Utilizing "Show editor" adds a "\i" in my footnote.

smcgever

I have not had this issue before, but when I use "Show editor" to edit the citation in the classic editor, usually to add an italics in a sentence I'm adding to a prefix before a book I'm citing. I finish the citation and when it is finished it adds "\i" before and after that citation. The only way I can remove it is to go back and click "hide editor", the "\i" goes away but then I lose the formatting I added in the editor.

Any ideas? This is for my PhD thesis, I'd love to figure this out.

Sean

adamsmith

FWIW, you can get italics without the show editor button simply by using <i> and </i> around the respective word(s)

smcgever

adamsmith... thank you for this. When I do this it gives an error, "sep is undefined". When I type <i> syntax that into the "editor" it creates the italics as you mention but then I have the same problem again with the "\i" showing at the beginning of the citation in my footnote.

fbennett

This may be due to a bug in the Classic View editor.

For an immediate fix/workaround, you can also edit citations directly in the document text. Zotero behaves a little differently in that case - it will offer to preserve the modifications or overwrite them with a regenerated citation when they are next edited through the Zotero add/edit citation menu.

smcgever

fbennett, I did not know that there was an error in the classic view editor. Is there more information on this? What are the best alternatives when you have a long citation with multiple sources?

I have avoided doing any direct editing of the citation in the body of the actual document. When it gives a warning like the one you describe (thank you) I get worried since I am not completely sure how it will impact my citation, other citations in the document, and perhaps even my zotero database. Is there a guide to this somewhere for someone who is a bit anxious about this? Maybe I should just experiment on another document and not my behemoth thesis.

adamsmith

We didn't know there was a bug, either -- fbennett has put a fix into the works, may need a little time to make it into Zotero.


I don't think there's a good guide about editing citations, but essentially editing in the text and then, when prompted, selecting to preserve modifications does the same as show editor. In general, I'd recommend using show editor as little as possible: it will make changing to a different citation style down the road much harder. You should try to find ways to make any edits you need via the prefix and suffix fields.