Import old zotero bibliography from word (field codes still present) into library

patqwerty
Hi guys,

I previously uninstalled Zotero by mistake and lost ALL my library contents (inc data saved from fireox etc and due to my own stupidity in the way I uninstalled it, could not recover my old library back as I learnt from getting support here). However, I still do have my word document with all those citations in the document (codes still present). I thought I'd be able to carry on working on the same thesis document and add new items to my new library. This was all going without a problem until I had to re-cite something that is already in the original thesis document (with a citation from my old deleted library).

I thought I'd be able to add that item to my new library and was hoping that it'd be cited as the same number as the previous citation. Clearly I was burying my head in the sand regarding not getting my old library back because now the item is cited twice, and with two different citation numbers.

So, is there anything at all I can do to remedy this? I have about 300 citations in the document. Even if I manually added each citation into my new library, I figured I'm still going to have to proof-read the entire document to reinsert each and every citation. Or, I could just check the original citation number and just manually write the citation number at the end of the sentence? The problem with this is that I'd have to do this at the very end to make sure that all the citations are updated and in order etc.

I'm freaking out, because I have a feeling that there is no easy or painless way out of this. Can someone please help me? Thanks in advance.

Pat
  • adamsmith
    Unfortunately, there is probably nothing you can do. There is a small chance that Zotero stored the reference information in the document - which it started doing about 18month ago - in which case you'd be able to use those items in the same document, though still not import them back into your library.
    To check, find one of the old citations, then press alt+F9 - this will show the entire field code. It will either be pretty short - about 2 lines - or pretty massive, containing full citation information. If the latter, we can tell you how to work with that. If the former, you're out of luck & there is not going to be any painless way. If you're not sure you can paste the full field-code here and we'd be able to tell you.
  • patqwerty
    Hi adamsmith,

    Thanks for your reply. Yes, the field-codes are massive with full citation information. What do I do next?
  • adamsmith
    so, when you cite one of the "old" items - use the new (quick format) citation dialog and cite it from under the "Cited" heading. That way the original citation/number will be inserted. You still won't be able to re-import those citations in to your library, though.
  • patqwerty
    Tried it out, doesn't seem to work all the time. Also, I've got to have the old document (with the old citation in it) open in order for zotero to be able to pick up a cited item in the citation dialog.

    Actually, I've figured the easiest thing to do is to just copy the citation number from the old document and paste it into the new one. Once I'm finished with the new document and want to paste it into the old one, the citations seem fine.

    Pat
  • adamsmith
    yeah, that should work, too.
  • ironstamp
    Any chance there's a way of re-importing those citations into the library yet?
  • aurimas
    edited September 22, 2014
    Not officially, but Frank Bennett has added support for this to Multilingual Zotero. If you want to keep using official Zotero client, then this is a little bit more complicated. You cannot just install MLZ, grab the references from your document and revert back to official Zotero - the database becomes incompatible. In a gist, what you can do is sync to zotero.org, back up your current library, install MLZ, extract references, sync to zotero.org, remove MLZ, restore your library backup, sync with zotero.org.

    If you want to go this route, we can give you more detailed instructions, which you may need depending on whether you're using Zotero Standalone or Zotero for Firefox.
  • ironstamp
    Thanks, I tried that, but had a problem with:

    "Clicking on the “No group selected” button will open a list of group libraries to which the current user has access (the user’s own personal library is not included in the list, for the reasons outlined above)."

    Since I don't have any group libraries and it doesn't show my personal library there is nowhere to export to?
  • aurimas
    Ah, yes. I would just create a temporary group and restore the references to that group. You can then drag-drop items from the group to your personal library.
  • fbennett
    Yep, that should work. We use this at Nagoya to harvest citations from student theses after submission.
  • ironstamp
    Awesome! It didn't work on the current document, but worked on an earler draft for some reason. Thanks for the help.
    Are there advantages to sticking with MLZ or do you recommend going back to Zotero original?
  • adamsmith
    The single biggest drawback of MLZ is that is doesn't have a Standalone version. Otherwise, MLZ can do everything Zotero can. The only other drawback is that Frank releases relatively frequently and there's less people testing, so you're probably more likely to encounter occasional bugs--but he also tends to be very quick to fix those and I've never heard of (nor do I think there's much of a chance of) dangerous bugs of the type that would corrupt your data.
  • fbennett
    edited September 22, 2014
    That's very good to hear!

    It's as adamsmith says. An advantage of official Zotero is support from the core developers: as MLZ is an unofficial fork of the main project, they can't provide direct support.

