'You must place the cursor in a citation to edit it' error

tov1
Windows 10, MS Word Office 365.

Everything was working fine, most of the way through a 6,000 word document, and suddenly this error pops up when I try to insert a new citation.

I've looked at advice that's been previously given on this error and I haven't solved it.

Citations are stored as fields, not bookmarks; copy-pasting the text with formatting included into another document also does not work. Pasting the plain text into a new document does work, but then I would have to manually go through and replace all of the citations myself.

Any ideas?

Thanks
  • dstillman
    copy-pasting the text with formatting included into another document also does not work
    See Debugging Broken Documents. Unless the error still happens when you completely clear the contents of the copied document, there's more you can do to isolate the problem.
  • dstillman
    @tov1: The other thing to check — which I've just added to that page — is whether you're storing the document in OneDrive, which is known to cause problems for some people on Windows.
  • hgilbert
    I ran into the same problem. I tried selecting the whole text, cutting it (CTRL-X), and then placing the citation in the blank document. This worked.
    I then pasted the removed text before the citation. This worked, and I now am able to add citations anywhere.

    I ended up removing the citation I added to the blank document, as it was stuck on a different line...but this was a minor annoyance.
  • hgilbert
    On a second computer, the problem is worse; nothing I can do allows me to add a citation -- the citation box flashes up, filled in with green, and then a window with the message, "You must place the cursor in a citation to edit it".

    This happens in a new document, as well -- before anything else has been entered.

  • dstillman
    Can you provide a Debug ID for this happening in a new document?
  • hgilbert
    edited June 21, 2019
    D731428789
    or
    D315162080

    The latter is cleaner.
  • adomasven
    The error message here is "You must insert a citation before performing this operation". Do you have any citations in this document? Note that something is not right with your Word plugin installation. Word hasn't had the Edit Citation button for a while, so you're either using a really old version of Word or need to go into Zotero Preferences -> Cite -> Word Processors and reinstall the plugin.
  • hgilbert
    Notes: I've tried restarting the computer, opening new files, opening existing files with existing Zotero citations -- in no case can I insert a citation, I always get this error.

    If I place the cursor inside an existing citation, however, I can edit this.
  • dstillman
    edited June 23, 2019
    What are the exact steps to reproduce this in a completely new, empty document, including the exact names of the buttons you're pressing?
  • hgilbert
    edited June 23, 2019
    I start a new document.
    I click on Project.Zotero.ZoteroEditCitation button in Toolbar.
    Error message appears: "You must insert a citation before performing the operation"

    Word 365

  • hgilbert
    edited June 23, 2019
    OK -- problem identified -- in Word, I had added Zotero buttons to the Quick Access toolbar. These were from an old version of Zotero, presumably.

    When I click on the Zotero toolbar and add citations from there, all is well. (I have removed the nonfunctional buttons.)

    Thanks for all your help.
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