Installation of Microsoft Word plugin in Mendeley

Question

I recently installed the free reference manager Mendeley. When I tried to install the Microsoft Word plugin on my computer, running a 64-bit Windows 7 Professional operating system and Microsoft Word 2010, the plug-in would not show up in the ribbon under References as “Mendeley Cite-O-Matic”. What can I do to solve this problem?

Answer 1

I searched the Mendeley support forum and found out that I was not alone having a problem with the automatic installation of the Microsoft Word plug-in from the Tools menu. The solution that worked for me was a slight modification of one of the Mendeley agent’s suggested solutions:

1. Install MS Word plugin from the Tools menu in Mendeley Desktop.

2. Browse to C:\Users[YourUserProfile]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Startup

   (The path might be slightly different on your machine. Remember also that the AppData folder is hidden. To make this folder visible, click Organize in the window toolbar -> Folder and search options -> View tab -> Hidden files and folders -> Show hidden files, folders, and drives)

3. Copy the file Mendeley-1.7.1.dotm

   (Alternatively, you may also find this file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Mendeley Desktop\wordPlugin folder)

4. Browse to C:\Users[YourUserProfile]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Autostart

5. Paste the file in the root of the folder.

6. Done!

The solution was to put the global template Mendeley-1.7.1.dotm in the Autostart folder instead of the Startup folder, which seems to be the normal folder for global templates from what I have read.