Zotero and Master Document in OpenOffice

I would like to know if is possible to use Zotero in a complex project where a single document (master document) is made up of several sub documents. In this scenario the references chapter is located in the last sub document but citations are spread in all the sub documents.

Thank you.

Nicola
  • Yes, I've done that.

    You can insert the references in the subdocuments and insert the bibliography in the master document, and when you refresh the master document it will pick up new references added to sub-documents. Or, you can put the bibliography in a separate subdocument and refresh it from the master document view, although in this case you might need to make sure that this subdocument can be edited in the master document view. I've just put the bibliography in the master document itself, so I'm not entirely sure about that.

    I have noticed that if there is an inconsistency in the citation styles of the subdocuments and/or the bibliography, the style of the bibliography will overwrite the styles of the subdocuments. So that could be something to watch out for if you change your citation styles.

    To make the process easier, I added buttons for the Zotero macros for inserting the bibliography and refreshing it to one of the tool bars in the OOo Master Document view. Entries for the macros could also be added to a menu or key press. But this is just a manner of making it easier to insert and work with the bibliography in the Master Document.

    However you set it up to access the Zotero macros, my experience is that they will work for master document and subdocuments. It's is a(nother) really nice feature of Zotero. :)
  • Ok thank you very much, I'll try!

    Nicola
  • Hi Sybille,
    I'm trying to insert bibliography in the master document but it seems impossible because I can not activate the Zotero Toolbar as I do in a normal document. Besides I have also tried to put the bibliography in a sub document and few references in an another subdocument. When I stack the sub documents in a master documents and refresh them the bibliography doesn't work.

    Any suggestion? Thank you very much.

    Nik
  • edited November 21, 2007
    What I did was to add buttons for the Zotero macros for inserting and refreshing the bibliography to one of the toolbars in the OOo Master Document component.

    You can do this in the same way as you would add any custom button to a toolbar in OOo. First, on the toolbar where you would like to add a button, click on the gray downward-pointing arrow at the end of the toolbar. Alternatively, you can use Tools -> Customize... -> Toolbars to add to an existing toolbar or to create a new one, whatever you like.

    Once you've opened the window for customizing the toolbar, click on the button marked Add. This will open a new window. In the left pane of that new window, marked "Category," scroll down to the bottom. The last entry should be "OpenOffice.org Macros." Click on that to expand it and you should see several choices including "My Macros," which when expanded will reveal a "Zotero" category, which has a subcategory also called "Zotero," and, when you click on that, you should see a series of Zotero-related commands appear in the "Command" pane to the right. Scroll down there until you find the commands you'd like to use, for example "ZoteroInsertBibliography," "ZoteroRefresh," etc. Select a command, choose the "Add" button, and a button for the macro should now appear in the toolbar. Repeat for any additional commands you'd like to add.

    These new buttons ought to work as is. If you prefer, you can rename them or add a custom icon in the "Customize" pane. Or you could add the macros to the menu or to keyboard shortcuts instead, using appropriate tab of the "Customize..." menu.

    As is often the case, it's easier to do than explain. There is some more information about customizing toolbars in the OOo Wiki:
    http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOoAuthors_User_Manual/Getting_Started/Toolbars
    http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOoAuthors_User_Manual/Migration_Guide/Customizing

    So, all of the above is just to make it easy to access the Zotero bibliography commands from within the Master Document component. And that's where you want to be when refreshing the bibliography, so that all the subdocuments will be taken into consideration (even if you've inserted the bibliography in a subdocument). Does that make sense? It works the same way for page numbering, tables of contents, and so on.
  • It works like a charm! You saved my thesis and my life...thanks a lot.

    Nicola
  • I just tried this, but when I run "generate bibliography," it gives a macro error.
  • Same here, as with John Medaille.

    Using zotero 2.0 though, which is — I'm aware of that — still beta. Might be the reason. Anyway, for the record, Zotero 2.0 and it's OpenOffice plugin don't work on *master documents* (they work fine in single docs).

    Info, updates, or tips are highly appreciated.
  • Actually, the error goes verbosely:

    An error occurred comunicating with Zotero:
    java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
    at java.lang.String.codePointAt(String.java:587)
    at
    org.zotero.integration.ooo.ReferenceMark.setText(ReferenceMark.java:183)
  • I got exactly the same error message.

    Did you find out how to insert the bibliography in a master document?
  • I'm having issues with Zotero in an OpenOffice master document/subdocument scheme.

    In my big document, I get OpenOffice crashes. I also get claims that the JRE is defective. It seems to work sometimes and not work othertimes.

    I set up some small documents to test the behaviour. I created a master document and 2 subdocuments. I put 3 citations in each of the subdocuments.

    I tried created a bibliography within the second subdocument. It worked, but only included the three citations in that subdocument.

    I tried creating a bibligraphy in the master document, after the two subdocuments. First it refused because there was no citation. I added a single citation into the master document and then tried to create the bibliography again. It worked ! I got a bibliography with all seven citations.

    However it then refused to save the master document because it could not save the zotero codes in the OO .odm master document file format. It said, I have to save the file as a regular OO .odt file format. OpenOffice then crashed.

    I am still in the dark here as to the best way to proceed with this.
  • Is there a reason you must use master documents? People have generally been more successful working with multiple documents, and simply using "Insert..." or copying and pasting to make the larger document.

    I don't know about these specific issues-- but they don't happen with ordinary documents, and there are few, if any, advantages I know of for master documents/subdocuments.
  • just to second this - I have heard of no one succesfully using Zotero with Master documents in either Word or Ooo.
  • That's wrong, I've done it for my thesis. You need to be careful to "set document preferences" in the Zotero toolbar.
  • good to know, thanks (in my defense, this is almost five years old, so this could well be due to improvements in LibreOffice.)
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