Importing references from Microsoft Office 365

jonathandavidreeves
I have done some searching and found numerous articles how to achieve the above but many just don't seem to work.

I'm in my third year on a part time Degree and a fellow student recommended Zotero and I wish to migrate all my references.

Can anyone give guidance or point me in the direction of instructions that work with the above configuration?

TIA.
  • dstillman
    edited March 6, 2020
    I'm not sure what you mean by this. Where exactly are your references now? Are you referring to Word's built-in bibliography tool, or just plain-text references in a Word document?

    For the latter, see Importing Formatted Bibliographies.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    edited March 6, 2020
    Yes, the references are located in word's built-in bibliography tool. I shall run through that. Thanks.
  • dstillman
    edited March 6, 2020
    OK, so if you've inserted those in a document, see the linked page.

    I'm not sure if there's a way to export references you have in that tool that you haven't inserted into a document, though presumably you could just insert them all and then follow those steps.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    Followed the instructions in the link and afraid it fails at the second step, I only have a data folder. Probably because I run Office 365 which runs in the cloud?
  • dstillman
    Are you using Word on your computer or Office Online?

    What do you mean by "I only have a data folder"? Where, exactly?

    Word 365 is just a subscription service, and it includes access to regular desktop versions of Word and other Office programs. It doesn't imply that you're using the web-based version of Word.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    Oh right, okay.

    Specifically, the instructions said to drop the file into:
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\\Bibliography\Style

    But I only have:
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Data
  • dstillman
    OK, but still, are you talking about Word in a web browser as part of Office Online or the Word program on your computer?
  • jonathandavidreeves
    Sorry, I'm running on my computer.
  • dstillman
    What exact version number of Word?

    Depending on your system, the application files might be in "C:\Program Files" rather than "C:\Program Files (x86)".
  • jonathandavidreeves
    I'm not sure what the minor version is but it's Office 365 which updates frequently. So, my assumption is, its the latest.

    I'll do a disk-wide search. I'll report back. Thanks.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    I searched for Bibliography and found:
    C:\Users\Jonathan Reeves\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16

    So I copied the file into ./Bibliography/Styles

    Unfortunately it didn't work.
  • dstillman
    We can't help you if you just say things don't work. You have to say exactly what you did, what you expected to happen, and what did happen. See Provide Steps to Reproduce for an explanation of the kind of report that would allow us to help you.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    edited March 6, 2020
    Okay,
    I expect that once this process is completed that 'bibtex' will be in the Bibliography style list in word.

    This is the process I performed:

    1. I searched for the 'Bibliography' folder from my system drive using file explorer
    2. Once located I used file explorer and selected the Bibliography folder
    3. In this folder I selected the Styles folder
    4. I then Ctrl-C the file from my downloads folder and Ctrl-V into the destination folder
    5. I repeated steps 2-4 for all folders found
    6. Then I open my word document
    7. Selected 'References' from the menu
    8. Then clicked the dropdown box on the Bibliography Styles
    9. The list displayed: Apa, Chicago, GB7714, Gost Name sort, Gost Title sort, Harvard - Anglia, IEEE, ISO 690 First name and date, ISO 690 Numeric reference, MLA, SIST02 and Turabin

    No 'bibtex' item in the list.

  • dstillman
    Did you restart Word?
  • jonathandavidreeves
    Yes but I shall reboot just to be sure.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    That didn't make any difference
  • dstillman
    You'll need to find the appropriate styles folder. Do you see other .xsl files in the directory?

    I've updated the instructions with possible paths for Office 365.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    I have spent quite a while on this issue now. I've copied bibtex.xsl into every folder which contained CHICAGO.xsl. I also created a simple xsl following Microsoft dev article. Nothing new appears in the style list. Interesting to note, then when creating a stlye in the later Bibliography Styles folder with the filename format TM028nn[[fn=bibtex]] it recreates the style in the roaming folder, but still not in the stylelist.
  • haraldaa
    edited March 7, 2020
    I also tested with the bibtex.xsl file and it did not show up for me either. Then I found another custom bibliography file for Word from here: https://github.com/codingo/BibWord/tree/master/styles (HarvardLeeds.xsl) that I downloaded and copied into the same folder and it showed up. Might there be something incompatible with the coding in the bibtex.xsl file?
  • jonathandavidreeves
    Thanks, tried but really frustratingly, has not worked either. But really, thank you. I've decided to get back to studying. Dropped the whole idea and shall continue to use the in-built capabilities of word for referencing.
  • dstillman
    edited March 7, 2020
    I can't speak to that bibtex.xsl file, but if you can't make this work, you can just create a document with all the references inserted and then use AnyStyle as explained in the Plain-Text Citations and Bibliographies section of the support page.
  • jonathandavidreeves
    I can confirm that the AnyStyle.io parser sorted me out. Thank you.
  • metehanciftci
    Hi guys,

    Thanks to the OP for creating the thread and the feedback. The anystyle.io solution is fine but it's not as accurate as the would-be solution saught here. So, I'd like to add to the last comment that I've found a way to make the built-in referencing work to export bibtex style references from Word.

    As some suggested above, the bibtex file provided in Zotero webpages didn't work on my Word 2013 but the file in the following link worked like a charm when i copied it into the Bibliography folder in App Data/Roaming... : https://gist.github.com/JaimeChavarriaga/40166befb14f2fe5dac390688d9eaf03

    Hope it will also work on your PC!
  • dalerhoda
    edited July 30, 2021
    Just a quick note to echo the success noted in metehanciftci's post on 2021-Mar-01. I had the same trouble and found success with the same solution s/he suggested. Many thanks!!
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