TypeError when trying to add additional citation to document

rsloan17
I'm working collaboratively on a Word document that I'm sending back and forth with my coauthor and we're both using a shared Zotero library.

I suddenly cannot add a new citation to the document, because when I go to put in the edit I get:

TypeError: int() argument must be a string or a number, not 'Keyword'

(We're using the Bluebook Zotero style, I'm on a Mac running Word 2008 for Mac, and he's on a Windows machine running I forget which reasonably current version of Word.)
  • rsloan17
    A solution for me turned out to be to revert to a mildly earlier version of the document that was in .doc format rather than .docx format, which I had changed to at a very recent save.

    Hypothesis: Changing a document with 60+ Zotero citations from .doc to .docx somehow makes Zotero unhappy.
  • DWL-SDCA
    Changing a document with any number of citation from .doc format to .docx format can damage the behind-the-scenes formatting that Zotero uses to track citations. Similarly, changing a Word documents' file format can trash Word's own table of contents, indexing, and other things -- even in documents that have never been touched by Zotero. Word does not do file conversions well unless the document is very simple.
  • dstillman
    edited March 4, 2012
    Changing a document with any number of citation from .doc format to .docx format can damage the behind-the-scenes formatting that Zotero uses to track citations.
    DWL-SDCA: Are you just speculating here, or have you experienced this? If so, can you reproduce it? I don't recall this being reported in the forums before.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited March 4, 2012
    I no longer have access to a computer with Word 2008.

    I am not speculating. This is a Mac Word 2008 issue that is unrelated to Zotero. This may occur with documents on computers that have never seen Zotero. Somehow the conversion to xml messes with the formatting. It can affect Word's own footnotes. Changing to docx can even affect simple things such as page breaks. Converting doesn't always break a document but it frequently can have that result. This is especially the case with documents containing in-line tables and figures.

    Mac Word 2011 will suggest a compatibility check when saving a document that is in doc format to docx format.
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