Adding words into Zotero fields

thielto

I have looked throughout the forum, but did not find any similar request. Here is my problem. It would be great if one could customize Zotero quotations by adding words into the quotation, for example:

Only few academic works exist about the prolem of xxy bla bla bla (except Smith, 2000; Johnson 2003).

The refreshing Zotero will always delete the text. Any way this could be incorporated into Zotero? Or is there another way to get around it? The same problem happens by the way if I change the font format of a Zotero quote or bibliography - after the refresh, it will always go back to the old font.

Thank you!

Gracile

It is possible if you use the Word/OO plugins: when you insert a citation, just write in the field "prefix"... (or "suffix").
For the font, you must use the editor by clicking on "Show Editor". (have a look on the video there: http://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_integration )

adamsmith

a caveat about using the show editor field - if you make changes using that your citation will not update anymore.

Gracile

@adamsmith
Indeed, I didn't notice that.
Is it considered as a bug? It seems to me very difficult to avoid it while styles can be very different and therefore display other words that those edited... but I'm not a programmer.
[Would it be possible to display a warning message to the user when s/he decides to change the style; this message could ask him if s/he wants to remove all the formatting before the style change.]

adamsmith

I'm not quite sure what you mean with "It seems to me very difficult to avoid it while styles can be very different and therefore display other words that those edited".
This is not considered a bug - problem is that there wouldn't be a way for zotero to know which part of the changes to refresh and which ones not to after such and edit. This doesn't just refere to style changes, but also to updates in the database or the style itself.

I think a warning is a very good idea, but I'd rather attach it to using the "show editor" function, which imho should really be a last resort solution.

Gracile

You've understood me well (but you've express my idea more clearly)!

A warning before the change is useful only if it allows the user to remove all the formatting (in order to allow a complete and real style change). Otherwise, as you said, a warning should appear when s/he decides to use the editor.

thielto

Thank you for your responses. I can't believe I have used Zotero for about a year now, never noticing the Prefix/Suffix option...;)

Regarding the font, I think that the most useful thing would be if one could define a number of font styles for Zotero citations, and allow users to change them for specific footnotes by adding a "Define/Change Style" option that will permanently keep the citation in the necessary style for a given citation.

fbennett

Mixing citation styles within a document isn't supported, and won't feature in the new CSL citation processor slated for Zotero 2.1, either. The new processor will allow in-field markup (for italics, boldface, super- and sub-scripting and a few other bibs and bobs) in the title, prefix and suffix fields, though, which may cover your needs.

thielto

@fbennett.

Thanks! Mixing citation styles does not make sense, you are right. What I meant was that it would be helpful to change the font style and size for quotations. This would be useful because I find myself sometimes inserting Zotero citations in normal 12-size font, and then on other parts, say an indented quote at font size 11 bold. That is why I think it is useful to control all aspects of the font, if technically possible.

Thank you all for your replies!