Combining 2 google docs with their own zotero citations

NathanNovotny
I have multiple large google docs with approximately 20 citations AMA style embedded using zotero (1,2,3, ect). These are all sections of what will become a much larger, 100+ page document with one bibliography at the end. When I copy and paste the text from one document into the other to combine them and click "refresh", the numbers do not change to reflect their new order. So in-text citations "1,2,3" of document 2 (now added to document 1) should become "4,5,6", but they do not.

Does that make sense? Am I doing something wrong? Thank you for your help.
  • NathanNovotny
    would my best option be to transfer the docs with citations to word documents and combine them that way in one large word documents, then reupload as a google doc? I would like to avoid the extra steps if possible.
  • dstillman
    In the new document, are the pasted citations still active citations? That is, if you click on them, do you see a popup with "Edit with Zotero"?

    Can you reproduce this copying between two new Google Docs documents?
  • NathanNovotny
    Initially it appears so. If you click on the superscript next to the copy and pasted cited sentence, the prompt to edit the citation pops up. If you click edit or type in "ctrl,cmd,c" it gives a pop up that states something like "Selected field B7EM39 not returned from Docs backend". Whichever sentence is copy and pasted, no matter which document I paste it into, has the same results.
  • uwgeolibrarian
    Boosting this, because I'm having a similar issue of being unable to combine two Google Docs w/ citations into a single Google Doc. Once I've copied and pasted the two documents together, it looks like the Zotero citations are active, but when I go to "add/edit bibliography" I get the message "You must insert a citation before performing this operation."

  • adomasven
    Make sure you copy and paste the documents on a browser that has Zotero Connector installed, otherwise the copy-paste procedure won't work. You should see a prompt after a paste notifying that Zotero is updating the document. If you don't, see if updating the bibliography works on each document individually first.
  • forevertheuni
    I have the same problem.
    I tried to copy with google-chrome with the zotero connector installed. When I copy the connector becomes blue, when I paste and then click "edit with zotero" or click Zotero -> Refresh, it doesn't keep the references right.
  • adomasven
    What do you mean with "connector becomes blue"? What do you mean by "it doesn't keep the references right"? Does the ability to edit them with Zotero disappears?

    Can you edit the citations that you are copying in this document before the copy? Can you reproduce this in a new document?
  • malikraghav
    I found this thread because I was having the same issue, but it seems to work better if you ensure the Zotero Connector is active in the target document (where you intend to paste content). Hit refresh, which should throw the usual error saying you must insert a citation first, then paste your content, insert bibliography and refresh again. I tested this with pasted content out of order as well, which refreshed the numbering and order of the bibliography entries successfully
  • ckmatingou
    I made a copy of one of the documents in Google docs (made a copy to preserve the original), then pasted the contents of the other document into this new copy. This worked for me. The document I pasted in only had in-text citations though; I hadn't made a bibliography for it yet. I'm not sure if that influenced the process at all.
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