How to change format of MS-Word Bibliography

Question

I'm using Word 2013's built-in citation management using the IEEE style, and including a built-n bibliography generated from the citations in my document. Unfortunately, the first column of the bibliography table is too narrow, so the citation numbers wrap if they exceed one digit. If I make the table column wider, it simply gets set back to the too-narrow column width as soon as the bibliography gets updated.

Is there any way to change the column widths in the bibliography table so they persist?

Answer 1

Thanks to Ramhound for the link to something that would let me manage the bibliography format (and I'd give credit for answering the actual question I asked if I could, but it's posted as a comment, not a reply). But I found the answer to the underlying problem at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/update-citations-and-bibliography-column-width/c16b8f08-3380-4ea6-8036-7ec78405c6e7?page=2&auth=1.

It turns out the citation numbers were wrapping because a URL in a citation was too long. Split that URL and the citation numbers formatted just fine with no need to edit any underlying XML.

Answer 2

Found a proper solution!

At the top left of your references table, hover your mouse over your first reference. Look for a little box with cross arrows in it, just to the left.

Right click on the box. Go to 'auto fit' and select 'fixed column width'.

Now go to the references table and make sure all your references are highlighted in the dark grey.

Hover your mouse at the end of the first column with the reference numbers to show the normal column width symbol. You can now double click on this and move the column to the right to make it wider. Once you have it the right size so the reference number and brackets fit in, let go and it should now work!

This took me an hour of fiddling so I hope I have now achieved my life's ambition and made the world a better place! ;-)

Ps - i did this with IEEE style and square brackets.

Answer 3

For people still looking for a one time workaround,

Wait till you have completed writing the whole document and you are sure that you don't want to update your Bibliography anymore, then follow the steps

1. Go to top left of the table, and hover above the first reference index number 1, until you see bold black down pointing arrow and click it. This will select the numbering column of table.

2. A formatting box appears right next to it, click on delete drop down and select delete columns. The numbering gets deleted.

3. select all the references in table until they are dark grey, go to numbering options in the home tab and select the numbering style. IEEE style follows number within square brackets.

That's all! Just remember, updating bibliography will undo this

Answer 4

Find the file "IEEE2006OffinceOnline.xsl" located at "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Bibliography\Style\IEEE2006OfficeOnline.xsl" and edit it using a text editor. The lines responsible for the width of the 1st column (i.e. the number column) are <xsl:value-of select="'1%'"/> Find all such lines and replace with a higher % value. In my case, 7% was Okay for me. There are 17 of such lines. Then edit line 8108 which is <xsl:value-of select="'100%'"/>. That is the line responsible for the width of the 2nd column. Reduce 100 by the number you added to the previous edits. If you changed from 1% to 7%, this will n be 100-6 = 94% Save the file and go back to your Word document and update the Bibliography field.