Total Breakdown

teisenman
Hello –

I have been using Zotero for over 7 years, and with the exception of a few minor glitches, I've never had any major problems. However, I have now spent several hours trying to resolve an ongoing problem that will simply not go away.

In a nutshell: I am working on an MSWord file (version 15.21); and every time I "accept" or "reject" in Track Changes an in-text Zotero citation, the very next in-text Zotero citation turns into 5-10 lines of gobbledy-gook. When I then try to clean up this mess by deleting the gobbledy-gook, I get the spinning muli-colored wheel n MSWord, afterwhich MSWord invariable shuts down.

I'm at my wits end, as the document has become unworkable.

Note: I'm using the Zotero add-in for Firefox (54.0.1).

Assistance is greatly appreciated.
-Theo
  • adamsmith
    You're just seeing https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/word_field_codes
    don't delete it. I don't think there's an easy way to convince Word to not pop these up on track changes, I'm afraid, so you'll have to get used to re-hiding them after accept/reject.
  • teisenman
    How do I "rehide"?
  • adamsmith
    does alt+FN+F9 not work?
  • bwiernik
    You can also just click accept twice when one of these pops up. Word is first showing you the deleted field codes, then the new field codes. In Word 2016, you can also right click on then “Field Codes Changed” bubble and Accept there to avoid the codes being shown.
  • teisenman
    Hi Adam,

    I appreciate the swift response, but I'm not entirely sure what you're recommending I do. One thing I have noticed is when there is a Track Changes text box in the right margin regarding an in-text Zoteror citation, if I selected "Reject," the box disappears with no problem. However, in some instance I have no choice but to "Accept" a change, and each time I do so, it triggers a series of events (spinning wheel, MS Word shutting down). Most recently, I got the following error message: "TField reference lost [insertFieldRaw:document.m:1330]"

    Kindly,
    -Theo
  • bwiernik
    You need to Accept, not Reject the field changes. Let me repeat that this is not a problem, it is just Word tracking the underlying field codes. That error message is indicating that you have some corrupted citation in your document, possibly due to manually editing the text of the code (accidentally) or partially deleting some code text.
  • teisenman
    Hello Adam & Bwiernik,

    I sincerely appreciate your efforts at assistance; and I trust that this is a fixable problem. But I am getting nowhere trying to follow your directions. Rather than spending more time trying to explain my (unsuccessful) efforts at following your well-meaning directions (I've been at this for several hours now), I'm wondering if one of you might be willing to skype with me; I'll do screen share and you can perhaps walk me through, step by step. My skype name is "teisenman"

    Kindly,
    -Theo
  • adamsmith
    sorry, no way I can do phone/skype support.
  • bwiernik
    I also can't do phone support.

    Overall, it sounds like you've corrupted/broken a bunch of your citations trying to delete the field codes. Your best path is to go to an older version of your document from before you started accepting/rejecting changes and follow my instructions above--as you go through the document accepting/rejecting changes, just Accept (not Reject, not delete) each time a bunch of code appears. Again, the field codes appearing is not a bug or error--it is just Word showing you the tracked change in (normally hidden) field codes. If the codes are still visible after accepting changes, then select all the text in your document (Ctrl + A) and type Alt + F9.
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