Plug-ins allow you to connect to Microsoft Word for PC and Mac, and LibreOffice for PC, Mac, and Linux. They allow access to your Mendeley Library from Word to create citations and bibliographies in your Word document.

Before we create a bibliography in our Word document, we will need to have added citations.

To add a citation as you write:

1. Open Mendeley Reference Manager and select "Tools" and then "Install Mendeley Cite for Microsoft Word." If the plugin is already installed, this option will be changed to "Uninstall MS Word Plugin."
2. Open Microsoft Word and click on the "References" tab.
3.  You should see a box titled "Cite with Mendeley." This is the Word plugin.
4. If you click the "Mendeley Cite" button within this box, a window pops up with options to search the Mendeley Library.
5. If you search for an item directly from this box, you'll see a list of results appears below the search bar. Select the one you want, click "Insert 1 Citation" and you'll see the citation appear in your paper.
   
6. If you choose not to insert a citation, make sure to click cancel. Otherwise Mendeley will think you’re still trying to insert a citation and won’t let you insert another.  

Choice of citation style. Mendeley comes with some citation styles, but it has hundreds of additional styles you can download by following the instructions on the CSL Citation Styles website.

In the same "Mendeley Cite" pop-up window, you can also automatically generate a bibliography:

1. Click on the "More" dropdown in the upper righthand corner
2. Select "Insert Bibliography." This tool will create a full citation for every source used in your paper. 

If you are using a different operating system (such as Mac or Libre), it may be helpful to look through Mendeley's guide "Using the Citation Plugin".