The Bibliography Formatting Is Incorrect - It Uses The Documents "Normal" (Default) Style

AndrewJDebney
The following works in MS Word 365. I assume it will work for LibreOffice and Google Docs.

The formatting of the Bibliography entries is incorrect, or if it is initially correct if copy/paste is used, the formatting is made incorrect when it is Refreshed.

Refreshing the Bibliography makes the document use its default 'Style', likely "Normal".

The parameter ' font-style="Bibliography" ' needs to be added to the '<bibliography' line, forcing Bibliography entries added by Zotero to use the "Bibliography" style that came with the document processor.

In the same line, I also modified the parameter ' entry-spacing="0" ' to ' entry-spacing="1" ' so there is one blank line between Bibliography entries as my University requires.
  • AndrewJDebney
    I've just seen that MS Word has a style called 'Bibliography', but the style name in LibreOffice is called 'Bibliography 1'. Not helpful!

    I don't know if the font-style parameter can be set depending on the document processor being used using a macro. Zotero support, can you say if you can develop that?

    If not, LibreOffice users need to edit their csl style/s to have the style name as 'Bibliography 1', or they need to create a custom 'Bibliography' style.
  • adamsmith
    font-style="Bibliography" is not valid CSL and shouldn't be necessary. Zotero should set the style to "Bibliography" automatically and does for me.
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited November 27, 2023
    If the Word or LibreOffice style for the bibliography is not correct (is the same as the style for the body of your manuscript) you can change the bibliography style in your word processor. You, however, shouldn't need to do this. Did you, or someone else, already make changes to the word processor bibliography style?

    Zotero (CSL) styles should already automatically handle line spacing, indents, etc.
  • AndrewJDebney
    edited November 27, 2023
    I should have added I'm using the Chicago 17th style full note with Ibid, and Office 365. I tried this in LibreOffice Writer as well.

    I've thought more overnight and realised there are other paragraph formatting commands in the CSL style opening line of the Bibliography section. They are:
    hanging-indent="true"
    entry-spacing="0"
    I wonder if these might be contradicting format setting in the documents paragraph style within Word & Writer, especially if the paragraph style already contain different settings for them. For instance, we have to have a blank line between bibliography entries, but entry-spacing="0" contradicts that. A blank line setting would be entry-spacing="1".

    I've not looked at the Bibliography section formatting in other CSL styles to see what formatting commands they include. The full Chicago line is:

    <bibliography hanging-indent="true" et-al-min="11" et-al-use-first="7" subsequent-author-substitute="&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;" entry-spacing="0">

    I had previously created my own Bibliography style in my essay template without seeing one already existed in Word and modifying that to fit my College's specification. I'm only starting to use Zotero in my final undergrad year.

    I need to test this further tonight when I'm back from work to document what happens at each stage.
  • adamsmith
    Right, the formatting settings in the style (like line-spacing, entry-spacing, and hanging-indent) are getting applied and should, if everything is working correctly, override your own settings.
  • AndrewJDebney
    So, it does appear to be using the paragraph bibliography styles in Word & Writer. My initial issue is not an issue and can be ignored.

    What I did find was the indent and entry spacing parameters shown above do nothing. If you edit your Bibliography style (either Word & Writer) to have no indent and 20 or more Spacing 'After:', that is what you get. Refresh makes no difference. Even the font-style= parameter appears to be ignored as I set it to Normal and then Emphasis, but the Bibliography style was always Bibliography.

    Zotero Support - I think you should look to remove all Paragraph Styles format commands as they do not appear to be being used.


