Word 2016 and Endnote’s “com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist” dialog window
Microsoft Office 2016’s applications are sandboxed, which means that they don’t have access to external files and settings by default and need to ask permission from the user. Thomson Reuters’ Endnote software is affected by this because it uses a plug-in for Word 2016. This means that the first time you launch Word 2016 after installing Endnote’s plug-in, you will see a dialog box along with this message:
EndNote needs access to the file named ‘com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist’. Select this file to grant access.
If you’re seeing this dialog box, the com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist file should be already selected. If the file has been selected, please click the Grant Access button. This procedure should only need to be performed once.
However, if you’re seeing this dialog box and the com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist file has not been automatically selected, that means that Endnote has been installed on this Mac but never launched. For more details, see below the jump.
To fix this issue, please use the procedure below:
1. Click the Cancel button in the dialog box.
2. Quit Word
3. Launch Endnote
4. Launch Word
5. You should see the dialog box again along with this message:
EndNote needs access to the file named ‘com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist’. Select this file to grant access.
This time, the com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist file should be selected.
6. Click the Grant Access button.
This procedure should only need to be performed once. For more information, please see the links below:
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Der Flounder 
Would you know if it’s possible to script this for a lab environment?
Dear AI
This is probalby not possible: The file in charge is
/Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.securebookmarks.plist
This file is a per user setting and has a secured bookmarks entry for com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist.
It contains the username, the OS version, something that looks like an ID and some other stuff we weren’t able to decode. Haven’t found a way to automatically generate this file.
I stay corrected: We just found out a possible way to generate this file programmatically using OS X resources for sandboxed apps, please find the code and a short manual in my GitHub-Repo:
https://github.com/maxschlapfer/MacAdminHelpers/tree/master/EndnoteSandboxAccess
We were able to generate this kind of file (a securebookmarks.plist), but we can’t make MS Word use it. As this seems to be an issue with signing, we would need the certificate from Thomson Reuters to make this work.
AI: Sorry, no solution.
Thank you for attempting it
How do I launch CWYW. It is not an app just a plug-in? The film isn´t there for me.
I have the same question. I only want to install CWYW without having installed the full Endnote software and always get the message “EndNote needs access to the file named ‘com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist’. Select this file to grant access.” when opening Word. I cannot open Endnote first as you suggest. Is there another way to produce the necessary file in the Preferences directory
I don’t have the com.ThomsonResearchSoft.EndNote.plist file. It was a symlink to an empty place. I uninstalled and reinstalled, no pref file.
We used Casper to drop the needed .plist into all user space (and default users), but you cannot (at least so far) make it NOT ask for access to the file when opening Word for the first time.
It bugs me that the first time always generates “A COM exception has occurred. This command is not available on an unsaved document” error.