Text keeps repeating

bilebitola
Hi all,

Zotero seems to be messing with the text in my document. It keeps repeating one line of footnote text in over 2-3 pages. I noticed this happening sometimes at clicking refresh, sometimes when adding a footnote, so I do not actually know anymore when and how this happens. I was working towards a deadline when this happened several times in a row causing me hours of unnecessary work, so I just stopped adding and refresh footnotes (I disabled automatic refresh) and sent the draft with basically footnotes and bibliography incomplete.

I really have no idea even where to start; I read threads on the forum but I cannot seem to find one where it talks about this problem. Any ideas?

I really like how Zotero looks and feels otherwise; I would not like to go back to Mendeley, so any help to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Biljana
  • adamsmith
    Could you clarify why you think/know this is Zotero doing this? Footnotes per se are inserted & handled by Word. (Not saying this isn't Zotero; I'm just not following).

    And what citation style is this?
  • bilebitola
    I think it is Zotero because the problem started occurring after I installed it and started using it, and it was not there before when using another referencing software. Which by all means does not have to mean it is Zotero and I am happy to look into other potential causes of the issue. However, with Zotero off and add in uninstalled, the text remains fine. So, this forum seemed like a logical first stop.

    I past below an example of what happens to a footnote text. The post here cannot fit the whole text, but this same text is repeated across three pages.

    I use OSCOLA referencing style.

    Thank you for any advice.

    Biljana


    Example of the problem:

    Hancock, p.3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least. thesis.fact remains that intersectional discrimiantion as suc3sectional discrimiantion as suc is considered as 'aper at least.
  • adamsmith
    That's really odd. These look like they're fragments from different sentences elsewhere in the document?

    I'd guess this is a broken Word field, so look at https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents

    If you can isolate this a bit more -- and in particular if you can reproduce this in a new doc -- sending a minimal example to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread would be helpful (don't send your whole doc, though).

  • bilebitola
    Thank you very much, adamsmith. I will read the information on the link, and I will send you the doc to the designated e-mail by the end of today.

    Biljana
  • adomasven
    If you are on macOS and Word 2016, make sure you are on the latest version of Zotero, then go into Zotero Preferences -> Cite -> Word Processors and reinstall the Word plugin. You will need to reinsert the offending citations as they have broken field codes. This is due to a bug with Zotero a couple of months ago when Word 16.9 for Mac was released.
  • bilebitola
    Apologies for omitting that information. Yes, I am using a mac (currently on os high sierra) and am using Word 16.12. All softwares and add ons are latest version.

    Thank you for your comment as well, adomsven.

    I will get in touch later in the day with an update.

    B.
  • bilebitola
    @adamsmith, I have just sent an example to the e-mail address you provided me with.
  • adomasven
    @bilebitola the sample you sent does not contain any Zotero fields. To isolate a problematic snippet, create a duplicate document and remove content until only the offending part is remaining.
  • bilebitola
    Ok. I sent a second example to the e-mail address following your instruction.
  • adomasven
    Could some of these references have been inserted with Mendeley before switching to Zotero?

    In the document you have sent there is no obvious corruption. Whatever caused the issue is now gone (or is in some other part of the document). You should try cleaning up the document, reinserting the citations/footnotes that were previously broken, making a copy of it and seeing if performing another refresh triggers any weirdness. After a cleanup, if you still see problems, please send us a snippet that still produces them and we'll see what we can do.
  • bilebitola
    Thank you @adomasven. It is very possible that one of the references was inserted originally with Mendeley, as I did the transfer while amidst this chapter.

    So just to confirm before I move on to following your advice - there is no other way other then re-insterting all references? I am just asking as I have close to 400 references on about 80 pages.

    Also, is it possible that adding entries to the table of authorities using word's own feature could have contributed to this as well? Because I have been adding cross-references for building a list of cases in this same document. Should I remove these too? I have already removed all track changes.
  • adomasven
    So just to confirm before I move on to following your advice - there is no other way other then re-insterting all references? I am just asking as I have close to 400 references on about 80 pages.
    You should begin by fixing the text of the broken/weird/duplicated references, saving, hitting refresh with Zotero and checking whether anything has gone weird. If it has not, you can continue working on this document as before. If it has, isolate a snippet and email it to us again. What you have sent currently does not contain any obviously corrupt citations and also has a lot of "noise", making it hard to debug further.
    Also, is it possible that adding entries to the table of authorities using word's own feature could have contributed to this as well? Because I have been adding cross-references for building a list of cases in this same document. Should I remove these too? I have already removed all track changes.
    That should not interfere with the citing functionality.
  • bilebitola
    I see. I will proceed as instructed. Thank you for your assistance.

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