Zotero button greyed out in google docs "suggesting" mode

simiasota · June 7, 2020

Hello,
I started yesterday to use Zotero in google docs for a collaborative project, but while in "editing" mode the Zotero connector works just fine, in "suggesting" mode the button is grayed out: I need to switch to "editing" to insert bibliographic references.
Zotero connector is v. 5.0.68, in chrome v. 83.0.4103.97 (Official Build) (64-bit). Linux ubuntu 19.04 X64

many thanks for any suggestion

dstillman · June 7, 2020

Yes, you need to be in Editing mode. We're not able to make the plugin work reliably in Suggesting mode.

simiasota · June 7, 2020

@dstillman: thank you for your reply, and for your great work! Zotero is really a useful and nice tool.
Francesco

bwiernik · June 8, 2020

@adomasven Does the plugin have access to changing the editing mode? Could the plugin switch to Editing mode to insert the citations, then switch back to Suggesting mode, similar to how the Word for Windows plugin now works?

adomasven · June 8, 2020

I haven't tried, mainly because the GDocs plugin is rather different in how it works compared to the Word/LO ones, and is comparatively brittle, so I didn't even explore that. We technically have access to everything the user does, because we simulate user input for certain actions, but that having to rely on simulating user input is exactly what makes it brittle, and also technically capable of doing wild things like erasing the whole document text, which becomes more likely the more "advanced" inputs we try to simulate.