Upgrade StorageMultiple libraries causing problems in Word plug-in
Dear collective wisdom,
I use the Zotero plug-in for Word, with Word 2008 for Mac version 12.2.0. Everything is up to date. Recently I noticed a problem: I was working on a document that already had many citations, and I needed to add a few more. These referred to works that had been previously cited in the document. When I added a citation of one of these works, the plug-in treated it as if it were an additional work by the same author. So for instance, what should have just been two instances of (Smith 2005) became instead (Smith 2005a) and (Smith 2005b).
I'm guessing this is happening because I use more than one library. Most of my citations were entered into a group library by a graduate assistant, and I have continued to use this library instead of "My Library" because moving citations to My Library cause attached files and notes to be lost. Also, there are 2 different group libraries. The older citations are from a different library than the one I'm using now. However, it seems like Zotero is assuming that the same source appearing in different libraries is a different work. This is obviously a problem.
Please advise, and thanks in advance!!
-Mark
I use the Zotero plug-in for Word, with Word 2008 for Mac version 12.2.0. Everything is up to date. Recently I noticed a problem: I was working on a document that already had many citations, and I needed to add a few more. These referred to works that had been previously cited in the document. When I added a citation of one of these works, the plug-in treated it as if it were an additional work by the same author. So for instance, what should have just been two instances of (Smith 2005) became instead (Smith 2005a) and (Smith 2005b).
I'm guessing this is happening because I use more than one library. Most of my citations were entered into a group library by a graduate assistant, and I have continued to use this library instead of "My Library" because moving citations to My Library cause attached files and notes to be lost. Also, there are 2 different group libraries. The older citations are from a different library than the one I'm using now. However, it seems like Zotero is assuming that the same source appearing in different libraries is a different work. This is obviously a problem.
Please advise, and thanks in advance!!
-Mark
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This is correct and there isn't really a way around it. You cannot use different libraries that aren't synced in the same document. Zotero doesn't (and can't) know if two references that don't point to the same entry in the Zotero database are the same.
That said, you should be able to transfer items from a group library without loss, so that's where I'd suggest trying to fix this.
First, make sure that in the general tab of the Zotero preferences, at the bottom, the three options for transferring files and notes between library and groups are checked.
If that's the case, provide more detail about when notes and files aren't properly transferred. That's almost certainly not a random effect.