RTF/ODF Scan for Zotero

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  • that all looks right.
    If you go to the translator directory in your Zotero data folder, do you see the file "Scannable Cite.js"?
    Have you tried restarting Zotero (shouldn't be necessary, but let's be sure)?
  • Yes, Scannable Cite.js is there.
    Yes, I have restarted.

    Continued thanks, Adam, for helping me troubleshoot this :)
  • If you right click on an item and select "Export Items" does scannable cite come up as an option?
  • then you should almost definitely also be able to set it as a translator for quick copy (i.e. under Default Output in the Export tab of the preferences). Are you sure you're looking all the way down the list?
  • Well, my hard drive just died. Since I seem to be the only one having these issues, I'm going to assume it was a symptom of a failing HD. Hopefully I can get a new HD and be back up and running soon and it will work then. Thank you for all of your help.
  • that sucks, sorry to hear. Let us know if you still have problems when you're up and running again.
  • Hi folks, I am getting an error when I open my odt file in LibreOffice.

    > "Read-Error. Format error discovered in the file in sub-document content.xml at 1,552148(row,col)."

    I am writing in Scrivener, exporting to odt (and I can open this file in LibreOffice), and using the RTF/ODF scan in the standalone 4.0.8. This was working a few weeks ago, but as far as I know nothing has changed.

    Thanks!
    Dave
  • If you don't mind sending me the document my e-mail is at the bottom of this post
    http://www.zotero.org/blog/summer-zotero-workshops/

    Also, is this the case with one specific document or a general issue (in other words, could you try this with a very simple document)?
  • I tested a very simple doc and it works fine.

    My problematic doc has been sent. Thanks, Sebastian!
  • edited June 6, 2013
    The issue David experienced (citations with straight quotes in the title as in "Don't Say Goodbye to the Porkpie Hat": Langston Hughes, the Left, and the Black Arts Movement) is fixed in the newest release (1.0.10) now out.
    This is the only change in that version.
  • It is a great tool! For me, it greatly improved the work with mind mapping software. Thank you very much.
  • Hi all, a minor problem with this ... I am writing in Scrivener, compiling to .odt with footnotes set to Calabri 10. It is important to set the font for footnotes, body text etc on compile because Scrivener doesn't support styles - this gives you the opportunity to allocate styles by font/size in the word processor. My issue is that when the Zotero ODF scan is run on the compiled output, the text that Zotero writes into the document is in a different font (from memory, Arial 12). Just makes it more of a fiddle to tidy up a large document with the footnotes on a standard style. Question - is it possible to do something in the ODF Scan to paste text into the target document matching the surrounding style/font?
  • The plugin doesn't touch the font selection or style settings of the document, and it's not feasible (or desirable) to extend it in that way. You should be able to control the font used in footnotes in the word processor, though, via the default style settings.
  • You might have to set the footnotes to Calabri 10 in Libre Office, too, though. It's at least conceivable that LO changes the footnote font according to it's own footnote style.
  • Hmm haven't found a solution yet. Have tried setting up the Footnote style in LO to match the compiled document ie Calabri 10 - however on running the ODF scan the material added by Zotero is in a different font/size - so in one footnote there is a jumble of fonts. I would have thought that once the style was setup in LO anything added would simply 'snap' to the allocated style settings, but alas no. No doubt a limitation in LO. For a small document it isn't too hard to format-paint them right again but for a thesis-length project it is more of a worry. Nisus Pro does at least allow me to isolate all the footnotes by converting them to endnotes and manually standardising them, so there are ways around it. Surprised if nobody else has run into this ...
  • It's certain that Zotero doesn't ship a font specification to the word processor, so there must be an explicit setting to Arial (or whatever bad font you're seeing) in there somewhere. If you have set the font in the "Default" style to Calabri, another style element must be overriding it. That's the only way the font would change.
  • In Open Office / LibreOffice the font setting of your "Default Style" may _not_ carry over to your bibliography or to footnotes or endnotes. However, I have found that if I right click on the "Default Style" and modify it without changing anything; the bibliography and notes will also change to the default style. Also pasting from html will also match your default style -- even from Chrome.

    From the Default Style drop-down, select "more...". Find the default style in the pop-up listing, right-click and select "modify", make no changes (unless you want to change the font, etc.) and then click "apply" and "OK". Everything will be converted to the desired font and everything you add to the manuscript will automatically be inserted in the desired font.
  • edited July 8, 2013
    Have been using this for a while and enjoy the reliabilty of it. Some questions:

    1) Author-supression after putting a minus in front of the author: The comma is left standing in the author-field. (I tried this in a few styles APA 6, DIN-1502 etc.)
    Currently: (, 1874, S. 320ff)
    However, Chicago author-date (and the DE-dev) removes the comma correctly; thus I assume this is style specific. What parameter in the style makes the difference?

