Can't convert footnotes to in-text citations in Word.

nmarantz

I am using Word 2004 and the most recent versions of Firefox/Zotero. I wrote an article for a book using Chicago style with footnotes. The book editor has requested Harvard style in-text citations. I changed to Harvard IEEE using the "Zotero Set Doc Prefs" button in Word and also clicked the "Zotero Refresh" tab. New citations are Harvard-style in-text and a Harvard-style bibliography has been generated. The citations that I inserted before switching styles are also now Harvard-style, BUT they are still FOOTNOTES. I would really like to automatically switch them to in-text.

I have searched the support discussions, but have found nothing on this topic. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick

adamsmith

how did you insert the Chicago Style citations? If you inserted the footnotes by Word (i.e. insert footnote) and then cited using Chicago style there isn't much you can do.
If you inserted the citation in the text, letting Zotero create the footnote that should convert correctly.

nmarantz

I inserted the Chicago Style citations using Zotero -- that's why I was surprised that it didn't automatically convert.

adamsmith

weird - just to be safe - did you try a different author-date style? APA or Chicago author-date?
I can't find a style "Harvard IEEE" in the repository - is that a custom style? If so the problem might be the style.

nmarantz

I mislabeled it in my original post -- it's "Harvard Reference format 1 (Author-Date)". I think it's a standard format.

adamsmith

Yeah - that should work. You did try with a different style, though? Which Zotero version is this? Did you use Fields or Bookmarks in Word? (see Document Preferences).
But beyond that I don't know - maybe Dan or Simon would be willing to troubleshoot your document.

nmarantz

I just tried converting to Chicago author-data and APA author date, but all of the original footnotes are still footnotes.

nmarantz

I used Fields in Word and am using Zotero 2.0rc5 with MacWord Integration 3.0a8 (although I also had this problem before the most recent updates). Any idea how I could ask Dan or Simon to take a look? Thanks so much for your help!

dstillman

If you send your document (or an excerpt of it reduced and saved from the original—not copied into a new document) to support@zot....org, we'll take a look.

nmarantz

Thanks. I have sent the document to the support address. I really appreciate your help.

dstillman

We'll look into this, but something to try: make a backup of your document, and then try setting it back to Chicago footnotes. This might throw an error, and the footnote citations may then look messed up. Then change it back to in-text.

For me, if I manually recreate the problem (by cutting a footnote number from the body text, changing the style to in-text, and pasting the footnote back in), this generates proper in-text citations. Obviously you'd want to carefully review the results.

nmarantz

Thanks. Cutting and pasting as you suggest does not work for me -- I still get footnotes.

I also tried changing all citations back to Chicago footnotes, then to Harvard in-text. I did get an error, both when I changed it back to Chicago footnotes and back again to Harvard in-text. Moreover, when I changed it back to in-text, all of the citations were gone and in their place were notations such as this: 1/22/10 1:13 PM. The error message when I changed it back to Harvard in-text was:

Zotero experienced an error updating your document.
AttributeError: 'Keyword' object has no attribute 'startswith'

dstillman

Cutting and pasting as you suggest does not work for me

I wasn't suggesting that you do that.

We'll keep looking into this.

katielance

Hello,

I am having a similar problem. I am using Zotero 3.0.1 with Mac integration (though I'm not sure of what version of that) with Word for Mac 2008. My document is in Chicago style with footnotes (full note) and I would like to change my citations to Chicago style (author-date) in-text. However, when I convert them they change from the footnote style: 1. B. Brubaker, “In Haiti: the art of resilience,” Smithsonian, September 2010, 42–49.

to 1.(Brubaker 2010, 48), but it is still in the footnote and actually not "in-text" and the superscripted footnote numbers are still in the document as well. I tried changing it with different styles and changing it back and forth as you suggested above, but nothing seems to work. Any help you can give me would be much appreciated. Thank you.

whitlark

Hello. I'm also having this problem. I use standalone zotero version 4.0.29.5 with Word 15.31 for a MAC. I inserted all of my footnotes using Zotero (never the word insert footnote feature), and I cannot convert my footnotes from footnotes to in-text parentheticals. There is no problem converting the within-citation formatting - i.e. from author-date to full note, or to something else altogether, i.e. Vancouver. But I cannot move the footnotes into the text. I have no difficulty with a new document and starting the citations in-text that way, but I'd like to be able to convert the existing 100 or so footnotes from this article into in-text parentheticals. Hoping you can help and looking forward to your assistance.
Thank you.

adamsmith

start by updating Zotero. What happens if you try to convert to another format? And you're using footnotes, not endnotes, yes?

whitlark

Converting to another format works perfectly. And yes, I'm using footnotes, not endnotes. I can switch the footnotes to any other formatting option including the (Author Date) style I'd like to see in-text. So the content changes accordingly, just not the location.
Will update and see if anything happens.

whitlark

Have now updated to zotero version 4.0.29.15 and the problem persists.

myriam.neaimeh

Problem switching from footnote citations to in-text citations.

