Converting between MS Word and Google Docs

protohedgehog · February 19, 2020

Hi folks. I've been writing a paper in MS Word (yes yes) and using the Zotero plugin. It all works fine locally.

However, now I need to convert the docx file it into a Google Doc for collaborators, and preferably with all the linked citations intact.

I've tried copy and pasting the text from the file into a new Doc, and uploading the original file to Google Drive and then opening in Docs, but each time, the references are not recognised, and the Zotero plugin doesn't seem to want to work at all.

Here's the link, so you get an idea https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z6fA6ZScQ89XvLwnrMwokrXN9mePf5jwC7FebgoTnxc/edit#

Any ideas on the best way to make a smoother transition?

Thanks in advance!

adamsmith · February 19, 2020

There's an option to "Switch to a Different Word Processor" under "Document Preferences" in Word (it's a separate menu item when going from google docs to Word). Use that on a copy of the document and follow the instructions.

protohedgehog · February 19, 2020

Excellent, thanks for this, Adam. Much appreciated. I found this too which was useful https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/moving_documents_between_word_processors

Now though, the same problem persists, but slightly differently. The converted file is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rIc1A2UyDUwh_NWZ5J73VFHOSc2teJg-PD4I87DxjrQ/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs but after selecting to refresh, it returns the same error after asking if I want to restore the citations. Tried in both Firefox and Chrome but no luck.

adamsmith · February 19, 2020

the linked doc is restricted but also "the same error" -- what exactly does that error say?

protohedgehog · February 19, 2020

Oops, here we go https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rIc1A2UyDUwh_NWZ5J73VFHOSc2teJg-PD4I87DxjrQ/edit?usp=sharing

Error message:

Zotero experienced an error updating your document.

Would you like to view troubleshooting instructions?

adamsmith · February 19, 2020

@adomasven will need to look at this

adomasven · February 21, 2020

@protohedgehog The documents you have posted here have a bunch of annotations from a while back, indicating that you have not strictly followed the procedure. The document transfer procedure is quite brittle and works reliably only if you follow the instructions exactly as laid out. If you need to keep the annotations from some other google document that you have been working on separately, you will need to first finalize the transfer of the document to google docs and only then annotate, or copy chunks of it to another document which already has annotations.

Also note, that all collaborators on the document should ensure they have the Zotero Connector installed, otherwise copying and pasting text with citations will break their links to Zotero

protohedgehog · February 21, 2020

Hey @adomasven, thanks for your comments, super useful. I think you are right. Some of the comments/edits are from a previous time when this was originally a GDoc and then converted to a Word doc.

Just to verify, if I locally clean up the Word doc, including resolving all edits/comments, and then try the document transfer procedure again, should that fix things..?

Thanks!