    Also suggestion for documentation-page: Maybe worth adding some emphasis that the minus sign has to go immediately in front of the author, eg: "...put a minus sign (-) immediately in front of the author as in:...

    2)Two adjacent cites to the same author: currently there is a comma in between the differing occurrences in APA 6, DIN-1502, J.of Psychotherapy Integration
    (Wundt, 1874, S. 267, 1907, S. 308)
    The Chicago styles replace the commas with a semicolon. Again, what parameter in the style makes the difference?

    3)When the third pipe (locater) is empty and the 4th pipe (suffix) is in use there is no comma after the date in the final document. I've tweaked this by adding the comma into the suffix-slot, eg:
    { | Aquinas, et al., (1953) | |, Q. 13, art. 3 |zu:17490:7BZUKTQW}
    Is this intended behaviour for the plug-in for an empty 3rd but used 4th pipe?
  • 1) The suppress author formatting should be the same as when using the LibreOffice (or Word) plugin. What you describe can happen for poorly coded styles, but most definitely shouldn't for APA 6th. Make sure you're using the most recent version, I'll take a look, too.

    I'll clarify this in the documentation, thanks.

    2) Same answer as 1), though this one might be on purpose, as the citation w/o locators would appear correctly as (Wundt, 1874, 1907)

    3) That's on purpose. It's the same behavior as the suffix in the plugin and provides maximal flexibility - you may not always want a comma after the date.
  • Thanks for this.
    What you describe can happen for poorly coded styles..
    You're quite right. Since I've cobbled mine together myself (it validates) please let me know the likely parameter to improve. Also, I have to backtrack from my previous statements: on point 1) Harvard 7, APA 5+ 6 and Chicago author-date DE are defintely ok.
  • basically you don't want the comma between author and year to be set as a prefix, i.e. you don't want

    <text macro="author-short"/>
    <text marco="issued-year" prefix=", "/>


    but instead want to use a group with a delimiter, i.e.

    <group delimiter=", ">
    <text macro="author-short"/>
    <text marco="issued-year"/>
    </group>
  • I apologize if I'm being presumptuous. May I request that the name of this thread be changed to drop the "announcing" part. With each new post's email alert I think that it is an announcement of a new version instead of a support request. Thanks.
  • @DWL - done.
  • @adamsmith: Thanks for helping with the delimiters. I've managed to change them in my style and get rid of the commas when author supression is active. Couldn't find the respective parameter for point (2) though – semicolon (as in Chicago) instead of comma when identical authors are adjacent. However, this seems trivial.
  • Hi,

    I just started using your tool. It's working as you guys said.

    I have two trivial questions. Please bear in my mind... I use windows so

    1) is there a way I could make the looks of the in-text citation a little more readable ?
    2) after writing up in scrivener I intend to convert it to a word doc...will the plugin citations work then ...I am a little confused as you keep saying libre office that is not avbl on windows. But I use scrivener after which I move the end product to ms word... Can u help please

    Thanks.
  • 1)Probably not - The curly brackets are required, the zu:xxxxx part is required, the pipes (|) could be replaced by something else, but we don't really want to do that (see above) - but what do you have in mind?

    2) You _do_ need LibreOffice, which is available for free on Windows, Mac, and Linux. There is no way to use this tool without LibreOffice (or OpenOffice, but we recommend LO). Once you have opened and converted the document in LibreOffice you can change citations to "Bookmarks" and then save the document as .doc and use it in Word.
  • Thanks for the reply. Yes the zu part is so distracting that my text and paras dont look like dissertation paras anymore and look like some computer code with pointers :) I just cant get to read them.

    Okay thanks for the info.

    Is it too bad to just stick to RTF scan...manually write in the citations ?.. I am just weighing the pros and cons... cause my text looks so weird right now! And we have to cite wherever we need to in social sciences so I am just wondering if the extra step of libreoffice and the text looking like code where you cant really read it and think, are worth the effort.
    Sorry, just want to know if you have any tips. Not to be rude or anything.

    Thanks again.
  • No, there are no special tips. Try it out and see if it works for you. Personally I don't think RTF-scan is robust enough for a dissertation, so I'd advise against that.
  • I am thinking of putting my text in bold color so its easier for me to read... ill try that. thanks for the work!
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