Working with Zotero and Master/subdocuments

lejocelynb
It seems Zotero have difficulties with handling the bibliography and the references when using a master documents with references inside the subdocuments (probably with Libreoffice/Openoffice/Office Word). It seems that Zotero's developers do not plan to support it¹.

Some people have reported that it could work. Well, it does not for me even though I can have a working bibliography at the end of each chapter of the PhD dissertation works.

The workarounds I can think of are either to manually export the citations within a bibliography.odt file which will be part of the subdocuments, or to create a bibliography at the end of each chapter and then copy/past/sort them at the end.

Any other ideas else?

¹: I would have though that having a master document with subdocuments is a requirement for any large document, specially those with bibliography, but it seems that's not so usual.
  • bwiernik
    You just want a combined bibliography for the whole document, not one for every chapter? The generally recommended approach is to write each of your chapters in a separate Word document, then cut-and-paste the chapter texts into one document at the end. Then click the Add/Edit Bibliography in the combined document to insert the bibliogrpahy for the whole book. In my experience, Master documents are extremely rarely used (by any authors, even people who don't use Zotero or other reference management software).

    Master documents have never worked particularly well in Word (can't comment on LibreOffice), and Microsoft doesn't really support them much anymore. Some people on these forums have reported success using Zotero with Master/sub documents, but in general they seem like more hassle than they are worth.
  • lejocelynb
    The use of master documents is quite common with Libreoffice/OpenOffice and recommended for writing complex documents like books, thesis and reports.

    «but in general they seem like more hassle than they are worth.»

    Maybe it's because I started writing complex documents with LaTeX, where this function is obvious, before having to come to the WYSIWYG world (Libre/OpenOffice/Word/etc), but not being able to split a documents into multiple subdocuments seems like an hassle to me :)
  • adomasven
    Just to add an additional comment regarding the problems you have reported in your issue.

    Inserting bibliography triggers a full doc refresh, even if automatic updates are disabled. This is by design. Presumably the LO API presents the master/sub document collection as a single combined document to Zotero, which is why you are seeing the update across all of them. This might not impact your ability to write with Zotero. You will not be able to have sub-bibliographies for your sub-documents if this is what you are looking for and will have to resort to using separate documents and combining at the end.

    As for citations being modified, even after you ask Zotero not to -- it's a bug, one to be fixed.
  • adomasven
    @lejocelyn The bugfix for citations being modified when you select not to is now available in Zotero Beta.
  • MaxPetras
    "..., but not being able to split a documents into multiple subdocuments seems like an hassle to me :) " Totally agree @lejocelynb ! Thank you for bringing this up.

    Subdocuments are really useful, if you combine a new count of footnote citations in every chapter + a reference to first-reference-note-numbers within your csl-style.
  • nonebut
    edited February 3, 2024
    LO Writer master and sub-documents used also here as for lengthy write-ups it is great feature. Results of a trial done today (LO 7.5.9, Zotero Linux native package, no new Zotero updates available).

    Here following case: Master document which only links to two subdocuments. All three documents were created from one template. Master document is edit-protected, neither it contains any own content.

    Management of external sources is done in Zotero.
    Every subdocument has few references to external publications; references were placed in subdocuments using Zotero plugin.
    Citation style Acta Naturae - if it only matters here.

    Master document level (view): reference numbering increments from document start till the end in pretty continuous way. What doesn’t work is the insertion of bibliography to master document using Zotero plugin. Plugin pop-up (Add/Edit Bibliography in master document) works fine however nothing get inserted in master except for the text “{Citation}”.
    It makes no difference if “Store Citations as” is set to RefernceMarks or Bookmars (again Zotero plug-in, not Zotero app GUI).

    May the reason be on Zotero side?
    Any workarounds are eventually known to exist of placing bibliography to master?

    EDIT
    It works, one only need to open all sub-documents and master using one and the same direct path to document files storage (paths by symbolic links must not be used). In this particular case either Zotero as well as LO Writer run out of sandboxes, rather they run as Linux native packages.
  • MaxPetras
    Sounds interesting! Could you specify what you mean by „ one only need to open all sub-documents and master using one and the same direct path to document files storage“?
  • nonebut
    edited February 5, 2024
    Concerning the directory/directories where master and subdocuments are stored to if there exist some symbolic links (hard links were not tested) by following those one can do landing to mentioned spots do not use those links or paths in some way leading via such. Use only paths which do not run through links. It doesn't play a role if link is one of path end points or some inner section of path string.
    In mind the operation of opening master and subdocs to master insertion.

    NEW
    The current problem is however for bibliography got this way to persist master closing and reopening. Zotero/Writer seem to have problem with it. If there is no solution the insertion of bibliography needs to be most final operation of document edition.


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