I use standalone zotero version 5.0.17 with OpenOffice 4.1.3 and with LibreOffice 5.3.6.1.

Process:
I use Scrivener and Zotero.
I inserted all my citation in Scrivener as footnotes.

I exported the Scrievener document as .rtf , then opened it in Word and saved it as .odt. I had to do this step because I couldn't see the footnotes in the document when I saved directly as .odt from Scrievener.

In Zotero, I used the RTF Scan option to convert the citations.
In OpenOffice, in Zotero Toolbar: "Set Document Preferences"- no matter what citation style i use, the footnotes don't convert to in-text citations.
I tried the above step in LibreOffice and the footnotes did not convert to in-text either.

Has anyone found a solution to this?
or will I have to insert the citations one-by-one again in the final OpenOffice or LibreOffice document?

Cheers

bwiernik

I don't believe that the RTF Scan feature or the ODF Scan plugin can handle citations inserted in footnotes. That isn't the intended workflow. The citation placeholders must be inserted in-text. If you want a footnote style, then choose one (e.g., Chicago (note) ) after running the ODF scan.

adamsmith

ODF scan can handle citations in footnotes (with the caveat that Scrivener ODF doesn't work as myriam already noted). But I'm a) not clear on whether you're using RTF scan or ODF scan and b) not celar on what you mean by "in-text citations" exactly.

So a clarification for a) and an example for b) would help.

erdemli

Hi,
I encounter the same problem. I am using windows 10, office 2013, and zotero 5.0.17.

I tried it with chicago manual styles.

First, I added full note citations. As long as you do not close ALL office programs, converting works fine.

However, if you close ALL office programs, and re-open the documents, converting from full note to author-date do not run properly. As said above, zotero converts full notes to author-date citations, but in footnotes.

The result seems like:

citation1
citation2

----
1 (Aquinas 1960, 15)
2 (Clerk 2005)

I am not sure the problems comes from zotero or office. I may run take the risk to re-install the office.

---
edit: Close the office documents, while the citation is full note.

bwiernik

What file format are you saving your files in? And when you are inserting citations in a footnote style, are you inserting the footnotes manually, then inserting the citation into the footnote, or are you clicking the Zotero Add Citation button and letting Zotero create the footnote?

erdemli

File format is docx if you mean it.

I have made some more attempts.

Firstly, I opened a new office documents. I set "Chicago manual of style (full note) as style. I added two case citations using Zotero. I converted it to different styles. It works fine.
Then I closed, opened, closed and opened the documents. Conversion is always successful.

Then, I opened the second office document. Now, there are two open docs. One is only two footnotes while the other has much more. And this second document was using another style, and could not convert full note to the author-date style.

Then I closed all of them, and I re-opened the first document. It only used Cms full note, and never used lesser known styles. However, this time it could not convert the document properly.

So, it seems to me that the problem is with the these lesser known styles. These styles corrupt both the document that used it, and the documents that is open at the same time.

bwiernik

@adamsmith @adomasven I’m not sure where to go with this one.

erdemli

Another explanation may be this.

Zotero does not change the layout and paragraph settings of the footnotes. When someone wants their footnotes to be hanged, and adds tabs after footnote numbers, this may cause the above mentioned conversion problem.
As long as inserted tabs stays footnotes, it seems impossible the full note footnotes to author-date citations.

adomasven

Manually editing the footnotes inserted by Zotero in any way is very likely to cause at least unspecified behaviour, which with added spacing at the start of footnotes could very well lead to what you're reporting.

vcg225

Hi. I am having the same problem with Zotero: I was using a Chicago footnotes style. I tried changing it to MLA and APA and the parenthetical citations appear on footnotes. Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

Thanks.

bwiernik

Are you using endnotes or footnotes? If endnotes, first change to footnotes, then try to change styles again.

vcg225

I am using footnotes. I tried switching it to endnotes, then footnotes and finally to MLA (or APA), but it didn't work... Can this problem have anything to do with the fact that I am using the 16th edition of the Chicago Style?

arisilbermann

I'm also having this issue - changed from chicago footnotes to author-date and most of the footnotes appear in text but some are in parentheses in footnotes. All of them created at same time with zotero