Grey shades persist

kjell.kuehne
I am working on a long document (30 pages, 100+ citations) and after having to wait quite long after each citation I inserted, I decided to turn off the automatically update function. After I did that, the grey shading of new citations started. However, after manually updating, those grey shades didn't disappear. Even when turning automatic update back on, they are still there. Also when exporting to pdf. I killed them now by selecting the whole document and turning the highlighting off. However it does frighten, when you keep seeing those!
  • bwiernik
    This is just a display feature in Word. It’s useful to show you text that is automatically generated and hat shouldn’t be manually edited. You can turn it off if you like https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/citations_highlighted
  • kjell.kuehne
    This happened to me in Google Docs and the shading persisted when exporting to PDF.
  • adomasven
    You should note which word processor you use. The grey shades in Word and LibreOffice are there to indicate fields, but in Google Docs it's an indicator of citations inserted with automatic citation updates unchecked (in Zotero document preferences) and there to remind you to click Refresh before submitting the document.
  • LG.
    edited January 28, 2021
    Just a note about this that the grey shading is problematic – it's hard to remember to remove it each time you print/download to PDF, and it's pretty unprofessional-looking to submit an (ostensibly) finished document that has this shading within it.

    I do understand the shading's function – as well as the general inflexibility of Google Docs – but it would be wonderful if there could be some way that e.g. (1) this shading feature could be made not to show when printing/downloading to PDF, or (2) the shading feature could be disabled, or (3) rather than the shading, there could just be a warning message you get when trying to download to PDF if a citation refresh is needed (on par with the warning it gives you if you try to download to PDF a file whose references are still linked).

    Many thanks for reading, and again I understand if this is not possible, but thought it couldn't hurt to mention. All best wishes!
  • dstillman
    edited January 29, 2021
    LG: I'm not clear on what you're reporting here.

    First, you shouldn't be submitting anything with active Zotero citations — that would, indeed, be unprofessional, which is why you don't do it. You need to make a copy of the document and use the plugin's "Unlink Citations" feature before submitting anything. Note that, in Google Docs, it's not just shading — active Zotero citations in Google Docs are actually links that show a popup if you click on them, because that's how Zotero is able to embed the metadata that enables the integration.

    This applies to Zotero and all similar tools, all of which by necessity insert fields or links into documents to enable their special functionality. Otherwise it would just be plain text.
    there could just be a warning message you get when trying to download to PDF if a citation refresh is needed (on par with the warning it gives you if you try to download to PDF a file whose references are still linked)
    Not sure what you mean by this. As you say, there's already a warning if you try to download a PDF from a Google Doc without unlinking citations.

    If you're saying you're getting shading even after unlinking citations, then that would be a bug.
  • LG.
    Thanks so much for the quick reply, and so sorry for being unclear! But I am indeed saying that the shading is remaining, even after I have (1) refreshed, and then (2) unlinked the citations.

    At first I thought the shading was indeed there because it marked an active citation link. But it isn't a link, and after much fiddling to try to figure things out, I realized that it was just that the text involved was literally shaded with grey, in terms of pure formatting – which then was fixed when I removed that shading.
  • bwiernik
    The grey shading doesn’t print or show up in PDFs. It is only visible on the editable word files, the same as a Table of Contents or automatic Page Numbers.
  • LG.
    No, it is actually showing up on PDFs – which is why I posted the comment. I have indeed seen that it doesn't show up on PDFs created from Word, and so I was surprised that it did show up on the PDF created from a Google Doc.

    And if it's helpful to note, it is showing up on both PDFs created by printing to PDF from the 'Format' menu, as well as PDFs created by downloading to a PDF.

    The only way I was able to create a PDF from the unlinked file that does not have this shading was to physically select the citations involved and remove their grey shading.
  • dstillman
    edited January 29, 2021
    (@bwiernik: This is about Google Docs, not Word. In Google Docs the shading is used in place of the dashed underline when automatic citation updates are disabled.)

    LG: If the shading doesn't go away when you Refresh, that's the problem, not anything else.

    If possible, can you share with support@zotero.org an excerpt of a copy of the document where you have active Zotero citations with shading that doesn't go away when you refresh?
  • LG.
    Sure, I'd be happy to – thanks much. It was in a paper I submitted for review, so I can't show much – but I can certainly show a few lines of a screenshot for a page where this occurred, if this would be helpful.

    (The shading indeed doesn't go away when I Refresh – but only when I manually remove the shading itself – and you are correct that this is only within Google Docs, not Word.)

    Thanks again! (And apologies for any confusion!)
  • dstillman
    We'd need an actual excerpt of the document — an image won't help. Can you make a copy of the document, cut it down to that section, and share a link for that?
  • LG.
    Sure! Will do.
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