Zotero inflating word count in Microsoft Word

kylewardstrom · December 28, 2016

For some reason, my Zotero citations in Word are inflating my word counts. I might have a sentence with 20 words, but the citation adds 300 words. I noticed that when I delete the abstracts in Zotero this problem disappears. But, I'd really like to keep all the abstracts in Zotero.

Is there a way to keep the abstracts in Zotero, but not to make my word count appear larger than it really is?

bwiernik · December 28, 2016

What version of Word are you using? The issue is that Zotero uses hidden text in Word fields to store the full reference data for each item.

The easiest way to get a more accurate word count is to select all of the text and open the word count window (click on the summary word count at the bottom of the window)--this should just count the visible text.

Another way is to open the Document Preferences in the Zotero tab in Windows and uncheck "Store reference data in the document". Note, though that the document may have trouble updating in the event you delete the items in Zotero.

Depending on your version of Word, there may be some other settings you can change in Word to avoid counting hidden text.

adamsmith · December 28, 2016

Another way is to open the Document Preferences in the Zotero tab in Windows and uncheck "Store reference data in the document".

You'll also still get an overcount in Word with that -- it'll just be much smaller, about 1-2 extra words/citation.

kylewardstrom · December 29, 2016

Thanks bwiernik! Great info. I forgot about checking the word count window instead of just viewing the word count at the bottom of the page. The two displays are indeed different.