Install word add-in

tombu
Hi,
I used zotero successfully for about a month inserting citations and bibliographies into word 2010 documents. But now word stopped communicating with zotero, my add-in tab in word is gone, I cannot access the zotero word toolbar. I tried all kinds of things, reinstalling the word plug in for firefox. Klicking on 'install word add-in' on firefox->add-ins->extensions->zotero word for windows integration 3.1.7-> options produces an error message :
"Installation could not be completed because an error occurred. Please ensure that Microsoft Word is closed, and then restart Firefox."
I tried this several times, word is closed, many restarts later I am just as smart as before. Any thoughts? Unfortunately, there also seems to be no 'dummy' tutorial on how to manually delete and reinstall zotero in word, I keep getting lost in those that i found. Would very much appreciate any help, thanks.
  • Simon
    Either your user account doesn't have permission to install the Word plugin, or security software is interfering. There are manual installation instructions at http://www.zotero.org/support/windows_word_plugin_manual_installation_instructions. If something's unclear there, let us know and we can clarify.
  • tombu
    Dear Simon, thank you very much for your response.
    1) There is a zotero.dot file in the word startup folder that probably still is there from my first installation from a couple of months ago which used to work well.
    2) But i cannot find a zotero.dot file in the firefox extensions. there is one folder called 'zoterowinwordintegration@zotero.org' that contains a subfolder called 'install' which is empty. Is this the problem? Where is zotero.dot in the firefox extensions?
    3) I disabled microsoft security essentials and restarted the computer. The error message "Installation could not be completed because an error occurred. Please ensure that Microsoft Word is closed, and then restart Firefox." comes now automatically the moment I start firefox...
    And by the way, in the the page you refer to there is no instruction that fits windows 7 but that is a minor problem.
    Thanks for your help
  • Simon
    If there's nothing in the install directory, it sounds like someone or something deleted Zotero.dot from the extension directory. Try reinstalling the extension from zotero.org, and then see if you can reinstall the add-in.
  • tombu
    I just removed zotero and zotero word plug in, restarted the computer, reinstalled both extensions, still same error message popping up right away the moment the word plug in tries to communicate with word. Any other idea? Thanks again
  • Simon
    Provide a report ID after re-triggering the error.
  • tombu
    Error report ID: 2059087255
  • Simon
    That error report again indicates that Zotero.dot is missing from the install directory. If you've reinstalled Zotero Word for Windows integration and you haven't moved or deleted it, it seems likely that some antivirus or security software has. Microsoft Security Essentials shouldn't be a problem; do you have anything else installed?

    You might try downloading Zotero Standalone and see if it works properly with Word on your system.
  • tombu
    Thanks for the tip. I downloaded the standalone version, when installing it gives me the following error message at the end:

    "The Zotero data directory could not be found.

    Previous directory: C:\Users\TB\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\51nl9vzw.default\zotero"

    The 51nl9vzw.default is not my firefox profile, I have another code for that one. I don't know where this one came from.
  • tombu
    There is no other security software on my computer other than MSE.
    I copied manually the zotero.dot file from the word sartup file right into the empty 'install' file in the firefox profile. After the next restart, it was gone again and i get error messages now every time that I open firefox ("Installation could not be completed because an error occurred. Please ensure that Microsoft Word is closed, and then restart Firefox."
    I have no idea what else I could do.
  • Simon
    Did you set your Word startup directory to the Zotero install directory? That's the only circumstance under which Zotero would delete Zotero.dot. If you didn't, then something on your system is deleting Zotero.dot in the install directory, and I have no knowledge of what that might be.

    The error with Standalone you report appears to indicate that you had it installed at some point in the past, but you were using a different data directory. If you click the "Locate" button and choose your existing Zotero data directory (see here if you need help finding it), Standalone should open.
  • tombu
    Your last comment pointed in the right direction and the problem is solved now. The Word startup directory was indeed set up to the Zotero install directory, I don't know why. I cleaned that up and it works now. Thank you very much for your help and patience!

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