Mac Word Citation Message

jbwilson6
I continue to receive this message periodically when citing from Zotero in my Mac version of Word.
What does this mean, which option should I select, and is it possible to avoid in the future?
Word version 16.9
Report ID: 1681958321


You have modified this citation since Zotero generated it. Do you want to keep your modifications and prevent future updates?

Clicking "Yes" will prevent Zotero from updating this citation if you add additional citations, switch styles, or modify the item to which it refers. Clicking "No" will erase your changes.
  • bwiernik
    This message means that you have manually typed into a citation, rather than letting Zotero automatically manage the text. For example, if you manually typed "e.g.," or a page number into a citation, or if you deleted the authors from the text of a citation manually. Instead of manually editing a citation like that, you should use the page/prefix/suffix fields and the Suppress Authors option in the Zotero citation dialog.

    See here:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage#customizing_cites

    If you click yes, Zotero will leave your manual edits, but won't continue to update the citation automatically at all (e.g., if you edit the item in Zotero, or to change the item number or between listing the authors and "et al."). If you click no, Zotero will continue to automatically update the item as needed, but your manual edits (e.g., adding a page number) will be deleted. If you have manually edited citations like I describe above, you should click "no", and then re-enter the edits using Zotero's customizing cites fields in the Add/Edit citation dialog.


    Occasionally, citations may be accidentally modified by Word, particularly when using Tracked Changes. If you have many many citations that give this message, that is likely what happened.
  • jbwilson6
    Thanks, that helps.
    So should I go back through each citation and reenter following the directions above in order for it to work properly? Or is there a quicker way to do this?

    Also, I am noticing that some of my citations include the the authors first and middle initials while others do not. I'm using APA so I do not want the initials.

    Any idea why it is selectively doing this?
  • bwiernik
    Yes, I recommend editing each citation that you’ve modified to add the page numbers, etc. correctly.

    For the second issue, see https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation
  • jbwilson6
    Also, I have noticed that upon the second and subsequent citations for the same reference Zotero will cite it using the first two authors then a "et al.". This is incorrect as subsequent citations for the same reference should be the first author then "et al.".
  • bwiernik
    See the same link I gave above. Zotero is disambiguating citations with the same author names. The Zotero APA style follows the style rules exactly correct in this respect.
  • jbwilson6
    Thanks but I have scanned my library to ensure all citations I am using are identical with names. However it continues to list the first two authors followed by "et al." versus the first author then "et al." as needed.
  • jbwilson6
    For instance. The first citation is working correctly:
    (Shogren, Wehmeyer, & Palmer, 2017).

    However, the subsequent citation is doing this:
    (Shogren, Wehmeyer, et al., 2017)

    It should be doing this:
    (Shogren et al., 2017)
  • bwiernik
    You likely have another Shogren et al. 2017 paper with a different second author. Adding the second author name is correct APA style in that case.
  • jbwilson6
    Yes, I do have another Shogren et al. 2017 with a different second author. However, where are you finding that adding the second author is correct for APA?
  • bwiernik
    Page 175 of the manual (section 6.12):

    “Exception: If two references of more than three surnames with the same year shorten to the same form (e.g., both Ireys, Chernoff, DeVet, & Kim, 200 1 , and Ireys, Chernoff, Stein, DeVet, & Silver, 200 1 , shorten to Ireys et aI., 2001 ), cite the surnames of the first authors and of as many of the subsequent authors as necessary to distinguish the two references, followed by a comma and et al.”
  • jbwilson6
    Ok, thank you!
  • CJAxon
    Here is a variant on the problem. I wasn't using the 'suppress' option and just deleting the , ( etc as required. I didn't want to have to keep remembering the exact spelling of all manner of complicated names. It was months before the message appeared....I opted for 'Yes' as going back and re-entering several hundred refs was not appealing. If you have entered all the info in the database correctly it should not be a problem. The only issue I can think of is if you have a 2nd (or more) ref by the exact same authors in the same year added subsequently. I am yet to find out what happens then.....however, I suspect that even if it doesn't then add (and change) a, b etc doing this manually will be less of a problem overall.

    Anyone found this already??
  • adamsmith
    it won't update with a/b/c. It also won't update those citations if you ever want o change the citation style, say.
  • CJAxon
    Thanks. In my case this won't be a problem for this document, but I'll bear it in mind for the future.
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