Problems with Word add-in

bwinston35
I had been using zotero through Microsoft Word successfully for the past few years until I upgraded to the most recent version of Word. Now I can no longer edit citations that I've added, even if I try immediately after inserting a citation. Any citations thats I've moved from past documents into new documents do not register as zotero citations. Also, any new citations I've created since the Word updates have been underlined for some reason. Any ideas on whats going on?

I am using Microsoft Word 2016 on a mac and have the most recent version of word and zotero.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    any new citations I've created since the Word updates have been underlined for some reason
    That's a setting you would've had to have turned on:

    https://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-5-0-36/#faster-citing-in-large-documents
    Now I can no longer edit citations that I've added, even if I try immediately after inserting a citation.
    What happens, exactly? Are the fields highlighted in gray when you click on them, and can you toggle field codes to confirm that they're real fields?

    What exact version of Word?
  • bwinston35
    It depends. Citations that I've moved from past documents are often highlighted in gray, but no error message pops up like when I try to edit citations that were never a zotero citation. Citations that I've made through zotero more recently that originated in this document are not highlighted gray and no error message pops up when I try to edit those citations. I think there is a larger problem because when I click the "set doc preferences" icon, the preferences box briefly flashes before disappearing.

    Right now, the fields codes instead of values box is unchecked in Word.

    I'm using version 16.15 of Word. Thanks!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited August 3, 2018
    when I click the "set doc preferences" icon, the preferences box briefly flashes before disappearing
    Can you provide a Report ID after this happens?

    Are you sure it's not just going behind your Word window? That dialog is part of Zotero, not the plugin. If you bring Zotero to the front (and possibly check the Window menu), do you see it?
  • bwinston35
    Here is my report ID: 6154324

    Yeah, I'm sure it is not behind the Word window. I can open the dialog if I am using the zotero stand alone app, but it won't appear if I try to open it through the plug-in, so I can't adjust the settings for a specific document.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    I can open the dialog if I am using the zotero stand alone app, but it won't appear if I try to open it through the plug-in
    I'm not sure what you mean by that. The document preferences dialog can only be opened from the plugin, even though it's part of the Zotero application. If you just mean that you can open the Zotero preferences from Zotero, that's unrelated.

    Could you provide a Debug ID (different from a Report ID) for trying to open the document preferences window?

    Also, does this still happen after restarting Zotero?
  • bwinston35
    Yeah, I just meant I can open the Zotero preferences from Zotero.

    Debug ID: D1525896559
    I restarted zotero before trying the actions again and still had the same problem: 1) nothing popped up when trying to edit a recent citation 2) an old citation moved from a different document highlighted gray, but nothing popped up when I tried to edit citation.

    Now I just tried to open the set document preferences dialog and it briefly flashed again but then disappeared. Here is the Debug ID for that action: D312323545
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Can you close Word, reinstall the Word plugin from the Cite pane of the Zotero preferences, reopen Word, and provide another Debug ID?

    If the document preferences window isn't opening properly, most other things won't work, so we can stick to that problem for now.
  • bwinston35
    edited August 3, 2018
    With the reinstall, the cite pane is now displaying properly.

    I tried to edit a citation that originated in this document, but was still unable to. Here is the debug ID for that action: D1399838353
  • bwinston35
    edited August 3, 2018
    Wait, the cite pain will not display properly again after trying to edit a citation. Here is a new debug code after the citation pane failed to remain on screen: D1715683694
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @adomasven will need to look at this.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited August 3, 2018
    @bwinston35: Well, to clarify, though, what happens in a new document? Does the doc prefs window appear there, and can you add and edit new citations normally?

    If so, see Debugging Broken Documents for your old document.
  • bwinston35
    The same thing happens. I can open the doc prefs pane if I haven't done anything else. But then if I create a citation, finalize it, and then try to edit it, I can't edit it and I am unable to open the doc prefs pane again.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Can we see a Debug ID for trying to edit a citation in a new document?
  • bwinston35
    Here's the debug ID after trying to edit a citation in a new document: D353814574
  • adomasven Zotero Team
    @bwinston35 Your Word still has the old Zotero plugin installed. You need to go into Zotero Preferences -> Cite -> Word Processors and reinstall it. Check if it works in a new document after that. If it does not, try manual plugin installation
  • bwinston35
    I had to manually install, but that finally worked, thanks so much.

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