    However, I am finding that LibreOffice Writer has no leading space in the Footnote between the number and the citation when Word does. (I'm using the standard CSL Chicago style now.) Any idea why not?
  • adamsmith
    think you should look to remove all Paragraph Styles format commands as they do not appear to be being used.
    They're absolutely used -- you can toggle between some existing styles to see the various settings in action -- e.g. Chicago with entry-spacing="0", APA with line-spacing="2" (and entry-spacing="0"), Vancouver with entry-spacing="1" (the default), etc. What they don't do, I think, is to overwrite the bibliography style on Refresh, which seems like fine behavior to me. (You also seem to be misunderstanding font-style, which is for italic).
    However, I am finding that LibreOffice Writer has no leading space in the Footnote between the number and the citation when Word does. (I'm using the standard CSL Chicago style now.) Any idea why not?
    On the other hand, footnote formatting is left entirely to the word processor, so you're likely just seeing different defaults in the LO and Word default footnote styles. You can adjust that style as you prefer and Zotero won't touch it.
  • AndrewJDebney
    I wasn't clear enough. I'm not referring to choosing different citation styles in Zotero, I was referring to the bibliography paragraph style in Word & LibreOffice. If the bibliography paragraph style is changed to have no indenting and line spaces after it, when the bibliography is first inserted by Zotero, the indent and line space parameters in the Chicago 17th Style have no effect. The bibliography paragraph style formatting is unaffected by Zotero and remains as defined in the paragraph style.

    In case it makes a difference, I'm on Windows 10 and using the latest versions of Office 365 & LibreOffice 7.6.3.2.


    With LibreOffice, my college requires the first line indented when the original setting had the footnote without an indent and a 0.6 cm gap between the number and the text. As LibreOffice does not automatically have a single space following the number as Word does, this meant the text was directly after the footnote number. I've now found how to add a single space. Go to Tools - Footnotes and Endnotes - Footnotes. Add a space in the 'After' box.
  • adomasven
    When you choose a citation style from Zotero Document Preferences in either Word or LibreOffice, Zotero will change the Bibliography paragraph style of that document, and apply it to the bibliography after insertion. Zotero does not update the Bibliography style of the document later, when performing a Refresh or any other document operation, because the Bibliography style defined in the citation style never changes -- this is not a bug. If you are manually editing the citation style to change how the Bibliography appears, and want to see changes in your existing document, you will have to open the Document Preferences for that document, change the citation style to something else, and then back to the style you have modified. If the changes do not appear, you might need to restart Zotero after modifying the style. If they still do not appear, make sure you have modified the correct CSL file in your Zotero Data folder.

    Generally it would be best to save modified CSL files with a separate filename and ID.
  • AndrewJDebney
    Zotero does NOT change the paragraph style in Word or Writer when the bibliography is first inserted.

    The CSL style I'm using is the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (full note, with Ibid.). It is unchanged.

    I am only changing the Bibliography paragraph styles in Microsoft Word & LibreOffice Writer.

    I set the MS Word Bibliography and Writer Bibliography 1 styles to have no indenting and space after them. When I make Zotero insert the Bibliography details from scratch, the paragraph styles are NOT modified by the Zotero CSL style, they remain as I had set them with no indenting and space after the paragraph.
  • adamsmith
    I set the MS Word Bibliography and Writer Bibliography 1 styles to have no indenting and space after them. When I make Zotero insert the Bibliography details from scratch, the paragraph styles are NOT modified by the Zotero CSL style, they remain as I had set them with no indenting and space after the paragraph.
    If that's what you're seeing, it's not what's supposed to happen and it's not what I'm seeing in Word on Windows, nor what most people would be seeing on any word processor (as this has to work in order for Zotero to be able to effectively toggle between citation styles).

    We can try troubleshooting that, but I'm not sure if that's even of interest, i.e. if you're having any issues?

  • adomasven
    Zotero does NOT change the paragraph style in Word or Writer when the bibliography is first inserted.
    This is correct. Zotero sets the Bibliography style when you choose the citation style for the document, which is the first thing you do in a document before you can even insert a citation.
  • AndrewJDebney
    I have to apologise and say I was wrong. Zotero is doing what you said it would.

    The first time the bibliography is added to a document, Zotero modifies the bibliography paragraph style in Word & Writer to have a hanging indent and no space after the paragraph mark.

    After 30 years in IT, I should not have assumed the add/edit bibliography button would do a fresh insert every time it was re-used. I thought only the Refresh button would update the entries, but re-using the add/edit button acts as a refresh once it has been used once in a document.

    I had been completely deleting all the entries and then re-adding them, assuming that would be a first-time insert each time. However, as that was always after the first insert, it was being treated as a subsequent refresh and not updating the bibliography paragraph style as it does the first time.
Sign In or Register to comment.