Zotero automatic update citations on Scrivener?

When working with Zotero and Scrivener citing through the drag/drop method, I wondered whether any modifications to citations on Zotero (i.e., capitalizing a name or else) would automatically update on the existing citations on Scrivener to whether I have to change each modified citation manually.
  • citations dragged from Zotero are just text; nothing will auto-update.
  • Ok. Thanks. Just a hopeful thought, I guess.
  • There's a way of making modifications to citations on Zotero update in Scrivener, which Catherine Pope describes here: https://phdprogress.com/how-to-use-zotero-with-scrivener-part-2/#comment-776

    Unfortunately for me, although I get to Catherine's step 9 just fine (with the usual blundering about through various random bits of the internet that I didn't know I wanted to visit), the final step going from 9 to 10 fails.

    I'm using Scrivener 3 and Zotero 5.0.96.2 on a Macbook. Catherine and various others managed to make it work on Windows 10.
  • Fails in what way?
  • edited May 17, 2021
    I get to step 9 exactly as Catherine shows, but step 10 gives
    (Prance, 1994)

    instead of what I wanted which was
    Prance, G.T. (1994). A comparison of the efficacy of higher taxa and species numbers in the assessment of biodiversity in the neotropics. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 345, 89–99.

    In other words, I got a result equivalent to Zotero's "Create bibliography from item…" "Output mode Citations" rather than "Output mode Bibliography"
  • I can't opine on that, sorry, I don't know that much about rtf scan.
  • edited May 17, 2021
    @kalense:
    That guide is actually missing a step. You need to select the citation style in LibreOffice after the scan. If you click on "Add Bibliography", I believe it will automatically prompt you to do so.
    Edit: but there's also some confusion here: obviously Zotero would add a citation, not a bibliography, for a citation marker? The full citation only appears at the end of the document.
  • edited May 17, 2021
    @adamsmith
    If I understand you correctly, after step 9 I should go into LibreOffice and click on "Add Bibliography"..." but I can't find anywhere that says "add bibliography" in LibreOffice or anywhere else. And after the scan seems too late in any case, since according to Catherine by then the magic has happened and the cryptic mess of a footnote is transformed into a full bibliographic citation.

    As for Zotero adding a citation marker - I want a bibliographic citation, which is what Catherine's method delivers for her.

    In other words, I don't want "(Prance, 1994)" but "Prance, G.T. (1994). A comparison of the efficacy of higher taxa and species numbers in the assessment of biodiversity in the neotropics. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 345, 89–99." The placement of this as a footnote at the bottom of the page is immaterial since it's always possible to change footnotes to endnotes in Scrivener's compile.

    It sounds as though you have spotted something I've missed, but I don't know where or what it is.

  • Some misunderstandings here.
    I can't find anywhere that says "add bibliography" in LibreOffice or anywhere else.
    This requires the Zotero LibreOffice add-on to be installed and working. The whole workflow won't work without it. See https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#toolbar_is_missing if you don't see that.
    And after the scan seems too late in any case, since according to Catherine by then the magic has happened and the cryptic mess of a footnote is transformed into a full bibliographic citation.
    No, she just skipped a step. The scan only transforms the marker into a placeholder that's always author-date. The transformation into the citation style of your choice happens within LibreOffice in the step you're currently missing.
    As for Zotero adding a citation marker - I want a bibliographic citation, which is what Catherine's method delivers for her.
    Catherine's example is a footnote citation in Chicago Style -- those contain full bibliographic details, but they're not a bibliography. What you have looks like you want a bibliography entry in a footnote, which Zotero just doesn't do. You can see if selecting Chicago Manual (full note) will give you what you need (it'll give you what Catherine has in her screenshot).
  • OK, I found the Zotero buttons in LibreOffice, thanks.

    At the moment my footnote reads (Prance, 1994) over a grey rectangle showing that it is a live link to something.

    What do I do in the step that Catherine missed?

    Where do I place the cursor before clicking on the Zotero button in LibreOffice "Add/Edit bibliography"? It seems to me that if I do that, what I get is not linked to the citation marker, but whatever I happen to pick up in Zotero at that moment.

    On a more existential level, is this entire laborious sequence, involving software I didn't want, doing anything different from simply exporting the citation directly into Scrivener by dragging from Zotero while holding Shift?
  • Instead of Add Bibliography, try "Document Preferences" and select Chicago style (since it sounds like you want footnotes, not a single bibliography).
    is this entire laborious sequence, involving software I didn't want, doing anything different from simply exporting the citation directly into Scrivener by dragging from Zotero while holding Shift?
    It gives you the effect of live Zotero citations, i.e. a bibliography would include all cited sources and footnotes are position-sensitive, i.e. you get shortened subsequent citations and ibid where warranted.

    If all you want is the text in the footnote, the scan process has no benefits over shift+drag

  • And the possibility of changing styles without doing the whole thing again. And updates when you fix item data in Zotero.
  • @adamsmith
    Thanks. My "document preferences", which I have used for years, has been Cell, but picking Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition (full note) gives me the citation that I want, in the footnote where I want it.

    So it isn't so much that Catherine's missing a step. She's missing telling us about a key setting - making sure that the cogwheel with a Z in the LibreOffice tools bar shows "Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition (full note)".
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