Converting Word Documents to BibTeX for Import

wbatesgomez
Submission for assistance:

1 recently started using Zotero to manage references for all my work. I have several bibliographies from previous classes that I'd like to import so I don't have to recreate them...for example, see the attached Word doc.

I understand that Zotero can import files like BibTeX (see attached screen shot) but not Word documents. Is there a way to safely convert my Word docs to one of these acceptable formats for importation?

The current documentation doesn't seem to apply to later versions of Word. Thank you!
  • adamsmith
    You can't attach files here, but did you use Word's bibliography manager or are these just typed bibliographies?
    For the former, see
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/importing_formatted_bibliographies#citations_inserted_using_microsoft_word_s_built-in_citation_feature

    For the latter, see
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/importing_formatted_bibliographies#plain-text_citations_and_bibliographies
  • wbatesgomez
    Thank you!

    Currently unable to get past step #3 in the documentation. Opened the Word document, clicked on the "references" tab and looked at the pull-down menu for bibliography style and still don't see BibTeX listed (see third screenshot). Still don't see the option after closing and reopening Word and also restarting the computer.
  • NanaiaPA
    I am having the same difficulty in getting the BibTex xsl to appear as a format in Word 365 on two different Mac computers (iMac and MacBook Pro). I use MS Word 365 and use the Citation Source Manager within the Word program. I need to import more than 100 references and there seems to be no easy way to do this so I haven't even tried to use the Zotero program.
    The xsl file was saved in the required folder with the rest of the reference formats, computers have been restarted, however the BibTex format is not showing as an available option in the Word program. I've been trying to get this to work for several months and all online data refers to the steps I've already tried but that have failed to work. What other options are there?
  • rgallon
    I'm also having the same problem. Does the .xsl need an update to be recognised by the current versions of Word 365/Mac ?
  • bwiernik
    The folder is still the same, but something seems to have changed in recent Word versions in the XSL format. The bibtex.xsl template is not being recognized as valid, and neither is Microsoft's documented example XSL file (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/word/Concepts/Objects-Properties-Methods/create-custom-bibliography-styles).

    I am able to make a copy of the built in styles appear, but haven't yet had success making any custom style appear.
  • bwiernik
    For the moment, I suggest copying the formatted bibliography to https://anystyle.io and import from there.
  • bwiernik
    Could someone (@rgallon @NanaiaPA) please try this version of the XSL and see if it works if you place it in the folder described on the support page (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Bibliography\Style)

    https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aq5hTi4P2Wf5jf5SGu5WWNNswiZmiw?e=ERVuTW
  • rgallon
    @bwiernik whatever you did, it seemed to do the trick - at least it shows up in the dropdown. I need to see if it does the reformatting, but I'm going to be optimistic for now - and thank you very much :)
  • bwiernik
    Thanks, I got that far, but I don’t have any bibliographies in Word, so I couldn’t check if it actually functions or not. So please let me know if it does work and I will update the wiki page.
  • rgallon
    OK, here's my results:

    I have two Macs. Only one has an MS citations database. The test I did yesterday was on the machine without the database. This morning I did the same operation with your file on the other machine and - weirdly, BibTeX did not appear in the dropdown list of styles. Two machines of same vintage, same version of OS, same version of Office 365.

    So I saved the bibliography of that machine in a file which I then opened on the one that had BibTeX on the menu. It reformatted the bibliography correctly and I was able to import from clipboard successfully.

    ADVICE FOR THOSE WHO TRY THIS: on my first try, I got that the file format was not supported. You must be very careful to select ONLY the entries for copying, no extra spaces or invisible MS field codes. When I did it precisely first letter to last letter, a large bibliography was correctly imported.

    So, why one machine was able to work with this file from @bwiernik and not the other is a mystery to me, requiring more investigation, but I was able to make it work, for which a great many thanks.
  • bwiernik
    I would suggest pasting the output first into a text editor like Notepad, then copying again to import. That should alleviate the copying issue you saw.

    So, the style file reformats correctly? That’s good.

    On the computer where it did not appear, did you restart Word after you added the style to the folder? Does the older version of the style file work?
  • rgallon
    "pasting the output first into a text editor like Notepad"

    - an excellent suggestion!

    On the computer where it did not appear, yes, I restarted Word, and I even repeated the operation a few times, to no avail. The older version of the file also did not work. The only difference I can find between the two installations is that on the machine where it works, I have a specialized XML editor installed, and the "get info" panel recognizes the file as an XSL style sheet, while on the machine where it doesn't work, the "get info" panel sees it as an "XML document" that should be opened, by default, in Safari.

    I tried changing the default open to Text Edit, but that had no effect.
  • bwiernik
    And both computers have the same version of macOS and Word?

    Not sure what the cause would be then.

    Thanks for testing!
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