I can't see my library in LibreOffice or Word

jkdevitt
hi there, i've just downloaded the latest version of zotero and libre office and entered a few titles into my library. However, when I open up libreoffice and try to cite anything, the only entry I can find is the zotero users guide. i've tried refreshing, played around with sync options in firefox, and rebooted but still no joy. i just realised that zotero doesn't work with ms word 10 but can't spot the problem with libreoffice. any ideas? much appreciated, john
  • dstillman
    You need to sync. The word processor plugins have no connection to the online library.
  • jkdevitt
    Many thanks Dan, Had already tried that but nothing...
  • dstillman
    edited February 14, 2012
    You'll need to be more specific.

    The word processor plugins just see what's in your local Zotero client. Where did you create the items, in the Zotero client or online? Are you using Zotero Standalone or Zotero for Firefox? What version? Do you have more than one version of Zotero locally?
  • rechn
    Very interested in this problem. I'm a librarian at a liberal arts school, and one of the professors teaching a senior seminar class said several of her students had this same problem. They entered items into their libraries, and then nothing showed up except the zotero users guide. They also synced and rebooted, but nothing. Nothing was showing up in their libraries when they tried to view it from Zotero.org either. They are using Zotero for Firefox, I believe version 2.1? 3.0 was not available yet when they downloaded...
    I'm not sure where they created the items. Possibly in one of the libraries databases, or possibly an external website. I believe all of the machines in the lab use Word 10, but it's worked fine with it before. Also, they were not trying to use the wordprocessing plugin at that time - just saving items to their libraries and then trying to access them. I told the professor I'd try to find out what was going on, and to simply have the students try again. Any insight on this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
  • dstillman
    rechn: We can't really help without specifics. This should be pretty straightforward—there's either data in the local library or there isn't. That's what the plugins access. The online library is irrelevant, except in terms of syncing down data (visible on zotero.org) to the local library. The only exception would be if someone were running multiple copies of Zotero with separate libraries at once, but that's fairly hard to do.
  • rechn
    These are undergrad students who have never used Zotero. They would have no idea how to run multiple libraries at once. They are all using the Firefox plug in, and the version of Zotero available right before 3.0 came out. They added items to their Zotero library in one class, and then when they tried to access those items in the next class, nothing was showing. All of them synced and rebooted their computers, but nothing they had added the previous class was available. Both the teacher and students were frustrated because they have no idea what happened.
  • adamsmith
    "and then when they tried to access those items in the next class"
    On the same computer? On different computers? This really is impossible to troubleshoot without more input, ideally not through an intermediary.

    My best guess would be that the students assumed Zotero was a cloud-only solution (like Refworks) and didn't sync their libraries before moving to a different computer.
  • dstillman
    Nothing was showing up in their libraries when they tried to view it from Zotero.org either.
    If the data's not on zotero.org, it won't be on the second set of computers. It sounds like they just didn't sync properly from the first computers.

    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/changes_not_syncing

    Beyond that, have them post here if they're having trouble.
  • rechn
    The students accessed the same computers. They seem to sit in the same place every class. They are creatures of habit that way. Other than this, I don't know how to give any more specific information. I will share the link on syncing with the professor and we'll see if it happens again. I agree that it is difficult to trouble shoot through an intermediary. I wish the professor had contacted me at the time the class was having issues and not after the fact.
  • adamsmith
    And the computers don't get wiped in between sessions?
    I would expect local data on lab computers to get wiped when you log out - that's at least been the case at the institutions where I have been.
  • rechn
    The computers are wiped, but this has never been an issue before. We have students and faculty who use multiple computers on the campus, and they can always access their zotero library and the material shows. I use multiple computers. I use one in my office, one at the desk, and the teaching computer in the lab. Anything I add to my library always shows on whatever computer I'm on once zotero syncs. The students have specific logins and they created their accounts with zotero. If they added items, wouldn't they show once zotero syncs? The collections and items they added were missing. The only thing showing in My Library was the zotero guide that is there by default. It was as if they had never added anything. This is the first time I've had a group have any problems, and it wasn't the whole class. Just a small group of them. The rest of the students' libraries were just fine. I just cannot figure out what was different for this small handful.
  • adamsmith
    "If they added items, wouldn't they show once zotero syncs?"
    Yes. But if the items are not online at zotero.org they never synced - or at least not successfully (if they tried to sync but the sync failed, they would have gotten an error message, but I think it's just a red exclamation mark over the sync logo and no pop-up error message). I would be quite surprised if that's not what happened.
  • jkdevitt
    hi all, I seemed to have found the answer! I first went into 'Add ons' in the Firefox menu, clicked on Zotero and went to 'Sync'. I had already ticked the box 'Sync automatically' but I had both the 'Sync to Zotero' and 'Sync to Zotero Group Libraries' ticked. I unticked the latter box and found my online libary immediately synced with both Libre Office and MS Word 2010 (much to my surprise). I'll let you know if there are any more problems but it appears that the word programmes were looking to sync with two locations at once.
  • dstillman
    Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Zotero syncs all data before it syncs any files, so that setting wouldn't have any effect on what data was synced with your client.

    It sounds like you're still confused about the difference between your online library and the Zotero client. Saying that data "synced" from the online library to the word processor plugins is illogical, since the plugins have no data of their own. They just use what's in the Zotero client, which you can see for yourself by opening the local Zotero interface (and which is not the same as the online library).
  • jkdevitt
    I'm confused about alot of things but this seemed to work (for now) - i have no idea why.
  • dstillman
    edited February 16, 2012
    OK, but I think you'd find that if you re-enabled that setting, it would continue to work. If somehow that wasn't the case, that would be a bug, and we'd want to know about it.

    If you leave it off for some reason, just don't expect files to sync to or from any groups you're in.

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.

Sign In or Register to comment.