Every time you add a new in-text citation, or add page number to a citation, EndNote checks your entire document. Has this citation been used before, should this citation use all authors or use et al. instead, is there already an entry for this in the reference list?
These and other checks are fine on smaller documents, but as your document gets larger, this process takes more and m-o-r-e time, slowing down your workflow.
In a thesis with a few hundred pages and hundreds of citations, on a slow computer, adding each new in-text citation can take several minutes, during which you cannot work in Word.
In Word, go to the EndNote tab and change the setting in the toolbar from Instant Formatting is On to Instant Formating is Off.
EndNote will now insert temporary placemarkers for in-text citations, and will not check the rest of the document or update the reference list.
Using these temporary placemarkers keeps Word responsive and fast.
When you are ready to have a beverage of your choice, go back to the EndNote toolbar (ribbon) tab in Word and click on Update Citations and Bibliography. Over the next few minutes, all your in-text citations will be checked and converted to your selected referencing style, and your reference list will be updated.