Recover zotero library for a manuscript

jon001k · April 4, 2016

Hello,

I have a word document containing about 50 references with a bibliography made using zotero.

However, the computer that had my references was stolen. I did not have an online backup of my zotero library.

However, I do have a copy of the word document, in which the references are embedded.

How can I recover my library using just the word document?

Thanks so much for any input. I'm fairly new to zotero and am having a heck of a time figuring out how to not lose hours and hours of work.

Thanks,
Jon

noksagt · April 4, 2016

You can't using stock zotero. You can try to usr the functionality that is in juris m: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/35987/import-old-zotero-bibliography-from-word-field-codes-still-present-into-library/

Rintze · October 16, 2016

I created a tool, "Reference Extractor", to quickly extract embedded Zotero references from .docx Word documents. It's available at http://rintze.zelle.me/ref-extractor/. The extracted item metadata (in CSL JSON format) can be (re)imported into Zotero.

P.S. Feedback is more than welcome, and can be given either here or at the code repository at https://github.com/rmzelle/ref-extractor.
P.P. S. There are no privacy concerns: while it is a website, the extraction takes place entirely on your computer, and nobody has access to the Word documents you process with the tool.