problem when entering a citation

Just updated to version 3.0, first tried the standalow, with Mac Office 2011. Tried to add a citation. The first citation is added ok. On the second citation, I get a message:

Zotero experienced an error updating your document.
TypeError: This parameter must be a string or Unicode object.

I then installed the Firefox plugin (the most recent), and installed the word plugin. Same problem.

Submitted the error through the firefox plugin: ref code 244355728
  • sounds like one bad citation - try running through these:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents
  • thx... i did run through that...

    1. I have track changes disabled (though there are track changes present in the document, which I need to keep).

    2. I also deleted all previous citations and bibliography in order to start fresh... so I didn't feel I needed to do the whole delete, undo thing.

    3. Tried changing the bibliography type a few times, removing Zotero codes, changing options. etc.

    No Luck... sigh, I miss Zotero 2.x which just worked :)
  • hmm.. it seems that if i open a fresh new document and enter citations they all work; so there must be some bad stuff in my other document... i wonder if it's all the track changes...
  • edited February 7, 2012
    Oh, so this is in a new document. You're the first person seeing this - let's see if Simon can say more from the error report.

    Edit - OK, I think now I understand - old document, but this is the first and the second citation you're entering - there are on old Zotero citations in there. Correct? You've tried copying the document over to a new one?
  • just copied and pasted all the text from my old doc into a new doc. This seems to keep the track changes. With the track changes disabled, i started entering citations again, and again i got the same problem...
  • hmm, i thought i removed all the old citations, but to double check, I tried adding a bibliography, and it came up with 3 entries. So I still have some old citations left, I wonder where...

    ok, i tried copying and pasting the text into a new document again; now when adding a bibliography, it says I have to insert a citation first; looks like I got rid of all the old citations...

    now let's try again...
  • ah... there was an old citation in a track change (in a delete comment). Got rid of that track change by accepting it and now everything seems to be working great!

    I realized there must be an old citation because after entering a new citation and getting the error message above, I tried adding a bibliography, and I got an entry for the citation just added along with an entry for the old citation that was in the track change. That helped point me to where in the text that old citation was, and bingo, it was in the track change.
  • If you can isolate a part of the document that causes the problem and send it to support@zotero.org, or if you don't mind sending us the whole document, we'd appreciate it.
  • sure, will do...

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