Zotero not recognizing references in document

I have some problems with Zotero in Word. I normally use APA.

Even though I use Zotero for all my references, it doesn't recognize some references as already existing in the document. Every time I use a reference, Zotero treats it as it is the first time. This becomes especially annoying where references have several authors, as Zotero spells out out all the names every time, and does not use "et.al."

I also have one opposite problem. Zotero thinks that one reference is two, and gives them the 1988a, 1988b-treatment. I only have one 1988-reference, but for some reason Zotero thinks that there are two. I have looked in my library, and there is only one source. Still, every time I reference to this particular book, it puts 1988a. How? Why?

Any solutions or suggestions are much appreciated!
  • when you change the citation style to something completely different -- say IEEE -- do those citation change or not?

    As for the duplicate reference, there might be a duplicate version stored in the document. You'd first want to figure out which is the one actually in your library, so insert a new citation, making sure to select it from under "My Library" in the insert citation dialog. Take note if it insert's as 1988a or 1988b. Let's assume here it's 1988a. You then need to replace all instances of the 1988b version the same way.
  • Yes, they change. But still, when I want to reference something, it doesn't appear as already referenced. Although, if don't type the authors name, but some random letters, then the list of "already referenced" pops up. But if I search for the authors name, it doesn't recognize it...

    As for the other thing. I've gone through all the references of that book, and they all link to the one in the library. And if I choose that one, it stills comes out as 1988a. But I see know when I changed style to IEEE, that a duplicate has appeared in the bibliography, but I can't find it in the text. How do I remove it?

    Thanks!
  • Update:

    Now when I change back to APA, the duplicate is gone...
  • good, so that part is fixed, yes?

    For searching for cited references by their author -- could you confirm your Zotero version? This was briefly broken.

    And then, could you paste a couple of the subsequent references in APA style here that should shorten to et al but don't?
  • Yes, looks like it.

    Version 4.0.29.5

    This reference does sometimes shorten, sometimes not (I know that it shouldn't shorten the first time, but this seems to appear randomly): Gonzaga, Gian C., Turner, Rebecca A., Keltner, Dacher, Campos, Belinda, & Altemus, Margaret (2006). Romantic love and sexual desire in close relationships. Emotion, 6(2) s. 163–179. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.6.2.163

    In text it looks like this: (Gonzaga, Turner, Keltner, Campos, & Altemus, 2006, s. 165)(I am working with a Swedish translation of APA).
  • ah yes, the search issue is fixed, but currently only in the Firefox version, the corresponding standalone version hasn't been released.

    Could you try with the regular APA style from the repository for testing? (it looks like you're using a custom version, right?
  • Ok, will wait for the update!

    Hm, just posting in this forum seems to have fixed some of the problems... The et al.-problem seems to be fixed for now. The only thing is that it's not shortened in one foot note, but I don't know if that is a feature of APA or not.

    Thanks for the assistance!
  • Footnotes are tricky -- I don't think Word tells Zotero where those are in relationship to the rest of the text, so items cited in a footnote may always be treated as first citations. Not sure about this, though.

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