Help needed quite urgently: Microsoft word crashes when using Zotero plug-in

edited September 30, 2016
Hi,
I'm using Microsoft Word for Mac 2011, version 14.6.0. My Mac Os X is version 10.7.4.
My problem is that the past few days every once in a very regular while when I try to use the Zotero plug-in for Word to add or edit citations, first Zotero freezes (the 'beach ball appears on the zotero bar in which I should be adding the reference), and soon after, Word also freezes.

I have both firefox (where I also have the zotero plug-in) and Zotero standalone open when working on my document.

At one point, I received an error message before force-quitting Word, can't remember the exact wording, but something like "the program has to shut down, insufficient memory, save now." I can't figure out where the insufficient memory could be, since both my harddrive and Zotero storage are fine on memory.

Any help much appreciated, trying to wrap up a phd here.. :)

Henni
  • Reading earlier discussions, I have now tried editing the document with a) both firefox and stand-alone open, b) only stand-alone open and c) only firefox open. Zotero still crashes, as does Word right after. Any ideas?
  • edited September 30, 2016
    Judging from your OS X version, this is quite an old MacBook?
    How long is the document you're editing and how many citations have you inserted?
    Does this happen if you try to insert citations in an empty word document?

    If you're running an old MacBook, chances are you could be running out of RAM (random access memory) when Zotero tries to update the document.

    A possible advice in this case is to split up the document into multiple files (e.g. chapters) and insert citations there, only combining in the end and inserting the bibliography as a final step.
  • The first thing to try would be simply closing all other programs (and perhaps restarting your computer). The issue here is memory (how much you can run at once), not disk space (how much you can store).
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