If you are currently a Mendeley Desktop user, you will have already noticed that it comes with built-in plug-ins for Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Writer. These plug-ins are really useful for adding citations to your Word/Writer documents and build your bibliography dynamically.
Now, what if you happen to want to add a bibliography section in a document other than MS Word or OO Writer? No problem, we’ve got that covered! You have two options: copy & paste or drag & drop. Both alternatives are very similar.
First you open Mendeley Desktop and select the list of papers or references you would like to include in your bibliography (You can select as many references as you want). Use the normal multiple selection keys you would use to select multiple files in a folder elsewhere on your computer. In my case I’m a Windows/Linux user, so I press and hold the Ctrl key while I highlight the references I want to include.
Once you have all the desired references selected, you should pick which option you prefer: copy & paste or drag & drop.
To drag & drop, you simply use your mouse to drag the selected references all at once to your document of choice (text document, blog entry form, Google Doc, e-mail etc.) and drop them where you would like them to be listed. You’ll notice they are nicely numbered and formatted. How convenient!
If you prefer to copy & paste, just simply press Crtl+C or go to the menu option Edit > Copy citation and then paste your reference list wherever you like. Yes, also neatly ordered and formatted!
As mentioned before, you can copy & paste or drag & drop references into virtually any application or location that allows you to write text. Give it a try, use it to add references in your blog post, an email or anywhere else!
And yes, we know how much you long for the Word plugin for Mac… bear with us!
Tags: Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word plug-in, OpenOffice Writer, OpenOffice Writer plug-in, References
On FriendFeed, this post was liked by 4 people and commented on 2 times 
November 4th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Really awesome! We have reviewed and awared Mendeley Desktop. Thanks!
November 5th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
How long do we have to wait for the mac word plugin? If you start charging for it, then I would pay for such a plugin for sure.
November 10th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Have you explored the possibility of integrating Mendeley with Google Docs via their data API? Check out this project: http://code.google.com/p/gdbe/
This would be a great way of reaching out to a huge user community…
November 10th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Thanks Dario – we’ll look into it!
November 10th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
oops I’ve been spotted
February 10th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Hi folks, is there any update on this idea? I am increasingly relying on GDocs and Wave for collaborative drafting of papers/projects and the lack of reference integration is the top missing feature. An ideal implementation should separate content from presentation, following the logic of bibtex, so that references can be rendered on the fly depending on the format required by a specific outlet.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
The update at the moment is that the next version (v0.9.6) will include the much requested Word plugin for Mac (it’s already included in the current development preview). Once this is complete, we hope to have a little bit more time to follow up on our preliminary Google Docs investigation.
February 14th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
I am writing my thesis, and of course, using a Mac! How soon is soon, for the word plugin? Mendely rocks, but this would make it soo much better.
February 14th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
You can either download the current development preview, or wait until v0.9.6 will be released in the next few days.
February 14th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
As Jan mentioned in his last comment, you can already try out the new Word Mac plugin by using the latest development preview: http://www.mendeley.com/download-mendeley-desktop/. Final v0.9.6 should come out in one or two weeks time.