Zotero in Word not working - yellow bar appears when trying to insert a note/citation/bibliography

ChiaraLacroix

When trying to either add a citation on Word (latest version, Windows), instead of the Zotero red bar allowing me to look for a document, I get a yellow empty bar, and below it a suggestion of one document I have in a shared library. Typing into the yellow bar will not find any of the documents I have on my library (except for that shared one which it keeps suggesting to me).

When restarting Word and Zotero, I sometimes get the normal Zotero bar for the first citation I make, then the yellow bar comes back again (by the way, it also opens in a separate window called "quick format citation".)

I tried citing the document the yellow bar kept suggesting to see if it changed something, but it does not even make a citation of it, just inserts the table of contents it seems.

I have tried all the troubleshooting suggestions for Word (here: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/debugging_broken_documents) but no result.

If someone has a clue what is going on, please help! I have an essay due soon and I am panicking a little.

dstillman

You're just clicking Add Note instead of Add/Edit Citation.

https://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-6/#adding_notes_to_word_processors

ChiaraLacroix

As mentioned, the yellow bar appears also when trying to add a citation. It does not matter which button I click.

ChiaraLacroix

I realised I used note interchangeably with citation, which is my bad - the problem is with making citations, not notes.

dstillman

Right, but the yellow bar appears when you click Add Note, not anything else. Make sure you're actually closing it with Esc. If you don't close it, clicking any other button will just bring it to the front.

ChiaraLacroix

Thank you!

Loubops

Hey there, the same is happening to me. Driving me a little lula. I took a week break from the thesis, and now back in it again and Zotero isn't playing ball at all. The yellow box keeps appearing when trying to cite and I've restarted and re-downloaded the app three times now. Worked with the red box once and then defaulted back to the yellow box, where I can not search or input anything.

Some help would be greatly appreciated.

dstillman

@Loubops: The yellow bar only appears when you click Add Note instead of Add/Edit Citation. As above, press Esc to close the dialog properly, and then click Add/Edit Citation.