Using word plugin - changing one citation in a paragraph affects multiple citations!

When I click on the first zotero-generated citation in a paragraph of my word document, it shows as highlighted in grey. I click 'add/edit citation' on the zotero tab in word and the correct paper is shown, e.g. Smith, 1999, in the add/edit box that appears.

When I click on the next zotero-generated citation in the paragraph (e.g Green, 2000) despite it appearing correctly in the text, when I click add/edit citation, I see Smith 1999 in the box.

If I edit the citation so that Green shows as Green not Smith in the Zotero add/edit box, both Smith and Green change to Green!

In other words, I seem to be making changes to one citation and multiple citations are affected.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Using word 2016 on desktop PC.
  • Does this reliably happen, including in a new document?
  • It happens when the section I have been working on is cut and pasted into a new document.

    I opened a fresh document to test, and wrote a couple of sentences with 3 zotero-generated citations in it. They all went in fine and it looked right. However, when I clicked on the third citation, the first showed in the Zotero add/edit box. When I corrected back to the third citation (in the add/edit box) citations 1 and 3 BOTH changed to the corrected version, citation 2 stayed as I originally intended it to!

    This lack of pattern but frequent errors is what I have been seeing in my main document.
  • You're not the first person to reports something like this, I believe, but I don't think anyone here has ever managed to replicate it. Which Word version exactly is this? https://www.digitalcitizen.life/find-exact-version-microsoft-office

    @adomasven maintains that code, he may have additional questions on debugging/tracking down the issue.
  • Microsoft Office 2016

    Thank you
  • edited October 23, 2018
    Right, I saw Word 2016; I'm looking for the specific version number, something like 16.0.4378 for Windows or Word for Mac 16.17
  • oh sorry - 16.0.4639.1000 for Windows
  • @JoLoCo if you have a copy of the document in the broken state, could you send it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread?
  • I have emailed a copy of a word document where you can see this problem happening, as requested.

    Very oddly, when I see what happens using Zotero on my laptop as opposed to my PC (word version 108.27.20181) I am having similar problems - even when I start a brand new document.

    Thanks
  • Sorry it took a while to respond. I've looked at the document you sent but cannot see anything weird in it, aside from a couple of citations that are not linked Zotero fields (the ones you highlighted yellow). Either way, I'd highly recommend updating Word if possible and trying again. If that doesn't help, could you send us an example that you generate from a fresh document, with only 3 citations in it?

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