trying to use a Word/DOC/Zotero document with LibreOffice/ODT/Zotero

ChristianR
I have an older document created with MS Office Word 2007 and saved in the .DOC format containing Zotero citations.
For this case I would like to use the extended page layout settings and formatting styles) of the document and would not care if loosing all Zotero-related functionality (reconstruct bibliography from scratch).
I do not have MS Office Word 2007 with Zotero plugin available anymore and wonder how I could maybe edit the file so that Zotero works again. Currently the Zotero toolbar in LibreOffice Write gives me a error/warning window:
Zotero cannot update this document because it was created by a different word processing application with an incompatible field encoding. In order to make a document compatible with both Word and OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice/NeoOffice, open the document in the word processor with which it was originally created and switch the field type to Bookmarks in the Zotero Document Preferences.

I have consulted related pages like:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/52321/zotero-experienced-an-error-updating-your-document/
https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents

So I need to reconstruct the documents layout in LibO Write or is there some hacking in the ODT file format (when I save to this format) possible?

What if I have another such document where I would like to continue to work with the Zotero content?
Is trying to fix this on a system with Word + Zotero the only way?
  • ChristianR
    I was able to solve the issue for this case:
    - unzip the ODT
    - open meta.xml and delete all Zotero meta fields
    - rezip to ODT
    - open in LibO Write (Zotero now works for me)

    Still I wonder what to do with .DOC files were I would like to continue to use Zotero content but without having the original word processor software available?

    FYI the code I deleted from the meta.xml
    <meta:user-defined meta:name="ZOTERO_PREF_1">
    &lt;data data-version=&quot;3&quot; zotero-version=&quot;3.0b2&quot;&gt;&lt;session id=&quot;SioeX4m7&quot;/&gt;
    &lt;style id=&quot;http://www.zotero.org/styles/plos-genetics&quot; hasBibliography=&quot;1&quot;
    bibliographyStyleHasBeenSet=&quot;1&quot;/&gt;&lt;prefs&gt;&lt;pref name=&quot;fieldType&quot; value=&quot;Field&quot;/&gt;
    &lt;pref name=&quot;storeReferences&quot; val</meta:user-defined>
    <meta:user-defined meta:name="ZOTERO_PREF_2">
    ue=&quot;false&quot;/&gt;&lt;pref name=&quot;noteType&quot; value=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/prefs&gt;
    &lt;/data&gt;</meta:user-defined>
  • adamsmith
    you can't convert .doc files with Zotero-inserted fields to a LibreOffice readable format that keeps the Zotero fields alive without Word, sorry.

    I'd have thought you could have achieved what you did by using "Remove Field Codes" in the Zotero LO add-on, but I didn't test this.
  • ChristianR
    Thanks for clarifying. I think I tried all buttons for functionality, but I'm not sure.
  • avalsz42
    I was also able to solve a similar problem with ChristianR's method.
    I renamed the docx to zip.
    Opened the docProps/common.xml and deleted all the tags that were connected to Zotero.
    Renamed back the file to docx.
    Unfortunately I had to set the Zotero props again from Word, but at least it works.
    Thanks ChristianR!
  • Pettigrew
    Humm, I was not able to make this work. Admittedly I am not very tech savvy. I renamed the odt to zip, unzipped it, opened the file, opened the meta.xml file with Libre, deleted the full code shown by ChristianR, saved it back as an xml, rezipped the file, and renamed it odt.

    I got the notice that it might become unstable when renaming the file and ignored it. Libre gave me a warning that the file was corrupt and could be dangerous to open, but it could try to repair it. But it was unable to do so. Any ideas?

    I lost my last hard drive. Recovered my files but am unable to regain access to Word, so I am working with Libre instead.
  • sigaloenta
    I was just struggling with this problem in libreoffice, and discovered that it is possible to completely wipe out the zotero formatting by going to File > Properties > Custom Properties and deleting the zotero preference fields (click the red X button next to anything that has Zotero in the "name" field). This removes all the existing citation metadata (although not the citation text), but at least then you can start using Zotero again in the document.
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