Hi bwiernik,

Thanks so much for taking the time to provide such a thoughtful reply. I should have noted that I did attempt to do my due diligence in searching these forums before posting my question. I know it's a cardinal sin not to do so :)

I don't know much about using Word macros, so I'll need to look into that.

In another thread here on the forums, I think I saw someone mention that the Zotero plug-in for WordPress may have the capability to do what I'm looking for. The articles I'm writing are published in WordPress -- although that's done by someone else in my organization -- so maybe that's something for me to consider as well.

Thank you very much for your time and help!

I think that this is definitely something that Zotero should be able to do and is a much needed update. The whole point of using a citation manager is to avoid having to by hand implement each citation, and asking users to hack together code for msword is not a good solution either, even if it is possible. Unless I'm missing something, this is easily implemented by Zotero (for example by linking each citation to it's DOI URL), and should be an option in their msword add-on. Please add this ASAP! Ideally, the user could select between no links, links to bibliography, or direct links to DOI URLs.

For reference, the way I'm usually seeing it implemented in collaborative documents without proper library tool is to create a bibliography manually and use textual references to the identifier listed in the bibliography.

In Word this would be done with bookmark references.

Dear community,

I found this answer in another place and I just apply a small Word macro that automatically turns numeric Zotero citations like [1] into clickable links that jump to the corresponding entry in the bibliography.

Instructions:

- Finish your document using Zotero (add/remove citations, finalize style, etc.).

- [optional, but recommended] Save a backup copy of your file.

- In Word, go to the Zotero tab and click Unlink Citations (this converts all citations and the bibliography to plain text).

Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA editor.

Go to Insert → Module and paste the macro below into the new module.
"""
Option Explicit

Sub MakeZoteroNumericCitationsClickable()
Dim doc As Document
Dim i As Long
Dim blockStart As Long, blockEnd As Long
Dim lastBlockStart As Long, lastBlockEnd As Long
Dim p As Paragraph
Dim listType As WdListType
Dim bibStartPos As Long
Dim num As Long, maxNum As Long
Dim rngSearch As Range
Dim findRange As Range
Dim n As Long

Set doc = ActiveDocument

' 1) Find the LAST numbered list block (assumed bibliography)
blockStart = 0
blockEnd = 0
lastBlockStart = 0
lastBlockEnd = 0

For i = 1 To doc.Paragraphs.Count
Set p = doc.Paragraphs(i)
listType = p.Range.ListFormat.ListType

If listType <> wdListNoNumbering Then
If blockStart = 0 Then blockStart = i
blockEnd = i
Else
If blockStart <> 0 Then
lastBlockStart = blockStart
lastBlockEnd = blockEnd
blockStart = 0
blockEnd = 0
End If
End If
Next i

' If document ends inside a list
If blockStart <> 0 Then
lastBlockStart = blockStart
lastBlockEnd = blockEnd
End If

If lastBlockStart = 0 Then
MsgBox "No numbered list (bibliography) was found.", vbExclamation
Exit Sub
End If

bibStartPos = doc.Paragraphs(lastBlockStart).Range.Start

' 2) Create bookmarks ref1, ref2, ... in the bibliography
maxNum = 0
On Error Resume Next
For i = lastBlockStart To lastBlockEnd
Set p = doc.Paragraphs(i)
num = p.Range.ListFormat.ListValue
If num > maxNum Then maxNum = num

doc.Bookmarks.Add Name:="ref" & CStr(num), Range:=p.Range
Next i
On Error GoTo 0

If maxNum = 0 Then
MsgBox "No list numbers were detected in the bibliography.", vbExclamation
Exit Sub
End If

' 3) Find [n] in the main text and turn them into hyperlinks
Set rngSearch = doc.Range(0, bibStartPos - 1)

For n = 1 To maxNum
Set findRange = rngSearch.Duplicate

With findRange.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = "[" & CStr(n) & "]"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindStop
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False

Do While .Execute
doc.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=findRange.Duplicate, _
SubAddress:="ref" & CStr(n), _
TextToDisplay:="[" & CStr(n) & "]"
findRange.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
Loop
End With
Next n

MsgBox "Numeric citations linked to bibliography.", vbInformation
End Sub

"""

Close the VBA editor.

Press Alt + F8, select MakeZoteroNumericCitationsClickable, and click Run.

The macro assumes:

You are using numeric citations like [1], [2], …

Your bibliography is the last numbered list in the document.


Now, clicking on any [n] in the text will jump directly to reference n in the bibliography.
(If you have a long document, Word may lag a little bit while the macro runs, just wait.)