this.namereg[pkey].ikey[ikey].skey[skey] is undefined

Devin

Help! I have spent many hours re-starting documents and when I get about a quarter of the way through, this error message starts popping up and I can't insert citations anymore. I've got a draft due Monday of a 100-pager and am REALLY hoping to use Zotero rather than manually doing all the cites/bibliography. At worst I can save after every cite and try to have a version just before it konks out. Details:
* I am running Windows XP with Zotero version 2.1.6 and
* MS Word 2007 running the Word plugin- I have hunted around but can't figure out how to tell what version of that I'm running.
* I am using a custom style in order to disable the disambuiguity which kept adding author first initials seemingly at random despite no ambiguity internal to the document. Perhaps this is the source of the problem??
* I have re-installed the plugin repeatedly.
* I do have some edited cites (eg so it will say Author (date) in the sentence rather than (author, date)
* I am not using track changes and have not ever done so with this document

Thanks!

adamsmith

http://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents

I'd put most hope in # 4 and 7, but do run through everything that you haven't done already.

tmich846

It just happened to me as soon as I finished my paper and attempted to Zotero refresh before putting in my bibliography. It only put the first source in my paper in the bibliography before giving this error. I started to enter the sources in a new Word document, but soon got the same error.
I restarted FF...problem solved.
You seem to already have done that, but it worked for me.

fbennett

I am using a custom style in order to disable the disambuiguity which kept adding author first initials seemingly at random despite no ambiguity internal to the document. Perhaps this is the source of the problem??

Certainly the processor will not do this unless strange input is being sent to it.

adamsmith

I doubt that the initials are anything else than given name disambiguation - they have been in every single case in the past - people get confused by that all the time.
The key things to find out are whether this issue persists with a different style and in a fresh document. If the former is enough, then your custom style is broken - looking at the error that seems unlikely. If the latter see my link above.

fbennett

Aha. I've just succeeded in reproducing this. It strikes when:

(1) You are using a style that uses disambiguate-add-givenname; and
(2) Names are set to form="short" (of course) and have initialize-with; and
(3) You have three author names in the document with the same surname; and
(4) Two of the authors are disambiguated by full name, and one by initials; and
(5) You delete the sole entry containing one of the authors disambiguated by full name from the document; and
(6) Hit the refresh button.

Playing around with this, there is another, less fatal bit of oddness in the way names are responding to registry edits:

(1) Same as (1) & (2) above; and
(2) If there are just two authors with the same surname; and
(3) They are disambiguated by full name; and
(4) The authors are repeatedly inserted and removed in turn, hitting Refresh in between each operation; then
(5) A name will get stuck in full form after a couple of cycles.

Clearly the names disambiguation registry is not quite updating correctly. The persistence of these low-level errors has been troubling me for weeks; now that I have been able to reproduce the fault, I should be able to narrow down the problem, fix it, and sleep a bit more soundly.

I can't say for certain that what I've found is the cause of your error, but it's certainly possible. The first thing to do is go through the debugging steps as adamsmith says.

In my simple testing, restarting Firefox has always restored correct formatting, but I don't know the details of how Zotero delivers updates to the processor when citations have been edited. If you still have no joy after going through the debugging steps, you might try un-editing those citations (by hiding the "Show Editor" window on them, and then if that doesn't help, maybe un-checking "Suppress author" where it's set, for good measure. But those suggestions are just guesswork.

fbennett

Ah, and switching to another style as adamsmith suggests may also help clear things up.

Devin

Hi,
Thanks for all the help!
I followed the broken document instructions. So far restarting- the whole computer, not just Firefox- seems to allow it to work again for awhile. Then the error crops up again. So I'm just saving lots of versions and restarting whenever it breaks down. The only customization in my style is the disabling of the given name disambiguity- otherwise it throws in first initials even when there is only one citation in the document. So far it looks like I'll be able to get the draft done for Monday!

fbennett

@Devin,

Hang in there. I am happy to report that I have identified the bugs that have afflicted your document. I'm pretty confident that when the next Zotero release emerges, you will find the word processor plugin to be much more stable.