Office 365

anne.barbier

Dear Zotero users,

I would like to know if there is an alternative to constantly re-install the plug-in to word (by adding the word complement from it's location on the computer) on Word 365. This version of Office seems to not match properly with Word.

Thanks in advance,

Anne

dstillman

constantly re-install the plug-in to word (by adding the word complement from it's location on the computer) on Word 365

I'm not sure what you mean by this. The Zotero Word plugin is automatically installed into Word the first time you run Zotero. If that doesn't work for some reason — e.g., due to security restrictions on your computer — you might need to perform a manual installation once (and if the plugin changes in the future).

If you're doing anything "constantly" then something is wrong with your system. But you'd have to explain exactly what you mean here.

anne.barbier

it's a recurrent problem with Office 365. iT's particular with this version of Word where the plug-in has to be installed manually each time you quit word. I have been training university students on Zotero for years now and I found out that this problem is not link to a system but to 365. This issue has already been discussed on the forum and some people find temporary solutions (see Sagne Post in april 2018 https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/73354/how-to-use-zotero-plug-with-word-365). I was just wondering if a more permanent solution was available.

dstillman

No, this is some sort of misunderstanding.

Office 365 is just the standard current subscription version of Office. Zotero works perfectly fine with that, and will automatically install the plugin into it for most people.

The instructions on the page you linked to are just a restating of our manual installation instructions, which are only necessary in situations where something on the system — e.g., IT security restrictions — prevents Zotero from automatically installing the plugin into the Word Startup folder. This has nothing to do with Office 365 specifically, and it wouldn't be a "recurrent" problem for most people who had to use those instructions.

All Zotero does automatically is copy the Zotero.dotm into the Word Startup folder the first time you start Zotero, and all the manual installation instructions explain how to do is how to copy that file there manually, once. Anything that happens to the file after that is completely outside of our control. If the plugin is being removed from Word every time you quit, that's something your IT department is doing on university-managed computers, and you'll need to speak with them about it.

anne.barbier

Thank you very much again for taking the time and for your complete explanation. However this is not happening on our self service university computers but on the students personal computers. I found out that the only students facing the problem are those with Office 365. I will send them the link for the manual installation again.

dstillman

Don't send them to the manual installation instructions. Those are complicated and error-prone and most people shouldn't need to follow them. Send them here:

https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#zotero_toolbar_doesn_t_appear

And if they get an error trying to reinstall the plugin through the preferences, they should really post here. As it says on the manual installation page:

Note that, if you rely on manual installation, you may run into problems later due to the plugin in Word becoming outdated, so it's better to figure out why automatic installation isn't working (e.g., security software blocking the installation or an incorrect Word Startup folder location) and fix the underlying problem.

In any case, if this is their personal computers:

1) They would still need to be running some sort of security software that's preventing Zotero from installing the plugin into the Word Startup folder automatically.

2) If the plugin is disappearing when they close Word, I'd guess that they're not actually following the manual instructions correctly and are double-clicking Zotero.dotm to open it in Word directly or something like that. Once Zotero.dotm is placed in the Word Startup folder, automatically, semi-automatically through the Cite pane of the preferences, or manually, it will stay there, unless something else on the system deletes it.