Disappearing references

rebecca1
Hello. Wonder if someone can explain why references disappear from a word document? They seem to disappear after a new reference is inserted even if the two references have nothing to do with each other. Thank you.
  • adamsmith
    No explanation and obviously shouldn't happen.

    Can you replicate this or does this happen in an unpredictable way?
    In one specific document or in any document? When you say they have nothing to do with each other--does that mean they're in different parts of the document, too? Which word processor? Which settings under "Set Document Preferences"?
  • rebecca1
    Hi. I can't replicate on purpose--sometimes I don't notice until I scroll through the document and see an empty space between the end of a sentence and a period where there used to be a reference.

    It seems to have started after I cut and pasted sections from one document into a new document and started editing from there. Yes, I find the deleted references in random and different parts of the document. I'm on a MacBook Air using Microsoft word 2011.

    I'm not sure what settings. What should I look for?

    Also--not sure if it is related but suddenly I can't open PDFs from the Web (told I don't have permission) and my printer wants to print everything I try to save to Zotero.

    Very confusing.
  • dstillman
    edited July 22, 2014
    If you don't mind, you can send the document (or a small relevant part of it) to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread and a few examples of places in the document where there are missing citations, and we can take a look.
  • dstillman
    OK, there's definitely no citation at the spot you highlighted, even a hidden one. Perhaps Simon has an idea, but I don't know of any way that that would happen on its own.
  • rebecca1
    Thanks for looking into this, Dan. This has only started happening recently and it is very strange (and disconcerting) to find these blank spaces in the text. Thanks also, Simon for any ideas you may have.
    Best wishes,
    Rebecca
  • dstillman
    Yeah, the additional ones you sent are empty as well — even the raw data files contained within the .docx file don't show any indication of having had a field. That's truly bizarre, and I can't think of any reason that would happen, assuming you're not saving the file in some other format and reimporting it as a .docx. But we can see if Simon has any thoughts.
  • rebecca1
    Hi Dan. Thanks for responding again. Sorry to take so much of your time.
    All I did was cut and paste from one document to another. Format should be the same. I will have to paste several documents together very soon into one large document. I hope not to loose many references in the process.
  • aurimas
    Did you, perhaps, paste the text without formatting (cmd+shift+option+v)? In Word 2013 this can be set as default behavior, not sure if that's the case for 2010
  • dstillman
    Yeah, that was my only thought too — pasting without formatting or pasting via some intermediate location (such as TextEdit).
  • rebecca1
    Hi Aurimas and Dan.

    I'm not sure I know what you mean by pasting with formatting. I am using a mac and do not know even what the 'option' key is I'm afraid to admit.

    I generally cut using cmd+x in a word document followed by cmd+v to paste in a new location. How should I be doing this differently?

    Many thanks again.
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