Event sysodisA?

seiteom
I'm using Mac and Word. Everything has worked fine with Zotero till about a week ago. I cannot recall making any changes, but since then any attempt to insert a citation or create bibliography etc., results in this message: "Script error: Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure that Zotero Standalone or Firefox is open and try again. does not understand the 'event sysodisA'-message". Of course, I have the Zotero standalone open when this happen, and I have also tried using Firefox without success. Tried Google "event sysodisA", which appears to be the most specific information in the message box. Have not found anything related to Zotero.

So, have anyone had the same problem and if so, found a solution?

Thank you! /Andreas
  • birkovic
    edited August 22, 2013
    Hi

    I have the same exact problem. To the extent of my knowledge I have not changed any settings but still, the word plugin does not function correctly.

    This is my situation:

    Word version: Mac 2011 (14.3.6)

    Zotero version: Stand alone 4.08

    I have the same setup on both my home and work computers, however it is only the work computer that is affected and, to restate the problem of the OP, when I try to insert citation Word gives me an error message:

    Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure that Zotero Standalone or Firefox is open and try again. "doesn't understand the <event sysodisA> message.

    Everything works fine if I use Zotero and the Open Office plugin at the problematic computer. And, like I said there is no problem with the word plugin at home. While, naturally the computers are different, they both run Mac OS X 10.8.4 with a close to identical setup.

    Happy for input and help.

    /Andreas (does this happen only to people with a specific name?)
  • adamsmith
    while it's pretty unlikely to help, you should update to Zotero 4.0.12
  • Simon
    sysodisA is the "display alert" message, and every application should support it. If Word doesn't understand it, something is wrong with either Word or AppleScript. Unfortunately I don't have any insight beyond this. You might try reinstalling Word.
  • birkovic
    edited August 23, 2013
    Hmm... Thank you for the input. Before I reinstall word, are there any other suggestions, or ideas on how this happened? OP did you solve this?

    Edit: i did update to zotero 4.011, no luck there.
  • Gracile
    (Just to clarify: Zotero 4.0.11 is the latest Zotero Standalone version; Zotero 4.0.12 is the latest Zotero for Firefox version.)
  • BrendanTCD
    I have being having a similar issue the last few weeks, tried a number of fixes, reinstalling, updating java etc. sometimes in works, for a few hours or a few days then the same issue arises "Script error: Word could not communicate with Zotero......"

    What I don’t understand is it almost always works when I have Zotero Standalone open but never when I just have Zotero FF open.

    Is there anywhere in the settings where I can make the word plugin look for Zotero FF first, or even to ignore the standalone version. Its pretty annoying as every time I want to insert a citation I have to sync Zotero Firefox so that the reference appears in Zotero Standalone so Word can find it when I try to insert it.

    Thanks
  • adamsmith
    Unless you get an error message saying event sysodisA, this thread deals with a different issue and you should start a new one for your problem, please.

    To get you started: Is there a specific reason you don't have Standalone and Zotero for FF set to the same database (which is both the default and recommended)? That would take care of the sync issue.
    Also, make sure you actually have the word plugin installed in Firefox.
  • Simon
    (If you set Standalone and Zotero for FF to the same database, it should take care of both issues.)
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