Formatting of Zotero citations in Word epically messed up

So I've been using the Zotero plug-in in Word to generate citations for most of my papers the last 6 months or so and really enjoyed how easy it made the process. However, I just recently realized that all of the documents I've used Zotero for have since seen something truly horrible happen to the formatting of their citations.

In-text citations that used to be as simple (Author, Date) are now roughly a page long each, including much of the metadata, the abstract and sometimes even reviews of the work being cited. What had been a very important 15-page document, for example, has now become 35 pages of mostly jibberish.

This is the case with ALL of the documents I've created using Zotero citations, and it now happens right away once I try to make new citations, even in new documents. The bibliography function does the same thing. In its current state, Zotero is now basically useless for me and this is really bumming me out.

HELP! Any idea how to fix this will be a real life saver, since I definitely want to be able to keep using Zotero.
  • There is almost certainly a very simple solution. What you're seeing is the Zotero field codes - the usually hidden information that Zotero embeds in your document to generate citations.
    You can toggle showing/hiding that information by pressing alt+F9 in Word (Maybe alt+FN+F9 on Mac) try that and chances are this will fix it.
    Post back if it doesn't.
  • I have just experienced this problem on Word for Mac. When I do review, click on "next change", all the code appears. yes, when I press alt+FN+F9 they disappear. But next time I check on changes, they appear again. why?
  • Word is showing you the codes that changed. Just click Accept twice to accept the changes and have the codes hidden.
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