Citation style in Word 2007

EGollin
I am using Zotero stand alone 4.0.17 for Google Chrome. With an MS Word plug in. In MS Word 2007, the Zotero Add In icons show up correctly but the citation style (set in both Zotero and in the Word document references as MLA7) is ignored. All citations are inserted only as (Authorsurname). Changing the citation style chosen seems to have no affect on this.

This is no great problem to me as I copy and paste my citations and the citation styles work fine from within Zotero. But I am about to show a friend how to use Zotero and it irks me that I cannot make it operate as it should. My operating system is Windows 7 64 bit.
If there is a simple solution and something I am doing wrong, I would be glad to know.
  • aurimas
    edited March 18, 2014
    You shouldn't be copy-pasting. You need to insert references using Zotero buttons in Word. Otherwise, you're just pasting plain text and Zotero has no way to reformat it.

    https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage
  • EGollin
    I know I shouldnt. But if I cant do it the other way? And yes, I read the page you link and followed the instructions there before posting here. I have spent more than 2 hours trying to do this.
  • aurimas
    edited March 18, 2014
    So inserting citations via Word plugin works fine then?
    All citations are inserted only as (Authorsurname)
    What exactly are you seeing and what do you expect to see and with which style? MLA 7 is an author-date style, so are you not seeing the date? Does the style change if you choose, say, Chicago (full note)?

    Edit: btw, as far as citations in Word go, only the setting in Word matters.
  • adamsmith
    Actually MLA will never include the date for in-text citations (and isn't supposed to):
    https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/
  • EGollin
    Thank you so much. Thanks to your explanation that what I was seeing might not be a mistake, I changed all style options to Chicago (Word offers me Chicago 15th edition) and you are right, it works.
    My initial failed attempts were with the Chicago, so I wrongly thought that style was the problem and switched to MLA.
    But my real problem was not realising that Word formatted citations or was capable of doing that. Please forgive me for not knowing, as it is 12 years since I last did academic work.
    I am very grateful for your help and patience with me.
  • adamsmith
    sorry, you stil seem to be confusing things - Word has a built in citation module that's entirely separate from Zotero. You now seem to be using that - which is fine, but doesn't take advantage of any of Zotero's features, including the ease of collecting references.

    I'm still not entirely sure what you're trying to do - if you're happy with your outcome that's fine - but keep in mind that you don't seem to be using Zotero at all.
  • EGollin
    I think I was using Zotero. And I have just done it again.
    I open MS Word and create a new document. Type an example sentence, at the end of which I use the Word reference menu to insert a footnote. The number is inserted and the curser jumps to that same number at the foot of my page.
    Zotero stand alone must be open on my PC. I click on the Zotero icon on my Word Add-in task bar. That opens the Zotero screen shown in the Zotero Guidance. I then use Zotero search to select the title I want to cite and, again following the Zotero guidance, click on it and the citation goes into the footnote, with data as per my Zotero entry, complete with Italics.
    If this is not correct, I would be glad to know. Although I am new to citing with Zotero, I have moved all my precious bibliographic and archival references into Zotero.
    Historians do not usually put author name references within the text and then generate a bibliography. Journals where I was published tended to use superscript numbers, and the notes and references went at the foot of the page or the end of the book. I always used the Word system to do this.
  • adamsmith
    you don't actually have to use Word to insert the footnotes - if the citation should go in the footnote Zotero will do that for you (select a citation style like "Chicago Manual of Style (full note)") - but otherwise this sounds right, yes.

    You mentioned using Chicago 15th edition - that doesn't exist for Zotero, so I figured you were using something else
  • EGollin
    The Chicago 15th edition was all that Word Offered me. Though I set Zotero to Chicago full note as you suggested and chose that in Zotero for this document too.
    I had understood from previous replies that it was Word which handled the formatting of citations in all Word documents.
    Anyway you are completely right. I just tried again, ignoring the MS Word commands and just clicking on the Zotero icon in the add-in bar and, just as you said, it put in the number and the footnote citation each in the right place. Initially I repeated my first citation, and it even put in ibid - complete magic.
    Thank you so much for teaching me. And for being patient.
    I will pass this all on tomorrow to a retired friend who is sorely in need of bibliographical software but has never managed to master any till now. He is going to love Zotero.
  • adamsmith
    yes, now it sounds like you're doing everything right. Glad that's working for you.
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