Word: Possibility to link references and bibliography in a document?

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  • +1 wishing to have an in-text citation option for my zotero bibliography..
    astonishing (and a bit sad) to see this thread open since 2013..
    and still no reply from zotero :(
  • it's a pity.. but quite clear. thanks
  • Hello,
    I made a review of @cjac1 s word macro, because I also need the links and there were some issues with the script.
    You can use this as a basis, or adjust some parts to your needs. My citations are of the type [1], [2], [4]; or [1]-[3]; or [1], [2]-[5], and the macro (below) can handle all of these. Each Ref. has to be in brackets [].
    Every visible number of the citation block is converted to a hyperlink. I have tested it with my thesis (Word 2016, >70 references). It worked quite well, but i recommend to test it on a copy of your file. The changes are irreversible.
    I have mainly only standard references (articles, papers, thesis, books and book sections). I got a problem with a document type ref, but i fixed this (more or less). So in some special cases there are issues... maybe, I dont know.

    Hyperlinks doesnt work in footnotes.

    copy it: in Word Alt+F8; type any name --> create; copy+paste all of the code there,
    start it: in Word Alt+F8; choose ' ZoteroLinkCitation' --> run

    Have Fun! And sry for the long post.



    Public Sub ZoteroLinkCitation()

    ' get selected area (if applicable)
    Dim nStart&, nEnd&
    nStart = Selection.Start
    nEnd = Selection.End

    ' toggle screen updating
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False

    ' define variables
    Dim title As String
    Dim titleAnchor As String
    Dim style As String
    Dim fieldCode As String
    Dim numOrYear As String
    Dim pos&, n1&, n2&, n3&

    ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
    Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

    ' find the Zotero bibliography
    With Selection.Find
    .Text = "^d ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL"
    .Replacement.Text = ""
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindContinue
    .Format = False
    .MatchCase = False
    .MatchWholeWord = False
    .MatchWildcards = False
    .MatchSoundsLike = False
    .MatchAllWordForms = False
    End With
    Selection.Find.Execute

    ' add bookmark for the Zotero bibliography
    With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks
    .Add Range:=Selection.Range, Name:="Zotero_Bibliography"
    .DefaultSorting = wdSortByName
    .ShowHidden = True
    End With

    ' loop through each field in the document
    For Each aField In ActiveDocument.Fields
    ' check if the field is a Zotero in-text reference
    '##################################################
    If InStr(aField.Code, "ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM") > 0 Then
    fieldCode = aField.Code
    '#############
    ' Prepare
    ' Plain citation== Format of Textfield shown
    ' must be in Brackets
    Dim plain_Cit As String
    plCitStrBeg = """plainCitation"":""["
    plCitStrEnd = "]"""
    n1 = InStr(fieldCode, plCitStrBeg)
    n1 = n1 + Len(plCitStrBeg)
    n2 = InStr(Mid(fieldCode, n1, Len(fieldCode) - n1), plCitStrEnd) - 1 + n1
    plain_Cit = Mid$(fieldCode, n1 - 1, n2 - n1 + 2)
    'Reference 'as shown' in word as a string

    'Title array in fieldCode (all referenced Titles within this field)
    Dim array_RefTitle(32) As String
    i = 0
    Do While InStr(fieldCode, """title"":""") > 0
    n1 = InStr(fieldCode, """title"":""") + Len("""title"":""")
    n2 = InStr(Mid(fieldCode, n1, Len(fieldCode) - n1), """,""") - 1 + n1
    If n2 < n1 Then 'Exception the type 'Article'
    n2 = InStr(Mid(fieldCode, n1, Len(fieldCode) - n1), "}") - 1 + n1 - 1
    End If
    array_RefTitle(i) = Mid(fieldCode, n1, n2 - n1)
    fieldCode = Mid(fieldCode, n2 + 1, Len(fieldCode) - n2 - 1)
    i = i + 1
    Loop
    Titles_in_Cit = i

    'Number array with References shown in PlainCit
    'Numer is equal or less than Titels, depending on the type
    '[3], [8]-[10]; [2]-[4]; [2], [4], [5]
    ' All citations have to be in Brackets each! [3], [8] not [3, 8]
    ' This doesnt work otherwise!
    ' --> treatment of other delimiters could be implemented here
    Dim RefNumber(32) As String
    i = 0
    Do While (InStr(plain_Cit, "]") Or InStr(plain_Cit, "[")) > 0
    n1 = InStr(plain_Cit, "[")
    n2 = InStr(plain_Cit, "]")
    RefNumber(i) = Mid(plain_Cit, n1 + 1, n2 - (n1 + 1))
    plain_Cit = Mid(plain_Cit, n2 + 1, Len(plain_Cit) - (n2 + 1) + 1)
    i = i + 1
    Loop
    Refs_in_Cit = i


  • ' Part 2: seamless copy!


