Slow response from Word plugin

dstillman · January 17, 2018

This discussion was created from comments split from: Unresponsive Zotero menu in Word after plugin update to 5.0.7.SA.5.0.34.

laurence80386 · January 17, 2018

I'm having the same problem -- I ran the sqlite command above but it doesn't help. Any of the word menu macros take 5-10 seconds to work, although curiously the Classic Add Citation dialogue is quicker.

I'm not sure I want to risk the Beta, is it safe?

adamsmith · January 17, 2018

5-10 seconds isn't the same as unresponsive, so the beta won't fix this. How large is your document?

laurence80386 · January 17, 2018

This one is ~6,500 words, currently with 51 footnotes and 19 separate citations from the zotero database (which I guess it has to parse when it displays the non-Classic Add Citation dialogue).

It's not unusable, but it's certainly noticeably slower than before the update. Curiously, it's sometimes almost-instant, as before (on the same paper), but it's far from uniform.

adomasven · January 18, 2018

The issue you posted on initially was not related to what you are seeing, but the current Beta does include an improvement for citation insertion speed. You should back up your paper if you are going to try the Beta features.

laurence80386 · January 18, 2018

Great, thank you! The usual caveats aside, is it generally safe to install the Beta over the Stable build? (I use Firefox beta as standard, but Zotero's non-stable builds might be flakier)

adamsmith · January 18, 2018

Your Zotero database is definitely safe, but for this particular beta, the Word functionality has changed considerably so chances are there are still issues there -- so make sure to initially work on a copy of your Word document and save frequently into versioned files (i.e. don't overwrite old copies but create new ones e.g. with a version number or a timestamp in the filename).

laurence80386 · January 18, 2018

Great, I'll give it a go. Thanks!

laurence80386 · January 18, 2018

Hmm I've installed it and it appeared to work (I got the dialogue with the option to turn off updates) but it's periodically crashing Word when I try to insert a citation, giving this error:

"
Zotero experienced an error updating your document.

The remote procedure call failed.
[getNoteIndex:field.cpp]
"

bookster808 · January 18, 2018

+1 for slow response (10-15 seconds) for Zotero after the update yesterday.

adomasven · January 18, 2018

@laurence.diver What version of Word are you on?

bookster808 · January 18, 2018

Word 2016 with Zotero plugin

bookster808 · January 18, 2018

Perhaps @laurence.diver has the same set up.

adamsmith · January 18, 2018

We'd want the exact Word version number, please:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/about-office-what-version-of-office-am-i-using-932788b8-a3ce-44bf-bb09-e334518b8b19#ID0EBCAAA=Mac

bookster808 · January 18, 2018

16.0.8730.2175 32 bit

adamsmith · January 18, 2018

We're seeing a lot of problems with the insider editions of Word (i.e. everything >16). If you're having any problems with Zotero, please downgrade to the latests stable Word release, 15.41

bookster808 · January 18, 2018

Excellent @adamsmith, thank you. How again do I downgrade? And should I do this with standalone and/or the Word plug in?

laurence80386 · January 18, 2018

Hi @adomasven and @adamsmith

My Word version is 16, here's the full build info:

"Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus
Version 1705 (Build 8201.2213 Click-to-Run)
Deferred Channel"

(no idea what the last line means). I'm running on Windows 10 (v 1709, build 16299.192)

bwiernik · January 18, 2018

Follow these steps to downgrade Word itself
https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#plugin_not_working_with_word_insider_versions

adamsmith · January 18, 2018

(The downgrade info is just for bookster808. @laurence.diver , you're fine on your current Word version, don't change anything.)

laurence80386 · January 18, 2018

@adamsmith thanks!

adomasven · January 19, 2018

@bookster808 You are on the monthly track of Word, but if you are not experiencing crashing or corruption, then you should be fine with your current version. If you're experiencing problems with using the plugin please start a separate thread.

(@adamsmith for Windows the Insider vs Stable version numbers are a bit more complicated. And 16.9 just came out for Mac, we're working on a fix for problems with that)

@laurence.diver how frequent is the crashing?

laurence80386 · January 19, 2018

@adomasven it actually seems a bit more stable now, curiously.

I'll keep using it today and let you know. I did get a notification about an Office update being available -- I presume I should ignore that for now?

bookster808 · January 20, 2018

Thank you for the input, all. However, I seem to be getting conflicting advice from @adamsmith and @adomasven. Should I downgrade Word? Or is it a plugin issue? Unfortunately it's difficult to trace the genesis of the problem because I updated Zotero and Word 2016 on the same day...

Any help would be most welcome - thank you.

adomasven · January 20, 2018

@bookster808 it would still be best if you created a separate thread and describe your situation in full: the size of document, number of citation, the style you are using, when you started seeing slowness and whether it is consistent. Your version of Word should be generally ok to use.

@laurence.diver updating Word should be safe. Working with footnotes is generally slower than inline citations. The current Beta should prompt you to disable automatic citation updates if it gets slow, which should speed it up. If you're having additional issues, like error prompts or Word crashing outright, do report here.

bookster808 · January 21, 2018

@adomasven, the issue seems to have resolved itself - I know not how. Thank you.