Bug in Zotero when inserting new references with Word 2010 version 14 and Windows 10

paupatto
edited July 18, 2020
My report ID number is: 1217949132. I am using Zotero with Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 and Microsoft Word version 14.0, and Windows 10. Whenever I insert a new reference into the text using Zotero, the formatting of paragraph in which I inserted it is lost, as are the field codes of the inserted reference itself, which becomes plain text with a dashed underline. Experimenting with a test document tells me that this occurs when a citation involves more than one reference, and one of the references includes page numbers. In the test document, the field codes were lost, but there was no dashed underline.
  • dstillman
    How are you determining that the field codes were lost? Do you have Word set to highlight fields in gray when selected? Are you saying if you click the citation and click Add/Edit Citation, you don't see the citation in the citation dialog? Does the citation not appear in a bibliography you generate?

    The dashed underline just sounds like you have Automatically update citations disabled, and that would be perfectly normal.
  • paupatto
    Yes, the gray highlighting indicating a field code doesn't show up. Word is set to highlight field codes when clicked, and other bibliography entries do have field codes indicated by grey outlines when clicked. I do have automatically update citations disabled. The problem arises when I click 'refresh' to update the citation. I get a message that claims, falsely, that I have made changes to the entry, and that I can either choose to save the changes, in which case I will not be allowed to make futher changes in the future or not. I clicked 'no' because of the possible need to make further changes. That's when it removed the field codes. I am unable to reproduce the problem in a short test document, which suggests to me that either this is a problem that only arises in longer documents with lots of citations, or there is some special error in the longer document in which the problem arose.
  • paupatto
    edited July 20, 2020
    I have succeeded in reproducing the bug in a short document. The new report ID number is: 1359157017. I created a document containing only one sentence of text and inserted a single reference. I had 'automatically update citations' turned on during this test. The insertion of the reference worked without incident, and the gray highlighting indicated that the inserted reference had a field code. I then edited the reference to insert a page number. I received an error message. The new version of the reference included the page number, but no longer had a field code as indicated by the lack of grey highlighting when clicked. In a longer document, the entire paragraph in which this error occurs loses its formating, reverting to single-spaced, right-justified text. Hopefully, this is specific enough to allow the bug to be reproduced.
  • paupatto
    edited July 20, 2020
    Note that any sort of edit to an existing reference, and not just the addition of page numbers to an existing reference elicits the bug.
  • dstillman
    I then edited the reference to insert a page number.
    Wait, how did you edit it? By typing in the field directly? While that shouldn't cause the citation to lose it field code, and @adomasven would have to look into that (though I'm not sure we still have access to Word 2010 to test), that's not how you should be adding a page number. See Customizing Cites.
  • dstillman
    I received an error message.
    What error message, exactly?
  • paupatto
    I didn't edit it by typing directly into the field. I selected the reference, and then, in the Zotero tab in Word 2010, I clicked Add/Edit citation. In the red outlined bar that shows up when I do that, I selected the reference, and added page numbers. I hit return to close the page number adding window, and then I hit return again to close the red outlined insertion bar. When I did I got the error message 'Zotero experienced an error updating your document. Would you like to view the troubleshooting instructions?'. I clicked 'yes'. In the document, the reference, with the page numbers properly added, was now plain text with no field codes. This was indicated by the fact that when I clicked on it, the grey highlighting no longer appeared.
  • dstillman
    edited July 20, 2020
    OK, thanks. And you're saying you can reproduce that reliably in a new document?

    What's your exact, full Word version?
  • paupatto
    I have reproduced the problem in a new document containing only one sentence of text and the reference. My full Word version is: 14.0.7252.5000 (64-bit), which is part of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.
  • dstillman
    OK, thanks. @adomasven will need to take a look.
  • paupatto
    Thank you.
  • adomasven
    @paupatto I've just tested with the same software setup and APA citation style, but couldn't reproduce the error.

    It could be a Word configuration problem. Do you have any other plugins installed in Word? Have you tried disabling them? Could you create a new User Account on your computer and test whether you still see the same problem there?
  • paupatto
    adomasven-
    Sorry for the long delay in getting back to you. After getting frustrated with troubleshooting and putting up with the problem for a time, I tried disabling the Endnote and Mendeley add-ins, as you suggested. This seems to have solved the problem. I can no longer elicit it either in a test document, or in my primary document. Thanks.
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