My references don't show up in MS Word

awbianco · March 8, 2014

I have the Zotero standalone + toolbar plugin in MS word. The papers that I want are visible in the zotero standalone and I have it open, but when I try to add a citation in MS word, only a few of my sources appear. I have tried the "refresh zotero" on MS word, but nothing happens. I have restarted computer, zotero, and MS word. Help please!

Also, is there a easier way to import an existing non-zotero library?? I have all of my papers (1000+) organized and stored in folders on my hard drive. It seems ridiculous that I have to import them to zotero 1 by one! I can drag and drop several papers at a time if they are located inside the same folder, but overall it would take hours to do this.

Thanks!!

adamsmith · March 8, 2014

The papers that I want are visible in the zotero standalone and I have it open, but when I try to add a citation in MS word, only a few of my sources appear.

given your second question, my best bet would be that they don't actually have any bibliographic information (yet). If you just drag a PDF to Zotero, it will just be the file, not any citation that you can insert. You'd have to run "retrieve metadata" first: http://www.zotero.org/support/retrieve_pdf_metadata

Also, is there a easier way to import an existing non-zotero library?? I have all of my papers (1000+) organized and stored in folders on my hard drive.

this sounds like it's not actually a library but just papers organized in folders, correct? If you're transferring a library from a different reference manager, you should use that program's export function and export to RIS, bibtex, or EndnoteXML, all of which Zotero can import.
But if you just have papers, drag&drop is the easiest choice. You can take advantage of your OS's search function, though, to search, e.g. for all PDF in a given folder and its subfolders. You can then drag all of those items in to Zotero.

If you do want to do this, I'd strongly recommend you install the current beta version, which _hugely_ improves speed of PDF indexing and reduces issues during retrieve metadata. This will be a rather dreadful experience for 1000+ papers with the current version.
http://www.zotero.org/support/dev_builds#zotero_40_beta