Citation Links Lost in Word Document

becky.sharpe
The upgrade seems to have changed the way Zotero stores citations in the document itself. The citations that were linked when I last worked on this documents are now stored as text so updates to a citation do not ripple through the document. (ie "note 4" is now "note 5" but the rest of the document does not know it.)

Is this a setting that I can change so that until I choose to finalize a document it will save linked citations instead of text citations?
  • adamsmith
    The Zotero 5 update didn't change anything about this. Could you provide some more details (word processor, format in which you save, how you're inserting citations, which citation style, how you're telling that the references are inserted as text)?
  • becky.sharpe
    MS Word 365
    saved as .docx
    citations inserted through zotero addin
  • becky.sharpe
    McGill citation style

    clicking in citation does not produce the "grey bar" indicating that the citation can be edited in zotero
  • adamsmith
    And is that true right after inserting the citation or just when you re-open the document?

    The shading of citation is actually a Word setting that can change. If the references to a note don't update, including after clicking the "Refresh" button, that does indicate a problem, though.
  • becky.sharpe
    I noticed that there is an "unlink" citations option now. Did I maybe "unlink" the citations permanently?

    Even if I reinsert the citation I occasionally come back to a text citation when I return to editing.
  • becky.sharpe
    I mean when I reopen the document (usually the next day but not always).
  • adamsmith
    It's certainly possible, though there's a stern warning. You can also unlink citations accidentally by storing in an unsupported format (like RTF) or opening with software that doesn't support reference marks (like Pages or LibreOffice).

    If you test this in a fresh document, insert citation, save, close, reopen, is everything working OK?
  • becky.sharpe
    Adam,

    I just checked it again by inserting a blank citation at the beginning of my document and hitting refresh to see if all the "note 4" became "note 5" and they did not.

    This is the case even though the citations to be updated are still grey (indicating that they can be edited in zotero).

    What else can I try?
  • becky.sharpe
    Sorry, I used my old documents. I will try it again in a new one.

    Can I copy the text to save recreating it?
  • becky.sharpe
    It works fine in a new document. Do I just copy everything into a new document if it happens again?
  • adamsmith
    That'd be the first thing to try, yes.
    After that, see https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents
  • becky.sharpe
    Thanks Adam!
  • becky.sharpe
    I also had "track changes" on. Could that have been it?
  • adamsmith
    It shouldn't -- many people work with Track Changes. It's a troubleshooting step to disable it, not a warning to not use it.
  • becky.sharpe
    Thx.
  • cwoodp
    Hi everyone, Hi @adamsmith

    I might have a solution for that and may update the case here.
    Similar problem occurred to me (Macbook MacOS HighSierra 10.13.4; Zotero Version 4.0.29.15 with the Word AddIn, Word for Mac Version 16.12).

    I am a German user, and also inserting German sources with author names showing German characters ("Umlaute") like ä,ö,ü and so on. I figured that when changing the source and writing a name like Müller without the German characters, Mueller, then the field is grey and active again. Similar case was with an apostrophe in the author's name. Wanted to cite a website from Pricewaterhousecoopers, in short "PwC's Strategy&". When skipping the apostrophe ("PwCs Strategy&") it worked with an active grey field.

    In case it helps other users: try it out.

    Besides: thanks for Zotero :)
  • adamsmith
    You're on an ancient Zotero version. It's certainly possible there was an umlaut or special character related bug one and a half years ago. As far as I'm aware, it's not in the current version.
  • adomasven
    Citations that insert any non latin letters or standard punctuation characters are broken in Word for Mac 16.9 and later with Zotero versions prior to 5.0.35. Word for Mac 16.9 was released mid-January 2018, so 3 months ago.

    @cwoodp it is highly advised to update (and stay updated) to the latest version of Zotero to receive security updates, new features and bugfixes for problems such as these.
  • cwoodp
    I see, thanks for the update info, I will do so !
  • lucashertzog
    Hi everyone,

    I'm facing the same problem here. I was using word 2016 (with zotero 5 standalone) and I had to edit my document on Google Docs. I then saved after the changes as .docx. Suddenly, all zotero "links" are gone. How could I restore those citation links?
  • lucashertzog
    Just found out that Google docs erases all zotero functions :(
    have to do it all over again...
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