editing word docs in google strips citation codes

mtstle

I have a collaborative group who wish to use Google Docs as a central repository and presumably for collaborative editing sessions. However, editing a WORD doc in Google Docs strips the citation codes and certain other formatting. Is there a workaround or procedure for using Zotero in a Google Drive context? - Best Regards, John

adamsmith

The only viable solution I'm aware of is http://zotero-odf-scan.github.io/zotero-odf-scan/ (or just RTF scan, though I don't think that's reliable enough, at least in my experience it's not). It's not ideal -- it'd be nice to have that work more smoothly and I think that's technically possible, but it's a lot of work.

fbennett

Another discouraging factor is that the internal code of Google Docs could change at any time. With software as a service, there is no way to go back to the old version if the provider decides it (and everything that depended on it) should go away.

mtstle

We've worked out a scheme in which each collaborator will enter their citations either by hand or by authoring offline and then pasting sections into the community document. When it's finished, someone will go through the document selecting the reference for each citation, in the center pane then create a bibliography to the clipboard and paste it into the document. It certainly doesn't take advantage of of Zotero's powerful automation but it will allow us to keep a centralized document. Thanks for your advice. - mtcstle

bwiernik

Using the ODF scan plugin discussed above can help you to get at least most of the automation power of Zotero to work. I would check it out.

mtstle

I'm going to look into it further. Unfortunately, I'm working with others some of whom are not motivated to distract themselves from the task with the fun and challenge of learning a new tool.

Help me understand the workflow. Prepare the paper in a foreign word processor, e.g. Google Docs, pasting the citations in using the ODF scan export format. Next, save the file as a WORD doc and run it through Zotero's document scan to convert all the textual tags into citation codes and properly formatted citations. Finally, load the output from that process into WORD and create the bibliography. That's not really too bad, it's just more than I think my cohort will embrace. Still, I've done worse and it could really come in handy on the next paper. - Thanks for the advice, mtcstle

bwiernik

The basic process is right, but you need to use LibreOffice to do the final formatting conversion.

The process for your colleagues will be to simply copy the references from your group library using the ODF scan export format (which you can set as the default output for the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A). You are the only person who will need to do any of the converting at the end. Really, it is the same process for them (either they copy the scan format reference or a different format into the document)--using ODF scan just lets you automate the bibliography construction at the end, rather than having to construct it manually.

mtstle

I think I'm getting closer to making this work. When I scan the manuscript with the "scannable cite" notations through the RTF/ODF scanner, isn't the output supposed to contain citation codes that the bibliography engine can interpret? or am I way off base?
mtcstle

adamsmith

yes it is -- but only when you open the document in LibreOffice. Is that not working?

mtstle

I can't remember the exact sequence of events, I think I opened it in oO, I know I emailed it to another computer. but that computer doesn't have Zotero installed, I swam the mouse over the citations expecting to see some visible indication of the presence of a code, as in WORD, but nothing. I wonder, does the machine with oO also need to have Zotero, or just the plug-in? Now that I think, I can't remember if it had the plug-in. I'll have to check when I get home. - Regards, mtcstle