Citation details only appear as {Citation}

alysssssa
I've been encountering a new problem with Zotero when using Word for Mac. The first time I insert a citation, Zotero works fine. However, I must then restart Zotero every time I want to insert a new citation. If I don't, the bibliographic details appear only as {Citation} in the footnote: in other words, the actual details never load from Zotero, and I only see the {Citation} placeholder. Clicking it won't even take me to that bibliographic entry in the Zotero window. After some time, opening and closing Zotero no longer works, at which point I have to restart my computer in order to get the program to work. I have tried opening new documents and this does not help.

Please advise!
  • adamsmith
    When you say that opening new docs doesn't help -- the same problem appears?
  • dstillman
    @alysssssa: Check to see whether the citation window is for some reason appearing behind your Word window by switching to Zotero and looking in the Window menu for Quick Format Citation. It's normal for "{Citation}" to appear in Word while the citation window is showing, but the citation window should come to the front automatically, and it's possible that's not happening for you. (If that's the case, what exact versions of Word, Zotero, and macOS are you running?)
  • alysssssa
    @adamsmith Yes, the same problem happens in all documents, regardless of length or age. (I initially thought that my document had gotten too large and with too many citations, and that was perhaps causing the issue.)

    @dstillman I will look into this, thank you. After reading several threads on this message board, I did realize that I was using Zotero version 4, and updated to the newest version. I'm hoping this will solve the problem; haven't had a chance to use the new version of Zotero yet.
  • alysssssa
    Resolution: Upgrading to Zotero 5 resolved the problem. If you are having the same difficulty--citations appearing only as {Citation} and Zotero crashing after each citation--an upgrade might solve the problem. Thank you @adamsmith & @dstillman for helping me troubleshoot.
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