"field is undefined" - When inserting a citation

AlecTaylor

I received this error message when attempting to insert any additional citations into my article.

Currently I have 12 references in default supported IEEE style. The bibliography has been generated.

Problem started whence I clicked "Insert citation" then backspaced {Citation} and closed the Zotero search bar window. Have tried closing the programs then reopening them, to no avail.

Writing it in a .docx with "Maintain compatibility with previous versions of Word" checked.

Relevant software information: Microsoft Word 2013 (15.0.4481.1508, x64) with Zotero Standalone 4.0.8 on Windows 8 Pro (6.2.9200, x64).

How do I overcome this error?

Thanks for all suggestions,

Alec Taylor

fbennett

I'm not the best person for advice (as I don't use Word myself), but it sounds as if you may have ended up with a partial (and hidden) citation field set in the document. I think you can make field codes visible with Alt-F9 in Word, it might be worth giving that a try to see if you can spot a culprit.

Failing that, these steps may help:

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

AlecTaylor

No field codes visible around the section I deleted `{Citation}` from.

Looks like removing step 6 of that troubleshooting guide you linked solved the problem.

Did have a heart-stopping moment where all it showed was that new reference I was adding; but then clicking Refresh Bibliography loaded the rest of my bibliography :)

AlecTaylor

So the bug was I was inserting the citation next to Word Math.

mdrisi

I experienced the same issue inserting it next to Word Math, simply putting in a space between the two fixed the error.