Add-in for online Word/OneDrive MS Office 365

amanzanom
Zotero reference manager is used by thousands of scientists, and it is rapidly growing to be the most used reference manager. My university, as many others, is moving to include Microsoft 365, the online word processor and other apps are great for collaborative writing of a paper. However, we are stuck using google docs, as the Zotero reference manager plugin dose not work in the web app for the word processor. Would be great if the developers invest effort in making an add-in, as this would certainly make many of us migrate from google docs to the web app versions of Word in microsoft office 365
  • adamsmith
    My understanding is that this is on the long-term agenda, pending some required changes at Microsoft (and, of course, writing the add-on).
  • gustms
    edited July 26, 2023
    Unless this is a license that doesn't include the desktop apps, I think you can click on "Editing" in online Word, then in "Open in Desktop App" to edit it in the installed version as if you were working on the online version (real-time syncing) and the Zotero plugin should work as usual with that. No reason to continue with Google Docs if the system has already migrated to Office 365, while there isn't a plugin for the web version yet.
  • amanzanom
    Problem is if there is no desktop app, as it is the case for linux
  • gustms
    edited July 26, 2023
    The Office365 apps may run on Wine or Crossover. Not as ideal as running native, but it could a be a workaround for using the licensed version of Office365 vs Google Docs while there isn't an ideal plugin solution to the web version.
  • tim820
    Another workaround would be to use Zotero's RTF Scan. That is, unformatted citations, that don't require any particular word processor or word processor plugin. It simply requires you to save at least your last pre-final-formatting version of the document in the common RTF file format. Which is then scanned/formatted within Zotero to produce formatted citations and the bibliography.
    https://www.zotero.org/support/rtf_scan

    Unformatted citations were actually always my *preferred* method of citing while writing with Endnote. I much preferred them to dealing with plugins for formatted citations (albeit Endnote's handling of unformatted citations was a little smoother than Zotero's, being all handled within the word processor). I had my library open on a second monitor for checking references, so I knew what author/year to type as the unformatted citation. eg {Smith et al., 2009}. Or you can use drag-and-drop Quick Copy (set to RTF Scan format in Preferences\Export) to avoid needing to type the unformatted citation.

    I always found unformatted citations significantly faster during writing than formatted citations. And unformatted citations are actually more robust for collaboration in many ways (footnotes/endnotes complicate that somewhat) - because during draft paper circulation there are no formatted citations to be inadvertently flattened by colleagues (when they try to edit citations or save to the wrong file format).
  • drandrewhuang
    edited February 14, 2024
    Endnote has released a plugin for word online. https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-Word-Online-CWYW?language=en_US

    Hopefully zotero will follow suit soon. :-)
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