Spaces with full stops and commas in footnotes

t.r.smith
Hello,

After a recent update to Zotero I noticed issues with full stop and comma spacing in footnotes.

If I have a complicated footnote where I discuss several issues I prefer to separate them with a full stop, which I place in the suffix of the preceding entry. This worked fine before, but after an update it omits the full stop entirely and just leaves a space there.

I noticed a similar issue recently, where if I put a comma, space, then something in quotes in the suffix for an entry it will omit the space between the comma and quotation mark. This is very important for me to include quotations and short titles.

Here are screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/7qG2s

I'm using Word 2011 on a Mac and MHRA reference style.

I was wondering if anybody might be able to offer any advice? I'd prefer not having to roll back my software here, but I really need to have this sort of functionality, otherwise I might as well just enter everything manually.

Thanks!
  • bwiernik
    What version of Zotero are you using?

    Does the problem persist if you install the Propachi plugin (https://github.com/Juris-M/propachi-upper/releases/) in Zotero?
  • t.r.smith
    Sorry, I should've included that too. I'm using version 5.0.7

    I just tried it out and it didn't seem to change anything.
  • bwiernik
    Lastly, if you change to a different style (e.g., please try Chicago Full Note and American Psychological Association), does the problem persist (just trying to narrow the source of the bug).

    @fbennett I suspect this is a citeproc-js bug?
  • t.r.smith
    Yep, just tried it in Chicago and had the same problems.
  • t.r.smith
    Oh, and you'll also notice that the first quotation mark that I put in the suffix is turned the wrong way: http://imgur.com/a/bo9TD
  • fbennett
    The suffix/punctuation issue has been fixed. You can try out the fixes by installing one of the Propachi plugins.
    [O]therwise I might as well just enter everything manually.
    That would be the alternative, yes.
  • t.r.smith
    Everything works now, thank-you!

    Sorry for the panicky tone, I'm in the final couple months of the PhD and things are stressful, to say the least.
  • fbennett
    Good to hear! No worries - if you have any other issues, don't hesitate to raise a signal.
  • t.r.smith
    Oh, while I'm here:

    In MHRA and Chicago, at least, when I have an entry with a range of years in the 'date' field it omits everything after the first year. http://imgur.com/a/vZzHn

    I can manually make it work, by putting the years instead in the publisher field (e.g. 'Brill, 1972–74'), but it's a bit of a pain and occasionally I forget and lose the other years in my references.
  • LiborA
    edited August 2, 2017
    Unfortunately, Zotero does not work with date range yet.
    Correct me any Zotero guru if I am wrong, please.
    EDIT: See this https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/65419/series-published-across-multiple-years
  • bwiernik
    You can enter date ranges by putting them in the Extra field like this:

    issued: 1991/2016

    (Also, panicky is totally fine. That describes a pretty substantial group of the people asking for help here.)
  • LiborA
    @adomasven can you add date range to your To-Do list, please?
  • t.r.smith
    Cool, sounds good.

    I have another one, if that's okay? From much messing around I've found that if a comma is outside of quotation marks (' ') in the suffix field the first quotation mark will be turned the wrong way (compare note 25 to note 26). I've tried this in MHRA and Chicago with the same results.

    http://imgur.com/ASVUW3F
  • fbennett
    I've tried to reproduce this, without success. I'll need a minimal set of item data and prefix/suffix settings that will reproduce it.
  • t.r.smith
    Sorry for the delay, been very busy!

    So, basically when anything is in quotation marks (' ') in the prefix or suffix fields for a footnote the direction of the quotation marks is screwed up. It is a bit different depending on whether there are one or two sets of quotation marks in the fields (compare the first and second images below).

    http://imgur.com/a/6xYfq

    http://imgur.com/a/rfLHL
  • bwiernik
    Can you say exactly what is the item data, the prefix, and the suffix in each of those pictures?
  • t.r.smith
    The item is the same in each, a journal article. This also happens with book chapters and monographs with no specific thing in any of them that stands out as possibly causing this (e.g. weird characters). (see http://imgur.com/a/axd5t )

    In the first one (brackets to show spacing, not included in prefix/suffix):
    Prefix: ['quote', 'quote', ]
    Suffix: [, 'quote', 'quote']

    In the second one:
    Prefix: ['quote', ]
    Suffix: [, 'quote']

    I only insert straight quotation marks in Zotero so it can automatically figure out whether they are left or right leaning.
  • fbennett
    Okay, thanks! I can reproduce the fault now. We'll see what we can do to fix it.
  • fbennett
    This should be fixed in version 1.1.177, which just went up. You can try it by installing one of the Propachi plugins, or wait until the next Zotero release that contains an upgrade to citeproc-js v1.1.177.
  • t.r.smith
    Great, thanks! I really appreciate it!
  • t.r.smith
    Just refreshed my document and everything looks fixed now, thanks!
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