Persistence prevails.
I started a new document and it works. I am profoundly disappointed that this is the 7th time Zotero has corrupted my dissertation file. I now have 8 copies of my dissertation just fighting to keep the references and citations in it. I will not be recommending this software to any of my up and coming classmates. There is enough stress going through the research, attending school full time and working. We should not have to deal with software ruining our papers. The amount of time it takes to recreate the paper is a time-suck and we don't have time for it. At some point we need to get some sleep too.

"The pipe that Zotero uses to communicate with the word processor could not be initialized. Would you like Zotero to attempt to correct this error? You will be prompted for your password."

Done. Jurism is gone.

When I click on any icons in the Zotero tab, Word freezes.

Right clicking on the Word icon in the tray it says Word is not responding.

When I open Zotero's Tools and the Error Console, it has a stack of errors. The last one says;

[JavaScript Warning: "unreachable code after return statement" {file: "resource://zotero/loader.jsm -> resource://zotero/bluebird/util.js" line: 205 column: 4 source: " eval(obj);
"}]

If I force quit Word, it gives an error message

"The macro executed in this file caused Word to hang. Contact the author of the macro to revisit its functionality."

However it does not give the same error when I attempt the same thing using an new, empty Word document.

See Troubleshooting Errors in Word Processor Documents, and particularly the last step. As explained there, unless you can still reproduce this after completely deleting the contents of the document, you should be able to quickly identify the source of the problem.

It is not the first time I've posted in this forum. Previous posts were under a different ID because I didn't realize I had created two of them.
Frustration stems from having to keep recreating the document because there is a timeline that must be adhered to and if I have to keep recreating the document and reformatting the new document I can't get much work done on the contents of that document.
Jurism was a new attempt to try to get federal regulations to appear correctly in the reference list of a document that requires APA 7 formatting. I ran across a comment in a 2017 Zotero forum (no I do not have the link to share at this time) where a user said that it had helped them get legal formatting to appear correctly, so I tried it. Lesson learned.
My issue - and a reason I don't typically go to forums - is because I do not work on this stuff during what people would consider normal hours. I work full time and attend school full time so it is typically late nights and weekends when I run into problems. Please note what time this post was started and when I received a response. That downtime meant that I had to spend the time that was previously dedicated to completing the dissertation to troubleshooting software.

Your troubleshooting page is referred to frequently enough for my browser to consider it a favorite.

As someone who previously spent several years providing technical support to consumers, I disagree that it would be considered extremely high or bizarre to want support available when it is needed. If that support wasn't needed (meaning this wasn't a time critical situation), it wouldn't matter as much how long it took to respond.

I disagree that it would be considered extremely high or bizarre to want support available when it is needed. If that support wasn't needed (meaning this wasn't a time critical situation), it wouldn't matter as much how long it took to respond.

I see where you're coming from, and having robust support when needed is ideal. Yet, I must express my amazement at the expectations being set here. Considering it's the weekend, the response times we're seeing are quite remarkable, particularly when you factor in the competitors support hours and pricing structures. In the realm of tech support, the kind of round-the-clock, immediate assistance that seems to be expected here is typically a premium service — one that comes with a premium price tag to match, often affordable only by larger corporations. The developers are likely doing their best within the constraints they have.

For the future, a clear indication of the urgency in your discussion title could indeed assist in prioritizing issues. It's crucial to recognize that the efficiency of issue resolution also hinges on our own time management. Sometimes what might seem like slow response times could also be a reflection of one's planning—ensuring there's a buffer, particularly when finalizing documents or meeting deadlines, to mitigate any unforseen issues that may arise.

That said, managing expectations is a two-way street, and while customer support is crucial, a little patience can sometimes make all the difference, especially during weekends.

~ just another user