there is slow, then there is slow

TimSanford
Hi All,

I have a fast computer and no problems I am aware of.

I have a large Word doc (pp. 600) with 900 citations - it is now taking 1 to 5 minutes for each new citation to go through and be added.

Any suggestions for speeding this up, other than chopping the doc in half? Thanks for any tips.
  • adamsmith
    not really no, sorry.
    Some styles are faster than others -- I think author date is probably the fastest option -- and some word processor/OS combinations are faster than others (in particular, Word for Mac, at least up to 2011, not sure about the latest version, is slow),
    but that'll only do so much. I'd say actually using the citation feature in documents >300 pages with common numbers of citations isn't really feasible at this time. The only viable advice is to work in chapters or the equivalent.
  • Stinus
    EndNote has the option of viewing unformatted citations which removes the field codes, something like the ODF/RTF solution I guess (???), but working directly from the instant citation plugin for Word. This completely solves the speed problem in long documents!
    I don't have the faintest clue about the technical side of this, but I really wish this would become a feature in Zotero for Word.
  • LiborA
    Maybe is a way to use a very simple style (author name and title only) and after finishing of your document you can change it to correct style.
  • fbennett
    That helps a little, but suspending rendering entirely would lift things a lot more.
  • Stinus
    Yes. To a technical ignoramus like me it seems that it should be a matter of 'just' copying the technique from Endnote into Zotero, but appearently it's not that easy.
  • LiborA
    @fbennett: Yes I agree. Suspending rendering is the best way but it means to change Word or Open/LibreOffice plugin. Is anybody prepared to do it??
  • fbennett
    It's beyond my skill level. For others, I suspect it's just a lack of time and the pressure of other priorities. I'm sure it will happen in due course, though.
  • LiborA
    It's beyond my skill level too. Where is the code of plugin available? A can try to ask our programmer.
  • fbennett
    They're in the Zotero GitHub account:

    https://github.com/zotero/

    The code that calls them is in the integration.js source file of Zotero:

    https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/4.0/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/integration.js

    Communication patterns between Zotero and the plugins are definitely not for the faint-hearted. There would be a steep learning curve for anyone digging into it.
  • LiborA
    Are you sure that rendering process is initialized by Zotero? I would expect that rendering process is initialized by the plugin.
  • adamsmith
    edited April 2, 2016
    right, you'd likely have to look in both places, that's why Frank gave you the generic link to the zotero github, where the plugins are at
    https://github.com/zotero/zotero-word-for-windows-integration
    https://github.com/zotero/zotero-word-for-mac-integration
    https://github.com/zotero/zotero-libreoffice-integration
    respectively.
  • fbennett
    The plugin sends a request that triggers the menu in Zotero, and the menu initiates an update request to the plugin from Zotero-side.

    If I recall correctly, I concluded that the API to the plugins doesn't offer a means of updating a single field - but I wouldn't take my own word for it, I may have been mistaken.
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