citations and bibliography in existing Word documents gone flat

LRavanello
519474411

I last used Zotero on February 24, 2020. Today when I enter an existing Word document, the in-text citations aren't greyed out when i click on them. The References when clicked on do not connect through to Zotero so I can read them. I checked several existing Word documents and this is the case for all of them. I started a new Word document, and the same thing happens when I add a new in-text citation or reference - the citation does not turn grey when i click on it, and clicking on the reference does not bring me to my Zotero library where i can view the document. What is going on. I didn't do anything to my computer since Feb 24.
  • adamsmith
    The fact that they're not grey can just be a Word setting -- and the fact that that's the case for new references suggests it is.
    clicking on the reference does not bring me to my Zotero library where i can view the document.
    This has never been the case. What should work is putting your cursor into a citation and clicking "Add/edit citation" and Zotero should pull up the citation dialog with that citation selected. Is that not the case?
  • LRavanello
    Maybe I am confused on the last part, but I thought I could do that previously.

    Regarding the citations not greying when i click on them. I didn't change anything. What's the solution?
  • LRavanello
    Thanks

  • dstillman
    You're misremembering — that has never been possible. Zotero (and every similar program) simply creates Word fields in the document, the same as when you insert a date field into Word.

    adamsmith explains how to check whether they're active fields. If they're not, see Existing Citations Not Detected, but if you're seeing this in new documents it's almost certainly just the display setting.

    You can change the display setting from the Word preferences — the exact section depends on your Word version, but the setting is called "Field shading".
  • LRavanello
    Oh thank you, yes, that worked!!!! I had no idea that was in my options. Never there before, so no idea how that got changed from what it was to "never". I really appreciate you very swift response today. I can move on and finish my paper!
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