How to add extra styles to Zotero

JessicaCDavey
I need a very specific referencing style. There is a version available in the style section on this site. I've downloaded the file however, I can't get it to work. Is this because it isn't compatible with the standalone version or are there other reasons why it isn't working.
  • adamsmith
    You'll have to explain "can't get it to work" more precisely. How are you trying to add the style? What exactly isn't working - it doesn't appear, you get an error, it doesn't look like it should?
  • JessicaCDavey
    It wouldn't export into Zotero and there didn't appear to be a manual way of doing so. I gave up with the standalone version in the end as it was problematic syncing to openoffice. I'll have to go back to using firefox.
  • adamsmith
    this is all a bit confusing to me, but for what it's worth you should be able to get a downloaded style into standalone Zotero using the style tab of the Zotero preferences, pressing the + button and then selecting the .csl you downloaded. I don't know if there is another way, but that almost certainly works.
  • adamsmith
    Also, it would really help if you could spend some time describing the trouble you experience - the reason an alpha version of software is released is so that developers can get feedback from users and understand what is and what isn't working properly.
  • ruth.paas
    edited March 18, 2011
    Dear Adam,

    thanks for the description - I had the same problem and couldn't find the style tab at first. But like this it worked fine for me with Word 2010. Though I had to restart my PC (again!) to make the new styles show up in the Word addon list :( it's not convenient to restart zSA, but since it's still in development I would understand it. But now I'm restarting my computer every 10 min or so, because zSA doesn't work properly anymore.
    Since I suppose that's a different issue (which hasn't been reported yet as far as I can tell), I'll create another topic in a minute.
    Edit: Link to the other topic.
  • adamsmith
    you only should have to restart Word to get the styles working - but this might be related to your other issue.
  • ruth.paas
    edited March 18, 2011
    Yap, tried to only restart Word before I posted my problem (simple solutions first ;-)), but didn't work - so I guess you're right... Thanks for your answer!
  • mediware
    edited April 12, 2011
    My question is similar. Even until a month ago, I could create my own journal specific styles (like World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology and quite a few others) and installed them without problem. Obviously, I removed them after my work was finished. Now, I am trying to re-install them, either through Preference option in Zotero, or by opening the csl file from FireFox. Though, it asks confirmation to install, it does not do so. I have spent about three days trying to solve. Any help! Many thanks in advance.
    sps
  • adamsmith
    mediware - your custom styles would need to validate in order to work in Zotero 2.1 (which is more strict than 2.0 in that respect), did you check that?
    http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/creating_citation_styles#validation
    (your old styles are likel csl .0.8.1 styles.
  • mediware
    Many thanks Adam for prompt feedback last night. Since then I have tried various methods, including validation after update from version 0.8. Probably there is problem with the validating process or xlt/xls files. I am moving on to complete some other works. I may have to write everything from scratch or edit an existing repository.
    Thanks once again for your effort and support.
  • adamsmith
    This can likely be fixed, but you don't provide enough detail to really do anything about this. Maybe the problem isn't with the styles, that was just the most likely theory.
  • mediware
    edited April 13, 2011
    Thanks Adam again. I agree that I have not provided enough info and you are 100% correct. I am a bit pragmatic in approach - like many of us interested in IT. It would take enormous amount of time to prepare the precise details we go through; and rather consuming your time, I would try myself first. In fact, by this time I am already in middle of completion of my task. I would much prefer C++ which can give error message, rather than try thousands of permutation to solve a problem. I have submitted the paper after manual formatting of one of other style. I know that once reviewers send me feed back, I have to update the bibliography again. So I was preparing in advance to get the csl ready for that journal.
    I am very much obliged for your kind support and intention, I regret if I caused any offense.
    sps
  • dmiller
    Similar problem: I decided I wanted to upgrade styles from CSL 0.8 to CSL 1.0 since I wanted to create a new CSL 1.0 style based on another model, and I noticed that even though I'm running zSA and Zotero 2.1.6 the standard styles appear to be CSL 0.8. (Ditto for the standard styles in the Zotero Style Repository.)

    So I deleted the standard styles in my Zotero directory and installed replacements of most from https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles. Unfortunately, the consistent error message when I try to install *any* new 1.0 style is "____ does not appear to be a valid style file."

    Any suggestions?
  • adamsmith
    The first issue is to be expected - right now all of your installed styles will by default be 0.8.1

    My suspicion would be that you didn't download the right file from the github repository (which is not at all user friendly at this time - it's not going to stay that way)
    Try this:
    https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles/raw/master/elsevier-harvard.csl
    use this link directly, right-click ---> save link as...
    and then install that .csl
    If that doesn't work, provide an error ID for a failed install attempt
    if it does work, note that in order to download a style, from the github repository, you need to first click on the style to open it and then download it using the "raw" link on the top right
    (and let me just re-iterate that no one claims this is user-friendly. The github is great to host and add styles, the actual repository will eventually sit on citationstyles.org and have install links like the current Zotero one)
  • dmiller
    Thank you, Adam. That solved the problem just fine.
  • marsh
    For those who are puzzled, as I was, trying to find the style tab, the path is Preferences > Cite > Styles.

    Happy Thanksgiving!
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