    If you don't need to cite resources across languages, and don't cite many legal documents, you could go either way. By a recent rough count, there seem to be somewhere between 300 to 500 copies of MLZ running on the Web, spread across 60 countries or so. Small numbers, but the tool seems to be doing its job.


    If you decide to go back to official Zotero, you can follow the instructions for Restoring from the last automatic backup, with the following adjustments:

    (1) After syncing everything, install official Zotero. If you try to open it, it will fail with a complaint about a database mismatch. No worries: just close Firefox.

    (2) Following the instructions, replace the zotero.sqlite file with the automatic backup copy. The backup file you want will be named "zotero.sqlite.77.bak" (you can safely ignore Step 4 of the instructions, since you are already fully synced).

    (3) After your original library is back in place, you should be able to start Zotero, and syncing will bring down the items in the restoration group.
  • ironstamp
    Thanks both. I've only ever really used the Firefox and Word add-ins and not the standalone version, so I could go either way. Either way Zotero is AWESOME - I don't know how people do without it! Problem = solved :)
  • zyu
    edited January 26, 2016
    I got the same problem-Accidently deleted one of my collections. However, I have a word file with these citations from Zotero. I tried to download the Multilingual Zotero from the web site linked here, but failed. Not sure, if there is any thing wrong with the server. Should I uninstall Zotero before I download the MLZ? Is there any other way to get the app.

    Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    it's now called juris-m (to avoid confusion with regular Zotero) but afaik the rest of the instructions should still work. Download from https://juris-m.github.io/
  • zyu
    Thanks, I got it installed but when I used a new Zotero account to get the bibliographies from word, it shows "Restore inaccessible references to this Zotero group".

    Do I have some thing wrong?
  • adamsmith
    I'm not 100% sure but that sounds like what you want, no? Restoring the inaccessible references? So I'd try that.
  • zyu
    edited January 26, 2016
    Sorry I did not say it clearly.

    There is no any reference imported to the Collection.

    After the action, "No group selected" was in red and no references were transferred to web collection.
  • adamsmith
    are you sure you actually deleted the items? Remember that when you delete a collection, normally items would still be in "My Library". If you delete a collection and items, they'd be in the trash. There is no way to delete items in Zotero that doesn't require at least two confirmations (or one confirmation and 30days of waiting).
  • biomarker
    edited January 26, 2016
    It said "Group not found. Visit the group online to arrange for access."

    I went online group settings, not sure how to get it linked with the word plug-in.

    I used the newly created account to do it.
  • biomarker
    edited January 27, 2016
    Not sure what happened. The word file finally shows the online group name (in document preferences).

    But I tried several times to transfer the references from word to online group library, it did not work.
  • biomarker
    Got it done this morning.

    Thanks much for sharing this method.
  • p_roel
    Hi

    I'm in a similar position to the guy at the beginning: no back up of zotero references, but word documents with them on. I've been through the whole process recommended but am stuck at the final stage.
    So far I have:
    uninstalled zotero, deleted program files, installed juris m
    opened juris m and synced with my online zotero account
    created a group, into which I've uploaded the word file
    Opened the word file from Juris M and pressed refresh, which takes me to the Juris M options. I've set the document to restore inaccessible references, the group appears in the dropdown menu in green. I click it, but nothing happens.

    Any idea where I've gone wrong?

    Thanks

    p
  • fbennett
    You don't need to upload the file to the account. Just open in on your local system. Possibly what's happening, if you are opening the file directly from a copy in Juris-M, is that it's opening in read-only mode. That might block whatever update to document data Juris-M is trying to perform.

    I may be misinterpreting your description, but that's one possible source of the hitch.

    I've been using it for the past month (on Windows+Word) to extract cites from student theses, and haven't had any problems, so it should work; but there might be glitches in other environments, so if it's still not working, just post back and we'll look more closely.
  • fbennett
    To confirm another thing, though, when you select the group library, does it select it properly (collapsing the list and showing the group library as the selected item)? If so, all you need to do is wait, possibly clicking refresh to nudge Juris-M to perform an update. If the cursor starts jittering, all is well.
  • RintzeRintze
    I created a tool, "Reference Extractor", to quickly extract embedded Zotero references from .docx Word documents. It's available at http://rintze.zelle.me/ref-extractor/. The extracted item metadata (in CSL JSON format) can be (re)imported into Zotero.

    P.S. Feedback is more than welcome, and can be given either here or at the code repository at https://github.com/rmzelle/ref-extractor.
    P.P. S. There are no privacy concerns: while it is a website, the extraction takes place entirely on your computer, and nobody has access to the Word documents you process with the tool.
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