BibTeX to Word Source Manager Converter

How to Use the BibTeX to Word Source Manager Converter

1. 1. Paste or load your references. BibTeX from JabRef, Zotero, Mendeley, Overleaf or a journal page, or RIS from a database export; the format is detected for you.
2. 2. Add the Sources.xml you already have (optional). Its sources are kept and the new ones added after them, so replacing Word's file loses nothing — essential on a Mac, where replacing the file is the only way in.
3. 3. Create and download Sources.xml. A table shows each source's tag, the Word source type it became and anything worth checking, such as a dropped “and others”.
4. 4. Load it into Word with the steps below, then cite from References → Insert Citation.

Loading Sources.xml in Word for Windows

1. 1. On Word's References tab, choose Manage Sources in the Citations & Bibliography group.
2. 2. In the Source Manager, choose Browse…, pick the Sources.xml you downloaded and choose OK. Its sources appear in the list on the left.
3. 3. Select them — Ctrl+A selects all — and choose Copy →. They join the Current List on the right, which is saved with the document.
4. 4. Close the Source Manager, pick a style in the Style box, and use Insert Citation and Bibliography as usual.

Word keeps its master list — the sources offered in every document — in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Bibliography\Sources.xml, which is C:\Users\your-name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Bibliography. To add the new sources to it for good, load that file into the converter's merge box, then put the merged file in its place while Word is closed.

Loading Sources.xml in Word for Mac

Word for Mac has no Browse button in its source manager, so the file has to go where Word looks for its master list:

1. 1. Quit Word.
2. 2. In Finder, choose Go → Go to Folder… and paste ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/.
3. 3. If a Sources.xml is already there, load it into the converter's merge box and create the file again, so your old sources come along — and keep a copy of the original as a backup.
4. 4. Put the downloaded Sources.xml in that folder and reopen Word.
5. 5. On the References tab choose Citations; in the Citations pane, open the menu at the bottom (a gear or … button, depending on your version) and choose Citation Source Manager to see and use the sources.

How BibTeX Maps to Word

Names keep their parts. Word's Last, First and Middle come from BibTeX's own reading of a name — “von Last, First” — so van der Berg and Müller arrive intact, and a braced name such as {World Health Organization} becomes a corporate author. LaTeX accents are decoded, a double hyphen in a page range becomes an en dash, a DOI loses any https://doi.org/ prefix, and each source's tag is its citation key reduced to letters, digits and underscores. Two things Word cannot hold are reported: “and others”, because Word lists only the names it is given, and fields over 255 characters, the limit Word's bibliography format sets.

@article{hirsch2005,
  author  = {Hirsch, Jorge E.},
  title   = {An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output},
  journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  year    = {2005},
  volume  = {102},
  number  = {46},
  pages   = {16569--16572},
  doi     = {10.1073/pnas.0507655102}
}

<b:Source>
  <b:Tag>hirsch2005</b:Tag>
  <b:SourceType>JournalArticle</b:SourceType>
  <b:Author>
    <b:Author>
      <b:NameList>
        <b:Person><b:Last>Hirsch</b:Last><b:First>Jorge</b:First><b:Middle>E.</b:Middle></b:Person>
      </b:NameList>
    </b:Author>
  </b:Author>
  <b:Title>An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output</b:Title>
  <b:JournalName>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</b:JournalName>
  <b:Year>2005</b:Year>
  <b:Volume>102</b:Volume>
  <b:Issue>46</b:Issue>
  <b:Pages>16569–16572</b:Pages>
  <b:DOI>10.1073/pnas.0507655102</b:DOI>
</b:Source>

The whole file wraps these sources in a b:Sources element in the Office Open XML bibliography namespace, http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/bibliography — the format Word itself writes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from the BibTeX to Word Converter?

The BibTeX to Word Converter formats your references and gives you a Word document with a finished, hanging-indented APA reference list — text you paste in and edit. This tool loads the references into Word's own citation manager instead, so you insert each citation from References → Insert Citation and Word writes the bibliography in the style you pick and keeps it up to date. Use the converter for a finished list; use this one to cite as you write in Word.

Where does Word keep Sources.xml?

On Windows, Word's master source list is %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Bibliography\Sources.xml — C:\Users\your-name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Bibliography. On a Mac it is in ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/. The sources cited in a document are also stored inside the .docx itself, so the document keeps its citations on another computer.

Can I import an RIS file into Word?

Not directly: Word reads only its own XML format. Paste or load the RIS records here and they are read by the same importer CitationEasy's bibliography uses, then written out as Sources.xml. RIS records carry no citation keys, so each source is tagged from the first author's surname and the year, such as Kahneman1979.

Why are some authors missing after the import?

A BibTeX author list that ends “and others” was shortened at some point, and Word can only list the names it is given, so the converter drops “others” and flags the source. Add the missing names in Word's Edit Source dialog, or complete the .bib entry and convert it again.

Will Word's bibliography follow APA 7 or MLA 9 exactly?

Word formats citations with its own built-in versions of each style. Which editions are offered depends on your version of Word, and they do not always follow every rule of the current manual, so check the finished bibliography against your style guide — the APA Citation Checker can help.

Is the converter free, and are my files uploaded?

It is free with no sign-up, and nothing is uploaded. BibTeX is converted entirely in your browser; RIS records are read in your browser too, by the site's importer, which is loaded into the page when you convert an RIS file.