Renumbering Citations/footnotes

I an writing a dissertation and moved several paragraphs around. It removed the earlier numbers and so now there are gaps where those quotes were originally. Can I tell it to renumber?
  • If edit a citation, insert a new citation, or click the Zotero "refresh" button, it will automatically re-number the footnotes based on the new positions.
  • Thanks, I attempted the refresh but the numbers didn't change.
  • Which word processor are you using, and in what format are you saving the file?
  • Using Word and saving it in docx on a Mac
  • That eliminates one possible problem (saving in doc or docx from LibreOffice would lose the Zotero field codes).

    I'm not sure I understand the symptoms, so a couple of further questions.

    (1) What style are you using?

    (2) When you say "it removed the earlier numbers" after rearranging paragraphs, do you mean that you did not delete any references intentionally, but some references (all references?) completely disappeared as a result of changing their sequence?
  • I'm using Turabian

    The paragraphs I moved had quotes in them. When I moved them to a later portion of the document, the footnote moved and renumbered in its new sequence. However, back at the point of origin, the footnote numbers did not reset. So for example, if i had note 1, 2, 3, and 4 and the paragraph I moved had 3 in it, the document skips 3 and reads 1, 2, 4.

    Make sense?
  • edited July 25, 2015
    Thanks, I understand.

    With a note style like Turabian, the footnote numbers themselves are not set by the citation processor. That's my end of things, so this may need help from others.

    Three questions, though:

    (1) Do the footnotes containing quotes also contain Zotero references?

    (2) If "yes" to (1), how were the footnotes created? Did you create the footnotes manually, and insert Zotero reference(s) in them, or did you create a Zotero citation and let the style create the footnote automatically (it shouldn't make any difference, but just in case).

    (2) Does renumbering fail in the same way if you create ordinary footnotes (manually, without using Zotero at all), and then move one of them to a new position?
  • Same issue here. Move around some footnotes and renumbering is not working. Really annoying
  • This is almost certainly a Word issue. I believe Word has a problem renumbering footnotes when track changes is set. See e.g. http://word.tips.net/T005400_Footnotes_Dont_Automatically_Renumber.html
  • I am having the same problem. I see no "refresh button" on my .docx doc working on a PC using Zotero. I added another citation and its fn number is incorrect; I "saved" again and it did not correct the problem. Track changes is off.
  • In the same Zotero tab in Word where the Add/Edit Citation button is, there is also a button called Refresh.
  • But the refresh button is not relevant if the numbering error is actually the same as noted here, i.e. for footnote/endnote styles like Turabian. That's entirely a Word issue. Zotero is not involved in Footnote numbering, only in the numbering of numeric citation styles (such as Vancouver or Nature)
  • Did anyone ever find a solution to this? I'm having the same problem.
  • As I say above, if these are footnotes, this is a word issue. The linked post may help
  • edited January 24, 2019
    **UPDATE**

    Thanks! I finally got it to work! The body of my document had endnotes in this order: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6... Number 4 was missing in my document. Numbers 5, 6 and 7 were missing from the end of my document.

    I rejected all the tract changes made to my endnotes at the end of my document. This allowed me to see the endnotes that were missing 5, 6, 7. This did not, however, correct the problem in the body of my piece. I tried deleting the number 5 in the body of my document, but couldn't, so I restarted my computer. When all else fails, restart your device, right?

    It took me a good 15 minutes, but I deleted the incorrect endnote # in my document (number 5). Again, this took a while because for whatever reason, I couldn't simply delete the 5 in the body of my document by cutting it or hitting my delete key.

    Once I deleted 5, I was able to insert the correct # by going to Insert ->Footnote->Endnotes->Start at (in my case 4) and it repopulated all of my endnotes in the document.

    Once I deleted "5" in the body of my document, I was able to insert "4."

    I was then able to add endnotes via Word and Zotero with no problem. Yay!

    Good luck to everyone dealing with this issue.
  • In Word, if you want your citations to renumber in sequence: Right click on the first footnote in your document; select 'Note Options'; under 'Numbering', select 'Continuous'; Make sure that 'Apply changes to the whole document' is selected. Press 'Enter' and your citations will renumber as desired.
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