Help Center

To install RefOwl:

1. Visit the Chrome Web Store
2. Click the "Add to Chrome" button
3. Confirm the installation when prompted
4. The RefOwl icon will appear in your Chrome toolbar

That's it! The extension is now ready to use.

The auto-fill feature automatically extracts citation information from the current webpage you're visiting. Here's how it works:

1. Navigate to the webpage you want to cite
2. Click the RefOwl icon in your Chrome toolbar
3. In the popup, click "Auto-fill from Page"
4. RefOwl will analyze the page's metadata and fill in fields like title, authors, publication date, etc.
5. Review the extracted information and make any necessary adjustments
6. Select your citation format and click "Generate Citation"

The auto-fill feature works best on academic websites, journal repositories, and news sites with proper metadata. Some websites may not have all the necessary information, in which case you'll need to fill in some fields manually.

RefOwl currently supports the following citation styles:

• APA (7th Edition) - American Psychological Association style, commonly used in social sciences
• MLA (9th Edition) - Modern Language Association style, commonly used in humanities
• Chicago (17th Edition) - Chicago Manual of Style, used in various disciplines

We're actively working on adding more citation styles in future updates, including:

• Harvard
• IEEE
• Vancouver
• AMA

For more details on each citation style, visit our Citation Guide.

RefOwl makes it easy to build a library of citations:

1. After generating a citation, click the "Save Citation" button
2. Your citation will be added to your library
3. To access your saved citations, click the "My Citations" tab in the extension popup
4. You can search, filter, and sort your citations by various criteria
5. To organize citations, you can add tags by clicking the tag icon next to any saved citation
6. To delete a citation, click the trash icon

All saved citations are stored locally in your browser and are available even when you're offline.

To export your bibliography:

1. Go to the "My Citations" tab in the extension popup
2. Select the citations you want to include (or choose "Select All")
3. Click the "Export" button
4. Choose your preferred citation style for the bibliography
5. Select your export format (Text, Word, HTML, or BibTeX)
6. Click "Export Bibliography"

The bibliography will be downloaded in your chosen format, ready to be included in your paper.

Yes, RefOwl has been designed with offline functionality in mind:

• You can access all your saved citations without an internet connection
• You can generate new citations for sources you've previously saved
• You can export your bibliography offline

However, the auto-fill feature requires an internet connection to analyze the current webpage. If you're offline, you'll need to manually enter citation information for new sources.

Yes, RefOwl takes your privacy seriously:

• All your citation data is stored locally in your browser
• Your citations are never uploaded to our servers
• We don't track what websites you visit or what sources you cite
• No personally identifiable information is collected

For more details on our privacy practices, please see our Privacy Policy.