Literature numbers within the text don't updated

Ghaidaa Sh

Hello,
I am using Zotero 5 standalone and connected to Word and choose the Style IEEE to write a big document for many months. Every time I added new lit, it showed within the text as the number [1], and then as I clicked on refresh, then it changed to [51] for example according to the right sequence of Literature. But yesterday it doesn't work and the Literature in the text are numbered right, the number [1] is assigned to many of them and the refresh-function doesn't work anymore. I copied the ext in another document and the problem still there. Please tell me if there is any other solution because I want to keep the formatted document that I am using now for writing.
Thanks

dstillman

Every time I added new lit, it showed within the text as the number [1], and then as I clicked on refresh, then it changed to [51]

That just sounds like "Automatically update citations" being disabled:

https://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-5-0-36/#faster-citing-in-large-documents

But yesterday it doesn't work and the Literature in the text are numbered right, the number [1] is assigned to many of them and the refresh-function doesn't work anymore.

That sounds like you saved the document in a format that flattened the fields:

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/existing_citations_not_detected

Ghaidaa Sh

thanks for your answer. I enabled the "Automatically update citations" as you recommend and clicked refresh, but the problem is still there.
the document is saved in the format .docx
the problem came yesterday out, without any changes on the document, I only changed the state of the computer to sleep and came later back to work on the opened document.

dstillman

I think you're misunderstanding. You described two separate problems. "Automatically update citations" being disabled would've explained the first, where Refresh updated the numbers.

But if you have flattened citations in the document due to saving it wrong, or opening in some other tool, that's not fixable — you'd have to reinsert citations. The second linked page explains how to check whether you have active citations.

Zotero simply inserts standard Word fields, so if the citations became flattened, it wasn't Zotero that did that (unless you used the Unlink Citations button).

Ghaidaa Sh

how can I check that I used this (Unlink Citations button) and how can it be disabled?
I reinserted the citation and now it changed.
another question, can I change the citation-style in preferences anytime after adding all citations?

dstillman

You can't disable Unlink Citations, but there's a confirmation prompt after you click it before the citations are unlinked. It's possible you clicked through that by mistake, but it's more likely that you did one of the other things described on that page to cause the citations to be flattened.

can I change the citation-style in preferences anytime after adding all citations?

Yes.