"Word could not communicate with Zotero" windows 8.1

Victor Louzon
Hello,

I installed Zotero Standalone and the Chrome plugin (I have windows 8.1 and cannot upgrade to 10 on my laptop). Then when I tried to insert a footnote in my word document it said : "Word could not communicate with Zotero",asked me whether Firefox was running normally, etc. I don't use Firefox. So I uninstalled Zotero standalone AND the chrome plugin. But I still have the problem. I also looked for zotero.dot in the Word folder, to remove it manually, but it is nowhere to be seen. So basically I cannot ad footnotes to my documents anymore, although Zotero is uninstalled. How can I solve this?

Thanks,

Victor
  • adamsmith
    How exactly are you trying to insert a footnote? Using the Zotero add-on or just with Word?
  • Victor Louzon
    PS: I did reboot the computer.
  • Victor Louzon
    No just word, ctrl+alt+B
  • Victor Louzon
    But "insert citation" in the Zotero plugin produces exactly the same error message.
  • adamsmith
    Thing is, this can't really be happening with the Word footnote function, which is completely unrelated to Zotero. Have you tried going through the menu (i.e. References --> Insert Footnote) instead, at least for testing? (also, at least for me, the footnote shortcut it ctrl+alt+F)
  • Victor Louzon
    Strangely enough it does work manually, and with ctrl+alt+F but thath's a different kind of footnote (end of document and i, ii, iii - ctrl+alt+B has always worked for me, well before installing Zotero). Weird.
  • adamsmith
    In the Developer tab under "Word Add-ins" (if you don't have a developers tab, you can show it somewhere and/or just search for this specific function), is Zotero still listed? Remove it there.
  • Sahil Dutta
    Hello!

    I'm having the same problem. Am running Zotero standalone (version 4.0.23) on a Mac OS X El Captain 10.11.1 and using Word for Mac version 15.16 from Office 365.

    I have managed to install the Zotero toolbar into word (shows via Add-ins) but every time I press any of them (eg insert citation) it reads: "Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure that Firefox is open and try again"

    This is with firefox open with Zotero, firefox closed with zotero and instead zotero standalone working.

    So I'm a little stumped. Any help massively appreciated.

    Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    To start with, you need to update Zotero. You should be on version 4.0.29.5
  • Sahil Dutta
    Thanks! Have now just done that, looks neater. But the problem persists.
  • adamsmith
    Try running through 2-4 here
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/59858/how-to-upgrade-to-word-2016-mac-with-zotero-standalone/
  • Sahil Dutta
    Thanks adamsmith that has worked the magic!

    PhD thesis, due in alarmingly soon with currently no references in place, is back on track! Thanks again.
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