Zotero Word-Plugin Does Not Create Footnote - Report ID: 577405552

ResAgent · March 22, 2022

After installing the new Word plugin (Word 2019 in Office 365) the Zotero plugin no longer creates a footnote at the bottom of the page with citation information properly formatted and drawn from Zotero. Instead, Zotero places the ENTIRE contents of the Zotero entry on the page in Word in a bold font. There is no footnote at all. (I wish I could post a picture here to show this. Describing the problem is much harder than showing the problem.) When I go into Add/Edit Citation for the Word plugin (I use the add Classic citation dialog) I select the entry from Zotero that I want to use in Word as the source for my footnote. In an effort to preview what Zotero is supposed to add to the Word footnote I will press the Show Editor... button. What is displayed in the editor looks proper (I do not modify anything with the editor, just view what should be created in a Word footnote) so I complete the action to create the footnote with the citation. What appeared in the editor does NOT appear on the page in Word. Instead, I get the ENTIRE contents of the Zotero entry on the page in Word in a bold font. I would rather have the previous version back with a working product for all my writing is shut down (I use a tremendous number of citations/footnotes in Word. Help.

dstillman · March 23, 2022

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/word_field_codes

ResAgent · March 23, 2022

Thank you for the info on field codes but that is not the issue. Since I cannot post pictures here I will try to link to a before picture (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRoxC6bek5wwSTGDw?e=g45bq0) and after picture (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRpT2n8RRvYh0u8OA?e=swspWW) in my OneDrive that should illustrate the problem. I have used Zotero for years. I wrote a 500+ page book in Microsoft Word with about 200 footnotes that came from Zotero so I am familiar with how Zotero should work. I have never dealt with anything like this before. If you need more information, please let me know. Thank you.

dstillman · March 23, 2022

See Troubleshooting Errors in Word Processor Documents. We'd want an excerpt of the section of the document that reproduces the problem, as explained there.

ResAgent · March 23, 2022

I should have included pictures showing how I normally add a citation using the Classic citation dialog (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRsdJqZMvJ1N4uvww?e=E2ZN82). In the second picture (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRtp4IqofOZfDE-4Q?e=NbG8QZ) I have opened the Editor to show that Zotero is correctly formatting what should go into the Word footnote (highlighted in yellow) yet somehow that is ignored.

adamsmith · March 23, 2022

You're inserting the note rather than the actual item. Related functionality has indeed changed and will now include the whole note. If you don't want that, select the actual item (i.e. the blue book icon)

ResAgent · March 24, 2022

Adam, I am doing the same thing that I have been doing for the last 5+ years. During that time when I set the Word addin document preferences (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRv6hyHRFrWiPzGjg?e=KRD75Z) to display citations as footnotes it placed a footnote at the bottom of the MS Word page I was working on with the footnote number at the cursor location (as this sample of past proper operation shows: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpR5iTBr2GYjfUVvmg?e=k5jCEX). As you can see (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpR2kGY0y4ppqN7uyw) under the "blue book icon" there are many hundred entries. I want to footnote using one of those entries i.e., the golden page icon. I am working through the Troubleshooting Errors in Word Processor Documents dstillman posted and will be posting the visual outcome of that soon. Thanks for the reply.

adamsmith · March 24, 2022

No, I don't think this requires debug output, I think there's some sort of misunderstanding here.
Why do you want to cite the note (what you call the golden page icon)? This has, until now, never really been supported and would have just printed the first 200 (or so) characters of the note.

ResAgent · March 24, 2022

dstillman, I have started troubleshooting by attempting to put a footnote in a blank document. Step 1-Ensure Document Preferences is set for footnotes (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRv6hyHRFrWiPzGjg) Step 2-As I am adding the citation you will note that Word has started the process of adding a note by the circled note number (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRxu-JhD0e_PiKx7w) Step 3-The result in no footnote, no field codes, only plain text of the entire Zotero entry (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpRzTPn2ZW20dt5qJw). Before this update to Zotero this dis this with entries (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpR5iTBr2GYjfUVvmg). I will continue with existing documents next.

adamsmith · March 24, 2022

I really don't think this requires any troubleshooting. You were using an unsupported workaround before and that's no longer working because of the way Zotero now properly integrates notes into citation functionality.

ResAgent · March 24, 2022

adamsmith, Maybe I am not using Zotero properly, but it has supported my writing well. When I quote a section of text in my writing I place the quote on the page in Word. In Zotero I have the BOOK where it came from listed. This is the blue icon. Under the blue book icon I list the various entries used. For example, the blue book icon could be "Mickelson's Enhanced Strong's Greek & Hebrew Dictionaries" and an entry under that (the golden page icon) could be "G907, baptizo ("baptism" or "baptized" KJV)" which would include everything Mickelson said in his book under that entry. I would go to Word, place my cursor at the end of the quoted section, then go to the Zotero addin, select the golden page icon for what I am quoting, and Word places the next footnote number in sequence at the cursor and adds the properly formatted footnote at the bottom of the page (as here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtjZLmYAvJuchpR5iTBr2GYjfUVvmg). It worked properly for years. Now, no footnote, just the entire entry from Zotero in plain but bold text. I do not need the text I need the MS Word footnote. How do I get that?

adamsmith · March 24, 2022

I'm afraid I don't have a terribly good idea. Best I can think of would be to just copy the (title of the ) note from Zotero.

FWIW, the footnote you link to as "properly formatted" was most definitely not created from a note. That's the short citation of a book itself, which would still work exactly as it did before.
What you see in the show editor window also doesn't look like a proper citation to me -- the n.d. there makes no sense since the dictionary has a publication date.