Feature Request: Limit Libraries that show in Word plugin

ajpodge
Hi, after several hours of wasted time fixing duplicate references this week on a grant proposal and the same thing a bit over a month ago on another grant proposal, I want to ask if Zotero could please, please, please add a setting in the Word plugin whereby you can choose to limit which libraries are displayed when you are creating citations.

After using Zotero for several group writing projects, I have several libraries and they have quite a few references in common. It is very difficult to get everyone to be extremely careful to only select the citation from one specific library. Once a reference gets cited from one library in one place and another library in another place in the doc, it becomes extremely likely that we will keep on doing that. This makes it extremely tedious to eradicate the offending reference from the wrong library in all the places it has been cited, esp. for very important refs that may get cited 10 or more different times throughout a proposal or manuscript.

My suggestion is that in Document Preferences, there be a list of all the libraries available, with a single checkbox to allow all of the libraries to be used (current behavior), plus if that box isn't checked, radio buttons to just choose one library out of all the ones available.

Thank you for considering it!
  • adamsmith
    I know Zotero is looking at improving the word add-on in particular with respect to more easily select by collection and group, but I'd very much endorse a version of this as well.

    In addition to avoiding inserting from the "wrong" library, it'd also massively help with speed for folks with small-ish groups but a lot of references overall.
  • kesh
    A little late to the party, but you get 100% of my vote for your request! I'm just going through the exact same agonizing process.

    If I could add, a mechanism to switch library would be super as well. Although this was discussed a few years back and remarked requiring a lot of dev time

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/63790
  • migugg
    yes, please, this would be great. One workaround though is to go to "classic view", by clicking on the triangle next to the "Z" in the citation editor. In the classic view, you see you whole library (with all groups), so you can easily select citations by group. One annoying thing however is that the citation editor always reverts to the "new" non-classic view for every new citation you try to insert into a document. In the interim it would be really helpful if zotero at least allowed the user to permanently select "classic view" for a specific document, or via an option in the preferences.
  • dstillman
    @migugg: It is an option in the preferences. Cite → Word Processors.
  • migugg
    @dstillman: ha, thanks!! Now I only need to remember this!
  • kesh
    A follow-up on my comment above. I have noticed that Zotero does list the last-used library first in the suggested citation list, which is a nice behavior in the meantime.
  • rfolmer
    I would really, really enjoy such a feature. I have one massive library of 40,000 entries, and several small ones for specific groups that I write papers with. Performance is really becoming an issue as it searches the entire archive every time I insert a citation. Takes >10s per search, which would be instantly if I could restrict to the appropriate smaller library.
  • adamsmith
    I'd recommend the classic add citation dialog for that situation for now
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