citation editing after upgrading to ms word office 2011 on mac

asi.somburu
Hello, I encounter the following message everytime I try to insert a new citation: "the highlighted citation no longer exists in your Zotero database. Do you want to select a substitute item? clicking 'No' will delete the field codes for citations containing this item, preserving the citation text but deleting it from your bibliography." then the buttons labeled cancel, no and yes appear. I try to select a substitute and the same msg appears. I tried inserting citations into a brand new document and didn't have any issues, just with this one, so I don't think the problem relates to the MS office upgrade. There has to be something wrong with the document, which is a big deal b/c its my masters thesis. When I copy paste it into a new doc to troubleshoot I get the same error msg again. any ideas?
  • adamsmith
    The same message appears multiple times because it refers to a different citation - note that this isn't about the citation you're trying to insert, but about the one that Zotero highlights, i.e. an old citation in your document.

    The most likely way this happens is by transferring a library via import/export, or by using Zotero on a version of your library that isn't fully synced.
  • asi.somburu
    edited February 18, 2013
    thanks so much for your rapid response adam. do you know how I can fix this problem? i recreated my library by dropping the same sources into zotero, and even if I delete my bibliography and try to start over, inserting new citations from the new library into a new document (copied and pasted from the original thesis), I get the same msg.
  • adamsmith
    Unless you have an actual back-up of your library
    http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#backing_up_your_zotero_library
    , you'll have to replace all citation in your thesis. They may look the same to you, but there is no way for Zotero to know that.

    As you say yourself, this doesn't happen in an entirely new document, only if you re-use part of your thesis (be it via copy&paste or by using the old doc, which doesn't make a difference), which includes citations that aren't linked to items that are in your current Zotero library.

    What happened to your original library?
  • asi.somburu
    restoring my library back-up (which I didn't even know I had, thank you) worked like a charm! thanks for all of your help

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.