Unable to edit bookmark citations in Word

mattw

Hi guys,

I'm currently using Zotero 2.0b6.3 on a dual boot (Windows XP, Ubuntu) system. I would really like to be able to write and edit .doc files for my thesis in both Word 2007 and Open Office without having to stick to one OS for each document, so am trying to use the bookmark option for in text citations with a slightly edited APA style.

Inserting, moving and refreshing citations works fine in both Word and oo.o, but while I can edit citations in oo.o, when I try to edit a citation in Word by placing the cursor within the citation and click Zotero Edit Citation I get the error message "Microsoft Visual Basic: Runtime error '438': Object doesn't support this property or method." If I attempt to edit the same citation a second time, I then get the error message "The cursor is not presently within a Zotero citation..."

Editing citations in Word works fine when the citations are formatted as fields.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? Please let me know if I need to provide any further info.

Matt

dstillman

If you send an excerpt of the document that demonstrates the runtime error to support@zot....org, with a link to this thread, we'll take a look.

mattw

Cool, have done. When I save and re-open the document I only seem to get the "The cursor is not presently within a Zotero citation..." message as opposed to the runtime error, but hopefully the excerpt will show you something I can't see!

mattw

Any word on this?

ewandro

Just posted another thread talking about the same issue (sorry for the double, I did not see this one).
I'm facing the same error and this is weakening my position as a Zotero defender, in my research group, against the institutionalization of Mendeley as the group tool.

One of my arguments against their better implementation of the sharing concept and external client (some of our researchers cannot have officially FF on their machines), is related with the more powerful integration with Word (including the citation edition after inclusion, and citation "formating" i.e. suppress Author, prefix, suffix, etc).

If you have any feedback please we are anxious to hear them.

Cheers

PS: Two other points that still put, for me, Zotero ahead
- the limited implementation (Mendlay's) of the "collections" concept (no sub-collections)
- limited citation import process

ewandro

Hi mattw

I did more test, please see http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8180/problems-trying-to-edit-citation-using-the-word-plugin/#Item_3 to check if your issue is similar to mine.

Cheers

dstillman

Inserting, moving and refreshing citations works fine in both Word and oo.o, but while I can edit citations in oo.o, when I try to edit a citation in Word by placing the cursor within the citation and click Zotero Edit Citation I get the error message "Microsoft Visual Basic: Runtime error '438': Object doesn't support this property or method." If I attempt to edit the same citation a second time, I then get the error message "The cursor is not presently within a Zotero citation..."

Matt: I can reproduce this problem on Windows, including with new documents, so it seems possible that editing existing citations in bookmarks mode is just broken in the Windows 1.0b4 plugin. That version dates to last November, so I'm not sure how this would have gone unnoticed since then, but it's possible bookmarks mode—and, specifically, editing existing citations in bookmarks mode—just gets very little use. Someone else might want to test this, though.

As evidenced by its version number compared to the other 2.0-compatible plugins, the 1.0b4 plugin is based on very old code, and a completely new version should be available soon that should fix this, among other issues.

In the meantime, you might try switching to Fields mode in Word, editing as necessary, and switching back to Bookmarks mode before saving. And as you note, regular citation insertions appear to work fine in Bookmarks mode.

ewandro: Unless you're referring to Bookmarks mode, your issue is a different one.

ewandro

Hi Dan,

As I answered to you in the other post, I'm using fields.
Since my issue is different I will be posting only in the other post to avoid duplicates.

Cheers

mattw

Thanks for looking into this Dan, your diagnosis makes sense. I've been using the workaround you suggest for the last couple of days and it works fine, so happy for the moment :)

friscorose

Here is a strategy that I use for converting from OOo to word, it seems to work (knock on wood).
1. In OOo make sure you have bookmarks selected in preferences.
2. Save as MS word
3. In word, revert to fields

HTH

mattw

FYI to anyone interested - editing bookmarks now seems to work fine in Word, presumably since the recent change to running the Word plugin as a FF addon.