Changing citation style in one documents changes it in all documents

Cakebaker

I would like to know how to prevent the citation style from changing in all documents when I change it for one document. As it is, I sent two documents by email, each requiring a different citation style, but both documents seem to take on whichever citation style was last selected. Is there a setting to prevent this?

adamsmith

no, that's not what's going on--it's just that Zotero doesn't automatically install a citation style used in a document. So if you're using the style for Journal XYZ, but the person you're sending it to doesn't have that style installed, it will fall back to a default style.

Where both people have a style installed, it's going to remain active in a document no matter what.

dstillman

(A future version of Zotero will offer to install missing styles from documents automatically if possible, but that doesn't happen now.)

Cakebaker

Thank you for your answers. Is there a way to make the style stick to the document, something like an embedded style or something? I need for the document to have the correct 'appearance' of the citation style regardless of who I send it to. Most of the recipients won't have the style, let alone Zotero.

Cakebaker

One more thing please. There is something I don't seem to be catching. After finding out that the recipient saw the same style in both documents, I made a document with several references and named it according to the citation style used. Then I did a file save as and named the new document by a different citation style, changed to the different citation style and saved it. But when I open the two documents, they end up with whichever last style I used, which lead to my initial question. Is there something I'm not understanding?

adamsmith

You can't embed a style, but if you're just going to send a document to someone, you should typically send a copy with Zotero field codes removed (the broken link button at the right of the add-on). Make sure it's a copy -- you want to obviously keep the field codes in your own version of the file.

As for the other issue, that'd be a bug, but I've never seen that and it'd be rather bizarre. Could you try this again and, in order to make sure you're not missing something, pick two entirely different citation styles, e.g. APA and Nature. I'd be very surprised if you could replicate this.

Cakebaker

You are right, I just tried it again but didn't get the same result. I sent the two documents to someone who doesn't have Zotero and the two documents have different styles as well. Glad it was a bug and not a permanent problem.

Thanks for telling me about breaking the link, I didn't know about that.

bwiernik

And to be clear about what happens with missing styles, the style will only change if Zotero refreshes (such as if the recipient adds a new reference, edits a reference, or clicks the Refresh button). If the recipient doesn't do that or doesn't have Zotero, the style won't change. If the recipient doesn't have the style and does edit a reference, it is easy enough to refresh and restore the style once you receive the document back or the recipient installs the correct style.