Inconsistency in name displayed and sorting in zotero library - how to harmonize

REMCODEGRAVE

Hello

I noticed that Zotero sometimes uses 'initials', 'lastname' (2 fields) to list creators/authors in article metadata, and sometimes 'lastname, initials' (1 field). That wouldn't be too much of a problem for me, we it not that if I sort articles based on the creator the sorting becomes messy because of this. If zotero used 'initials', 'lastname' and the initial was e.g. a P, then this article is lined up with other articles where the surname of the creator started with a P and Zotero had recorded metadata as 'lastname, initials' (1 field). I can go on each article individually and click on an icon indicating that the author is displayed either one or two fields, but this is very inefficient to do for each article. I feel there really should be a setting by which I can change the creator display style in one go for all articles, but I just can't find this. Any advise?

adamsmith

There's nothing in bulk, no (and note that you should store all personal authors as familyname, givenname in two field mode; everything else will produce incorrect citations)

tim820

When first learning Zotero I think it's best to be instructed to check that metadata is all present and formatted correctly on each incoming new reference. Sometimes people prefer to leave fixing up any problems until when a bibliography is generated when writing a paper. But @REMCODEGRAVE 's problem is an example of where that's false economy.

Finding all issues with author name formatting in your library can be aided by first generating a list of all authors ...
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/435566#Comment_435566