What am I missing??

patsyvino
I had to reinstall windows and all my programs on my PC laptop, and while I see my library is intact with Zotero, it's not sync-ing to Microsoft Word. What do I need to click to make them talk to each other??

I re-downloaded zotero. I have the "add-in" icon in Word. Everything looks fine, except there's no library accessed from Word. What am I missing?
  • adamsmith
    Do you have a local version of Zotero installed? Is it synced to your online account?
    The Word add-in doesn't communicate with your online library.
  • patsyvino
    Hmm. All good questions. How would I check that?
  • adamsmith
    You would know whether you have Zotero installed. It's either a standalone program or a Firefox extension. If you have the Firefox extension, it will be listed - separately from the Zotero Word plug-in - under Tools-->add-ons--> Extension in Firefox.
    If you have the standalone version where exactly it is would depend on your system.

    Whether it's synced - once you open it, click the green round arrow on the top right. See what happens.
  • patsyvino
    Oh, I have the firefox extension, 3.0.1. It comes up fine in Firefox there, but it's just not connected to word... How to make that happen?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    What does "not connected" mean? Remember that we can't see your screen.

    http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs#provide_steps_to_reproduce
  • adamsmith
    "it's just not connected to word"
    you'll need to provide more details. Do you get an error message? (what?) Do you get an empty library? Please spend some time describing your issue so I don't have to guess around. We need the text of any error messages you may see, a precise description of what you're doing or what you're seeing etc.
  • patsyvino
    No there's no error message, just a blank library. The library's fine if I go in through zotero.org, but nothing comes up if I try to add a citation in Word.
  • fbennett
    Are the items also in the local image of your Zotero library (viewed through the client, not the website)?
  • patsyvino
    Sorry, I'm not sure what 'local image' of the library means? When I log into zotero.org, I hit library, and all is well. But when I'm in word and click 'add-on' and want to add something, nothing is there...
  • adamsmith
    edited February 13, 2012
    And see above:
    "Whether it's synced - once you open it, click the green round arrow on the top right. See what happens."
    edit: we're talking about the local version of Zotero. The one that's in Firefox and has version 3.0.1. You need to open that. As I say above - the Word plugin has nothing to do with the online version of the library.
  • fbennett
    The "local image" is what you see when (depending on your setup) you open the library in Firefox (i.e. click the Zotero icon or type Ctl-Alt-Z) or run Standalone Zotero. The Word plugin uses the local image of the library, not the website, so if the local image is empty, it will be empty in the Word plugin view as well. The other people trying to help are asking the same question, so you'll need to check this.
  • patsyvino
    OK, I got it! Just fyi, what I needed to do was click on zotero inside firefox by clicking on the "zotero" button on the bottom right of the screen. I wasn't hearing that, although maybe that was intuitive to others from the get go :). Then I saw the sync round arrow you kept referring to, and it chewed on it for a while and then my library appeared. Yay- none too soon, I defend my prelims next week... Thanks!

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