Zotero Citation Not Working in MS Word

crdalsip
So I'm running Windows 8 with Word 2013 (from office 365, if that matters) and I have downloaded Zotero Standalone, as well as the Chrome extension as that is my preferred browser. My issue is that the citation feature of Zotero in Word, which worked when I started the document (I have 16 endnotes, but cannot add more citations), has stopped working. If I attempt to insert a citation I get an error message stating "Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox is running and try again." This makes absolutely no sense to me! I don't have Firefox installed on my PC, and I installed the Word plugin for Zotero through the Zotero>Preferences>Cite>Word Plugin route, so I cannot imagine how Firefox got worked into this at all. Any help would be appreciated, I really need to finish this paper and Zotero Citations would speed things greatly!
  • aurimas
    That error message is a bit outdated and pre-dates the availability of Zotero Standalone. For all intents and purposes, when you see Firefox referenced and you're using Zotero Standalone, it's actually referring to Zotero Standalone.

    Having said that, you're absolutely certain that you have Zotero Standalone running? Have you tried restarting the computer?
  • crdalsip
    That's good to hear. Yes, I have restarted countless times in order to delete the plugin from word- it fails to delete if word has been opened during a given session on the PC because its in the startup file and I suppose closing word fails to exit this entirely. I have also uninstalled Standalone in an effort to fix the issue.
  • adamsmith
    The "Firefox" is just an error message that hasn't been properly updated. It should say "Zotero or Firefox."

    So do make sure Zotero Standalone is running while you're trying to insert citations. If it is first step would always be to just try restarting the computer. If that doesn't help, try reinstalling the Word add-on from the Cite tab of the Zotero preferences. If neither of those help we can see further.
  • crdalsip
    I'm going to attempt to remove Zotero Standalone AND the plug in, as well as wipe any remaining Zotero files (save an exported copy of my library) and reinstall it all afterwards. I have tried one or the other previously, but not both together.
  • adamsmith
    That's very unlikely to help. I'd recommend doing more small-steps, specific troubleshooting. If you're tried specifically re-installing the word processor component the next step would be to try disabling any security software you're running (temporarily, that is).
  • aurimas
    (save an exported copy of my library)
    Follow this: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#backing_up_your_zotero_library

    Though it's quite unlikely that reinstalling Zotero will do anything. Let us know when you put your system back into a state where Zotero Standalone is installed and the Word plugin has been installed via Preferences -> Cite. Then provide the exact error message you are receiving from Word while Zotero Standalone is open.
  • crdalsip
    It appears to be working fine this time around, I opened the document I've been working on and inserted a citation without issue. I wish I knew what caused the issue in the first place, I certainly wouldn't want to deal with it again. I appreciate your help!

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