Refresh does not work in word

TessAx
Hi,

I updated my references in the zotero standalone. However, if I hit refresh in word, nothing happens, but I do not get an error either. I downloaded the latest versions of zotero, but still word won't refresh my references.

Does anyone know the problem and has a solution to it?

Thanks!
  • Gracile
    Did you manually edit the citation in MS-Word?
  • TessAx
    No that's what I'm doing now. But it's a rather large document and everything is already updated and changed in the standalone, so it would be a lot faster if word would just refresh my sources.
  • Gracile
    I'm confused on this issue. I know that with z3.x you can directly edit citations in the document but I don't know if that prevent all refresh after. How do you edit your citations: directly or through the "Edit citation" dialog?
    Anyway, you need someone better informed than me.

    What were you trying to do? (and which word plugin version do you use?)
  • dstillman
    In 3.0 you can edit citations directly in the document, and then the citations won't update unless you change the citation style. You can also reset individual manual edits by using the Edit Citation button, at which point Zotero will display a warning that the citation has been edited and continuing will reset the modifications.

    If your citations aren't updating, try changing the citation style.
  • emilymackinnon
    edited April 24, 2012
    I've been having problems with Zotero refresh, too, although in my case it's the cross-reference numbers that aren't updating properly. I tried changing the citation style, no dice. Any other suggestions?

    Update: solved - it was an error on my part with duplicate entries in my library. Oops!
  • benry
    I have encountered this problem with the updated version of zotero too. I modified reference in zotero, but the refresh button does not work. Does anyone have solved this problem to directly update from the database ?
  • adamsmith
    This isn't a general problem that needs solving. Typically it just works.
    Could you provide some more detail?
  • fbennett
    edited October 16, 2012
    The posts in this thread cover all of the reported issues.

    As Dan explains, with Zotero 3.0 if you edit citation text directly in the document, it will no longer update. You can check whether a citation has been changed manually in this way by opening it for editing in Zotero, as Dan indicates.

    The other possible cause of incorrect citation forms after a refresh is the use of separate Zotero items for the same source, as noted by emilymackinnon above.
  • filipvd
    edited July 24, 2013
    I also seem to have problem refreshing a word file after updating the standalone.
    For example I had several references where I edited errors in the title in the stand alone,
    If I push the refresh button in the word plugin nothing changes. How can I make sure the changes I made in the standalone are also made in the new document?
    Another similar question concerns duplicate references. I merged duplicate references in the zotero standalone which in the word document are named (Harris, 1999a) and (Harris, 1999b). Should a refresh replace both references by the merged one and make this (Harris, 1999) automatically or do I have to do this manually? It doesn't seem to be working at the moment so I don't know if I have to do this manually or if something is wrong. Would rather not do it manually on a 115 page document... :)

    Any ideas? Because it was such a large document we first made all the chapters in different word documents and than joined them together. Don't know if this can be a reason why changes to titles aren't updated?

    Could it have anything to do with having selected the references to be stored in the document when selecting document preferences? Is there a way to put this option off again once it has been chosen?

    kind regards,
    Filip
  • adamsmith
    edited July 24, 2013
    All of these things should happen automatically after refresh, so this isn't working correctly.

    If you insert the Harris 1999a citation into the same document (you can delete it again afterwards, this is for troubleshooting), what does it show up as? Correctly as Harris 1999a or something like Harris 1999c?
  • filipvd
    Well so I have Harris 1999a and Harris 1999b in the document. I merged those in the Zotero stand alone.
    Now as you asked when I insert a citation I can choose between the 2 cited which are already in the document and the merged one from the library. If I choose the Harris 1999a which is already cited, it comes up correctly as Harris 1999a, if I choose the merged one from the library this becomes Harry 1999c.

    I did notice that when I press "Quick Format Citation" and select one that is already cited for example "Harris 1999a" it shows the title instead of the authors name in the "Quick Format Citation" bar. This is also weird no?
    This also happens when I choose to edit some existing citations some citations show the author name like usual and some show the title...
    Anyhow I fixed everything manually.
  • adamsmith
    I'm sorry about that. So what this sounds like is that the citations in the document became disconnected from the library and Zotero relied on the information stored in the document (and hence the citations didn't reflect any changes in the document).

    Hard to say why that happened, the most common reasons are
    1. You exported/imported your library or
    2. You work(ed) on a computer that wasn't fully synced.
    Could either of these have been the case?
  • filipvd
    We indeed imported this library. It would have been a better idea to work with shared groups right? Didn't know this could cause problems.
    Tnx for the help, so we know how to do this in the future...
  • adamsmith
    yes - while the "Store References..." feature allows you to collaborate without sharing a library/group, it does have the types of problems you experienced, so using a group (or if you're just transferring a library this: http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/transferring_a_library ) is preferable.
  • monharte
    I also am having a problem with the refresh button. I edited my citations in my Zotero Library in Firefox on line. But after editing a citation, the refresh button in word does not bring up the new version of the citation. The word library is not refreshing. I have not edited these in word - only through the Zotero website on line.

    Any ideas?
  • adamsmith
    do you actually mean that you've edited them online, i.e. on the website, or do you just mean in the Firefox add-on?
    If the former, then you need to make sure that you have actually synced your local copy of Zotero.
    Otherwise, what type of changes are we talking about that don't make it in the Word version?
  • monharte
    edited January 6, 2016
    Thank you for your help. I reset through Zotero preferences. Took me a while to find, but I got it working.
  • adamsmith
    edited January 6, 2016
    Yeah, you want to edit things in the firefox add-on (or Zotero Standalone), not on the webpage. My guess is that the changes didn't sync successfully and that's why refresh didn't work (the Word add-on gets the data from the locally installed Zotero, not from the web).


    edit: oh, good then.
  • dstark
    I seem to recall that in prior versions of Zotero, you could clear what you'd done in manually editing a citation by opening the classic citation dialog box, and hiding the editor. The citation would then revert back to updating from the database rather than reflecting your manual edits.

    In v.5.0.55, however, this seems not to be the case. And changing styles as suggested above by @dstillman doesn't seem to work either.

    Is there a different mechanism now in place for wiping out custom changes to a given citation once they've been made?
  • adomasven
    If you are using the classic citation dialog, clearing the text in the editor and confirming that you want the citation to be empty will restore the original. I don't know if hiding the editor ever worked and it's unclear whether it should. Either way, we're planning a new citation interface in some intermediate future and won't be putting much work into the classic dialog.
  • dstark
    Ah, thanks @adomasven. That worked like a charm! I'll look forward to seeing the new citation interface when that comes out too. Thanks, again.
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