if you’d like to browse your library for more references, you can click ‘Go To Mendeley’ in the Citation pop-up. 

This button will open up your Mendeley Desktop, with one small difference. There will now be a temporary button in the top bar that says ‘Cite’. Select your reference from the list, and click ‘Cite’ to have Mendeley insert the citation and take you back to your Word document. 

Please note that you can only add citations from Mendeley Desktop, not Mendeley Web. Also, The Style dropdown box will not display a bibliographic style until you have inserted your first citation.

In MacOS, the plugin looks like a bar that lists the functions of Mendeley. You can move this bar wherever you like, or you can hide it. If it ever accidentally disappears, don’t worry. Go to View, then Toolbars, and click ‘Mendeley Toolbar’ to make it re-appear. 

In Windows, the plugin looks a little bit different. You can find it under the ‘References’ tab and the toolbar is integrated into the ribbon.

When you have finished your work, and you’re ready to add the bibliography,  place your cursor exactly where you want the bibliography to go. Then...

• Click ‘Insert bibliography’ in the Mendeley toolbar:

• Choose your desired citation style:

• Done! 

Mendeley will then generate a bibliography for you instantly. 

Please note that these screenshot images are for Mac iOS. Windows OS looks slightly different.