Limited and inconsistant ability to edit citations after copying to new WORD document

MurrayBall

Hi,
I am running WORD version 1908 build 11929.20300 and Zotero 5.0.74.

After copying text including footnote references created with Zotero to a new WORD document, I found that only a few of the citations would highlight when I clicked on them, and that which ones responded was inconsistent. I then opened other word documents and found the same difficulty. I updated the WORD plug-in and re-started the computer to no avail. I tried deleting and re-inserting references which affected which ones responded but the new entries then behaved in the same problematic way. I tried deleting sections of the document as recommended in another troubleshooting thread to isolate problematic citations, and again the results were inconsistent.

I would be pleased if anyone could advise on other possible fixes.

Thank you,
Murray

adomasven

Can you reproduce this with two freshly new documents? If not, something is already corrupted in your existing document. Try editing the citations that copy problematically in the original document and see if you can do it there.

MurrayBall

Thanks for getting back to me;

All of my saved WORD documents, including the original I copied from, behave the same way - a few citations will highlight and most will not.

MurrayBall

It seems that the ones that open are the first few in the document, then after four or five or so, the remainder will not open, and when I try the next one down, a grey line appears above it, under the previous one that did open.

MurrayBall

Also the previous pattern is not consistent; after the grey line appears, previously-opening ones do not necessarily respond.

adomasven

Can reproduce this in a newly made document? If not, could you send a very cut-down version of a document that displays this problem (no more than a couple of pages) to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread?

MurrayBall

Yes, I will, thank you.
I have re-installed first Zotero then WORD on my computer and now find that if I place my cursor in one of the many citations that will not highlight, then click on add/edit citation in Zotero tool bar, the citation does open (and then becomes highlighted) and I can edit it. I am able to proceed with my work without difficulty, so it seems to be only a weird highlighting issue, but a persistent one, at this stage.

I have sent a section of my document including where the highlighting stops working. I removed the beginning of the document (including a few citations), and note that one more citation will highlight now before the difficulty begins, i.e., removing some citations from the beginning of the document changed where the highlighting difficulty begins (by one citation).

adomasven

From the way you describe it, this sounds like a Word highlighting issue more than anything else. Either way, could you say which citations specifically in the snippet that you have sent are not highlighted for you?

MurrayBall

Hi,
Just now, i was able to highlight only citations 1,2, and 3.
I then opened a citation mid document (without it highlighting) and re-entered it, and found afterward only citations 1 and 2 highlighted (not citation 3 or anything following).

adomasven

I cannot reproduce the behaviour you are describing. Either way, if you can still edit your citations, the issue is probably only cosmetic. If you cannot reproduce this in a new document you could try step 10 of debugging broken documents instructions.

MurrayBall

Thank you Adomasven, I appreciate your support.