Changing footnoted citations to in-text parenthetical citations

worcblue

I converted an MLA formatted document to Chicago Style so that all parenthetical in-text citations became endnotes. I've subsequently improved the document, but would like this new improved document in MLA as well, but when I change my preferences back, it's keeping the endnotes.

Any ideas?

adamsmith

have you tried switching to an entirely different style - say a numeric style like Vancouver - and then to MLA?

Did you edit the endnotes in the file?

worcblue

Have just given that a try to the same effect unfortunately

adamsmith

how about my other question? Did you edit the endnotes?
See if you can create an error report ID and post it here:
http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs

are the endnotes formatted in MLA or Chicago Style?

worcblue

Sorry, missed that. I can't remember to be honest, though it is likely that I did edit.

Also, citation footnotes/endnotes are mixed in with notes that are non-citation, that just provide commentary on the text. However, you can tell which are Zotero insertions by the highlights when you click on them.

As regard formatting, I just let Zotero take care of that - so Chicago, which I'm trying to turn back to MLA.

I can create an error report ID, but perhaps I'll try restarting my computer first. Let you know...

adamsmith

Try restarting first. Then see about the error ID after trying to switch citation styles.

worcblue

OK, did as you suggested and received the following:

Zotero experienced an error updating your document.

[Exception... " Component returned failure code: 0x80004005
(NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [zoteroIntegrationDocument.convert]" nsresult:
"0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) " location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/integration.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 1069" data:no]

Should I post the error ID as failure code 0x80004005 ?

Gracile

I think adamsmith wanted to write "report ID":
http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs
You need to click the "Next" button in the “Report Errors…” menu to get the report ID (the ID is displayed in red).

worcblue

Hello adamsmith and Gracile

I'm sorry for dropping this thread before - a long time ago now! - I was just overwhelmed by stuff at the time...

I've still got the same problem - a piece of good writing, but unable to change the formatting back to MLA from Chicago.

How do I create an error report ID please?

adamsmith

See Gracile's link on the error report ID.
Also, we'd want to know which Word processor you're using on which OS.

worcblue

OK, thanks.

Microsoft Word 2007 on Windows 7

The Report ID: 711044262

adamsmith

could you check this in a new document?
I.e. create a note in Chicago style, then convert to MLA in a fresh doc - does that work?

If so, it's probably worthwhile to run through these:
http://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents

worcblue

OK. I've just had a little breakthrough.

So I tried creating a new document, setting the doc preferences to Chicago, inserting a citation, then changing the preferences to MLA. That worked.

So, using my old document, I followed the steps (1-5) in the document you linked me to, but without success. At which point, using the a copy of the original file, I tried converting the document back to the Chicago Manual of Style (note) - the preferences had were still was still MLA in the plugin though the citations were not formatted to reflect this. Then I tried Vancouver, the document changed visibly, and then when I set the preferences to MLA, changed again to what I require.

I had tried Vancouver, back to MLA before without success. It seems that what has worked was the pathway MLA-Chicago-Vancouver-MLA.

Thanks for your help!

adamsmith

OK, I don't understand why this worked, but very glad it did.