References in old document are not being recognised

I used Zotero for the first time on a word 2003 document. Since putting it together my work computer was updated with the latest office. When I open the document with word 2010 the references are not recognised.

There is no error, new references go in without a problem but start at 1 (it is vancouver) and when I move the curser to a reference it does not highlight the whole thing and treats it more like standard text. Any suggestions?

I have synced the laptop I am currently working on and my zotero was unaffected by the update of the computer (I havent lost any references or seen any changes). The only thing I haven't done is synced my work computer since the document was originally created but I dont see how that would sort the problem. Sorry if this issue has been discussed elsewhere but I cant see it on the forum.
  • If you press alt+F9 - do you see any field codes for Zotero?
    Any chance the document could have been saved as .rtf or you or someone else could have clicked "Remove Zotero Field Codes" - from what you describe this sounds like there aren't any Zotero citations in the document.
  • Hi Adam, you work hard on these forums; you're everywhere.

    I apologise for my ignorance but what am I looking for when I press alt. f9? The only thing that changes is the page numbers become {page} (I guess they would become {citation}?!).

    It has happened in two documents (I just checked the other this morning), they weren't saved as .rtf and I was the only person working on them and I definitely didnt remove the codes (I checked if I could have done it by mistake but a warning comes up and there's no way I'd be dumb enough to do it twice if I did manage to do it once).

    Ultimately, as little as I know about zotero, I think the codes just aren't there for some reason... I thought at the time it all went too smoothly
  • wrt field codes - insert a new citation and compare - but yes, I believe you should see significantly more than just {page} - I don't have Word here, so I don't know the details.

    Another way this might have happened is if you opened and saved a .doc in LibreOffice or OpenOffice?
    Obviously, something like that shouldn't just happen and we'd want to know why it did.
  • edited September 17, 2012
    From your remarks, I think that someone other than you did the software update. The switch from MS Word 2003 to Word 2010 not only brought a significant change in the user interface; it also brought a more significant change in the file format (behind the scenes). Depending upon how your computer was set up, how you responded to Word's "compatibility check" prompts, and if you kept your Word 2003 version intact and made the revisions to your document using a new file; you may no longer have the Zotero field codes in your document.

    Depending on the length of the document this may be more an inconvenience than a disaster. I understand that your new document still has the reference numbers but the exisitng numbers are "inactive" -- they do not update when you add new references. You may need to reinsert your old references.

    Although this may seem like it will take forever to accomplish, once you get started it will move along quickly.

    1. Print a copy of your existing document if you don't already have one. Be sure that you can see the reference numbers and that the print-out includes the complete reference list.

    2. Save your document with a new file name. article.docx to article-1.docx

    3. Leave the original file alone and work on the new file.

    4. Go through the document line-by-line to find your reference numbers. One-by-one carefully delete each reference number and then immediately insert the appropriate reference using Zotero. Use the printed copy of your document as the standard. Do NOT insert new references at this point. You can insert them later. I recommend using a pencil or pen to mark each reference number on the printed document as you make each change. Do not make any changes to the text of the new Word document. If you find typos or other errors mark them on the printed version. Correct the errors later.

    5. After you have used Zotero to replace all of the inactive reference numbers with active numbers, print a copy of the new document. Save the new document.

    6. Save the new document again but as a new file name. article-2.docx

    7. Compare the newly printed document with the original one. If they aren't exactly the same, check to be sure that you didn't neglect to insert a reference. Be sure that the documents have the same number of references in the reference lisits.

    8. When you have confirmed that the new document has complete references, you can begin to edit your Word document (article-2.docx).
  • edited August 23, 2017
    This is happening to me in a Word 2011 for Mac in a document that is saved and retrieved from the cloud, could that be an issue?
    The document has also been worked on Windows platform.

    Any update on Zotero identifying the citations even if they're no longer recognized as a field?

    Thanks!
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