Problem with adding citations: Error updating your document

sarahmncke · December 5, 2018

Hey everybody!
Since yesterday I have a huge problem with adding citations in MS Word with Zotero: I can click on "Add/Edit Citation" and the Editor is opening, I can select the title and page and everything, but when clicking on "Show Editor" nothing appears in the empty white field. It seems like Zotero was loading, but nothing happens for ages. When not using the editor but the cite options window and pressing Enter afterwards, there is the message:
"Zotero experienced an error updating your document.
citationByIndex(i).sortedItems is undefined"

Did anyone of you experience the same problem?
Or does anyone know what to do?
I am really freaking out since my deadline is coming soon.

Thanks!

bwiernik · December 5, 2018

Don't use the "Show Editor" field. You should generally not edit citations manually (use the prefix, suffix, and page number fields, and the Suppress Author option as needed). If you do need to manually edit a citation, just do it directly in Word.

For the error, it sounds like you have a corrupt citation in your document. Follow Step 8 here: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents to isolate the corrupt citation and replace it.