A reference note is automatically generated in an electronic document when directly quoting information from another electronic document by receiving a first user-selected insertion point or replacement area to a destination electronic document by receiving a user selection of text content to be transferred from a source user interface to the first insertion point or replacement area; automatically copying the selected content to a transfer buffer without requiring the user to return to the first user interface; automatically capturing and recording one or more source reference data items corresponding to the selected content simultaneously with or subsequent to automatically copying the selected content to a transfer buffer; and automatically generating in the destination electronic document at least one reference note such as a footnote, an endnote, a table of references entry, or a bibliographical entry containing the recorded source reference data items.