    'treat only the shown references (skip the rest)
    '[3], [8]-[10] --> skip [9]
    'Order of titles given from fieldcode, not checked!
    If Titles_in_Cit > Refs_in_Cit Then
    array_RefTitle(Refs_in_Cit - 1) = array_RefTitle(Titles_in_Cit - 1)
    i = 1
    Do While Refs_in_Cit + i <= Titles_in_Cit
    array_RefTitle(Refs_in_Cit + i - 1) = ""
    i = i + 1
    Loop
    End If

    '#############
    'Make the links
    For Refs = 0 To Refs_in_Cit - 1 Step 1
    title = array_RefTitle(Refs)
    array_RefTitle(Refs) = ""
    ' make title a valid bookmark name
    titleAnchor = title
    titleAnchor = MakeValidBMName(titleAnchor)

    ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
    Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="Zotero_Bibliography"

    '' locate the corresponding reference in the bibliography
    '' by searching for its title
    Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
    With Selection.Find
    .Text = Left(title, 255)
    .Replacement.Text = ""
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindContinue
    .Format = False
    .MatchCase = False
    .MatchWholeWord = False
    .MatchWildcards = False
    .MatchSoundsLike = False
    .MatchAllWordForms = False
    End With
    Selection.Find.Execute

    ' select the whole caption (for mouseover tooltip)
    Selection.MoveStartUntil ("["), Count:=wdBackward
    Selection.MoveEndUntil (vbBack)
    lnkcap = "[" & Selection.Text
    lnkcap = Left(lnkcap, 70)

    ' add bookmark for the reference within the bibliography
    Selection.Shrink
    With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks
    .Add Range:=Selection.Range, Name:=titleAnchor
    .DefaultSorting = wdSortByName
    .ShowHidden = True
    End With

    ' jump back to the field
    aField.Select
    ' find and select the numeric part of the field which will become the hyperlink
    Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
    With Selection.Find
    .Text = RefNumber(Refs)
    .Replacement.Text = ""
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindContinue
    .Format = False
    .MatchCase = False
    .MatchWholeWord = False
    .MatchWildcards = False
    .MatchSoundsLike = False
    .MatchAllWordForms = False
    End With
    Selection.Find.Execute

    numOrYear = Selection.Range.Text & ""

    ' store current style
    style = Selection.style
    ' Generate the Hyperlink -->Forward!
    ActiveDocument.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=Selection.Range, Address:="", SubAddress:=titleAnchor, ScreenTip:=lnkcap, TextToDisplay:="" & numOrYear
    ' reset the style
    Selection.style = style

    ' comment if you want standard link style
    aField.Select
    With Selection.Font
    .Underline = wdUnderlineNone
    .ColorIndex = wdBlack
    End With

    Next Refs 'References in Cit

    End If 'If Zotero-Field
    '#########################

    Next aField ' next field

    ' go back to original range selected
    ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
    ActiveDocument.Range(nStart, nEnd).Select

    End Sub
    Function MakeValidBMName(strIn As String)
    Dim pFirstChr As String
    Dim i As Long
    Dim tempStr As String
    strIn = Trim(strIn)
    pFirstChr = Left(strIn, 1)
    If Not pFirstChr Like "[A-Za-z]" Then
    strIn = "A_" & strIn
    End If
    For i = 1 To Len(strIn)
    Select Case Asc(Mid$(strIn, i, 1))
    Case 49 To 57, 65 To 90, 97 To 122
    tempStr = tempStr & Mid$(strIn, i, 1)
    Case Else
    tempStr = tempStr & "_"
    End Select
    Next i
    tempStr = Replace(tempStr, " ", " ")
    MakeValidBMName = Left(tempStr, 40)
    End Function
  • I have been writing a macro for libreoffice odt files. I assumed that the listing of references was by numbered paragraph, and therefore just made a bookmark called _Ref_n where n is the paragraph number, and linked from the citation number to that. This would be much shorter.
    Also similar procedure for author names (by this is not so accurate with multiple references where the first author is the same - links just to the first reference in the sequence, or to authors with say "van der" or some other lowercase prenom).
  • Thanks for the great work and for sharing, the macro's newest version worked perfectly for me.
  • This thread is great and just what I'm looking for. I need to link citations in a PDF for a report I'm writing.

    When I run the script though, the whole document appears to be blank. The word count still shows up, so it's doing something bad to the document, but I'm afraid I'm not enough of a programmer to understand what.

