Citation tab does not show on the Word window (Mac OS)

VickyLin7958
Hi,

When I try to cite something in word, the citation tab for Zotero always appears on my desktop window instead of appearing on top of my word document. When I try and drag it into my word window, it doesn't work. It wasn't like this when I first downloaded Zotero but it has been like this since like the third time I used it. Is there any way to fix this? Thank you!

Best,
Vicky.
  • adomasven
    Can you take a screenshot of the issue, upload it somewhere (like dropbox or imgur) and post a link here?
  • VickyLin7958
    Thank you so much for getting back to me so soon. Yes, I just uploaded a picture, a screenshot, and a screen recording on dropbox - hopefully it illustrates my issue well. Here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/k689djggobmxrpyv1gifi/h?dl=0&rlkey=1qc720w7mukjcasn0o7i5pg60

    Thanks!
  • dstillman
    OK, be sure to specify when you're using full-screen mode and Spaces. That's not the default way of working on macOS, so it's not something people helping you will expect otherwise.

    This isn't something we can fix — since you have Word and Zotero in full-screen mode, and the citation bar is a separate Zotero window, it's going to open in the desktop space.

    Is this a problem, though? If I try this, it switches to the citation bar in the desktop space, but once I search for a citation and press Return, it switches back to full-screen Word.
  • VickyLin7958
    edited April 12, 2023
    Okay. I asked because I wasn't sure if this is a problem/bug on my computer - I remember using Zotero when I first downloaded it and the citation bar appears on top of my word, so I thought there might be something wrong with how it is now. Maybe I remember that wrong, and I wasn't using full screen Word at the time! You're right, it's still usable. I thought I'd just check because it is a bit annoying when it constantly jumps to desktop and back when I try to cite something. Thank you for your time!
  • alexander__
    edited April 10, 2025
    Sorry if this has been discussed in a different thread more recently, but I just stumbled upon this one and wanted to add my two cents: The floating citations window of Bookends is displayed on top of Word even when Word is in full-screen mode, so this appears to be technically possible. If this could be enabled for the Zotero citation bar without an unreasonable amount of effort, I think it would provide for an overall nicer experience.
  • adomasven
    We have a ticket open for this issue. It's not something that is natively supported by the Firefox platform that Zotero is based on, but it might be easier to tackle this now than it was 2 years ago.
  • alexander__
    @adomasven I noticed that the same behaviour occurs (perhaps unsurprisingly) not just in full screen mode, but also when using Stage Manager.

    I did some research and found a potentially helpful StackOverflow discussion: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36205834/allow-an-nswindow-nspanel-to-float-above-full-screen-apps

    There is a comment from 23 May 2024 referring to NSWindow.StyleMask.nonactivatingPanel, which sounds like it may be relevant: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nswindow/stylemask-swift.struct/nonactivatingpanel

    (I don't usually use GitHub and didn't want to clutter up the ticket there with my layman's research, but thought it might be helpful to share nevertheless.)
  • adomasven
    Thanks, this might help and I'll try to look at this approach some time in the future.
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