    Have folks gotten this script to work?
  • Very interesting thread. I hope we can have an official release of such a feature.
  • Checking back in to see if Zotero has made any progress with this feature.
  • Nothing new
  • Thank you, @freim86 , for the work ! It's like magic !

    I would like to update the instructions for those who are not on Windows:
    I copied the 2 parts of the script in a text file.
    Then open Tools > Macros > Visual Basic Editor . In there, I created a new module under Normal > Modules, and in that window I pasted everything from the text file. Save, close. Switch back to Word. You may need to restart it.
    Then, to run it, you open Tools > Macros > "Macros...". You should see the name "ZoteroLinkCitation" in there. Select it, then click Run. Wait. Voilà !

    So yes, @Phill_Jones , it works for me. But I have a small 5-page document.
  • I'm currently using Zotero with Google Docs, and I have to "Unlink citations" before exporting to PDF. (otherwise it will point to Zotero's webpage)

    It seems that it would be possible to create an option "link citations to bibliography" before exporting to PDF.
  • Hi!
    Is there any news about the integration of this hyperlink to the bibliography functionality ?

    In all the solutions proposed by the different contributors, does one of them work with APA citations like (Author, date) ?

    Thanks for your help!
  • Hello

    This might help someone: In order to run @freim86's makro I had to replace "ActiveWindow" with "Application.ActiveWindow" (i.e. add "application.") And now it works perfectly. The links also stay when converting the document to a pdf which is great.

    thank you @freim86 for your work!
  • Hi!

    Is there any hope for this in-text citation link to bibliography evolution to be integrated into Zotero?

    Unfortunately, the methods proposed in this topic do not work for the APA standard
    (Author, date).

    Thanks for your help!
  • Thanks @freim86 ! it worked for me on a 300 pages, 600 ref document. It took almost an hour but the work is done !
  • Hello everybody.
    I went through this thread which was initiated as far as... 2010.
    I'd like to join my voice to those who are requesting this in-text link between citation and bibliography capability to be developed. It might represent a fair amount of work but would be extremely useful.
    Indeed, at least in sciences, more and more articles are published online or distributed as pdf files that must incorporate links between citation ad their corresponding full reference, often grouped at the end of the article.

    @adomasven wrote on January 16, 2019:
    "We'd like to have this, but it would require a rather large amount of work for a feature that's not that high on the priority list so we have no plans for the near future."
    Have the priorities of dev changed since then?
    End 2023 may be considered as the "near future" of 2019, no? ;-)
    Should it not be the case, how can we push a feature higher in the list of priority?
    I read that a lot of people are waiting for this feature to be implemented.
    I'm new on Zotero and I am amazed by the capabilities and ergonomics on this application.
    But I was a bit disappointed when I realized that no hyperlink had been created between the in-text citations and the reference compiled at the end of the article I was writing. I thought that, by using a reference management software, these links would have automatically been created.
    But maybe the limitation comes from word itself?

  • How can I fix these errors (9) subscript out of range:
    array_RefTitle(Refs_in_Cit - 1) = array_RefTitle(Titles_in_Cit - 1)
    ?
  • edited March 19, 2024
    This is a super useful feature. I request Zotero developers please consider this feature as the priority.
    Whenever I review any manuscript, I often need to check the details of the bibliographic information from the reference list at the end of the document. If the feature allowed me to click on the in-text citation and take me to that specific bibliographic entry in the reference list, it would be super useful.
    Currently, EndNote has this feature. I strongly recommend developing this feature within Zotero.
  • Hello everyone,

    I’ve developed a VBA script called ZoteroLinkCitation, inspired by discussions on this forum about linking in-text citations directly to their bibliography entries in Word documents when using Zotero.

    Features:

    - Currently 15 citation styles are tested in my thesis (>130 references), including APA, IEEE, ACS, Chicago, etc.
    - Detects the citation style used in the document automatically.
    - Maintains Zotero field integrity post-linking.
    - Allows customization of link appearance (color, size, font) in Word.
    - Correctly handles multiple references in the Author-Date style where the first author is the same.

    Project and details here: https://github.com/altairwei/ZoteroLinkCitation

    In this repo I have written a detailed step-by-step guide on how to use Word macros. Requests for supporting other citation styles can be made in the repo issue. I'll be happy to maintain the VBA script on an ongoing basis, as well as answer any questions about its use in repo issues (not in Zotero forum).
  • @altairwei

    Thank you very much for the work put in the script! I am currently looking for such a solution to no avail... I will report back after trying your script.
  • 100+ votes for this feature.
    Dear Zotero team, please put this feature at the top of the priority list.
  • We will look into adding this. We have created a ticket to track progress and will update this thread once we have any news.
  • I vote yes!
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