Hello Zotero People!

I just installed Zotero today and after watching a number of the tutorials on the webpage, I decided to convert my thesis over from EndNote's referencing system. I like a number of the features that Zotero has to offer. I have however found a few problems with the IEEE referencing system and a couple minor bugs. I really like what Zotero has done so I offer this as constructive criticism and not as a grumpy nitpicky user hahaha I will be continuing to use Zotero! :)

To start, I am running Windows Vista x64 with FireFox version 3 release candidate 2. I installed version 1.0.4 of Zotero and I have the Word add-in version 1.0b3 running with MS Office 2007. I’ll list the few problems I found with the IEEE style followed by a few things I found with Zotero.

1. The in text citations should have a space after the comma when listing more than one citation. Eg. Zotero produces --> [1,5,10] when it should be [1, 5, 10]

2. When I add multiple sources for one citing instance, ie. [1, 5, 10], Zotero seems to sort the references depending on the article title. I think they should be sorted using the first author’s last name instead. Also, during this sorting process, Zotero does not check to see if one of those references has been cited earlier in the text and sort the multiple source citing correctly. What happens is that the entire citing is sorted purely on the article title so I end up with a citing that looks like this [5,10,1] because the article title for source [1] starts with a 'W' and the titles for the sources [5] and [10] start with 'A' and 'C' respectively. I did find a workaround for this though. What I have been doing is un-checking the “Keep sources sorted” button (after I click on the “Zotero Insert Citation” button) to cite the articles in the order that I add them to the right side of the citation pane. I just have to make sure I add my articles in the correct order to get the numbering to work out properly.

3. On the same note, it would be nice to have that “Keep sources sorted” button remember what state it was in the last time I entered a reference. Each time I entered a multiple source citation, I had to uncheck that box.

4. Once Zotero makes the list of references or bibliography, the indents are a little off for the first 9 references. References 1 – 9 require an extra space to line up the first line of the source with the remainder of the lines. Hahaha doesn’t sound like that makes much sense, I’ll try to illustrate this below.

[9] P. Au, “A Heat Treatment Procedure to Produce Fine-Grained Lamellar
Microstructures in a P/M Titanium Aluminide Alloy,” 1997.

[10] M. Beschliesser et al., “Designed Fully Lamellar Microstructures in a
Gamma-TiAl Based Alloy: Adjustment and Microstructural Changes Upon
Long-Term Isothermal Exposure at 700 and 800 C,” Materials Science and
Engineering A, 2002, pp. 124-129.

The easiest way to explain it I guess is that source [9] just needs an extra space before the authors name so that the first line will line up vertically with the edge of the following lines. It seems to be fine for all the other sources with two digits. I have not however checked what happens once you reach 100 references. Again this problem is easily fixed by adjusting the indent in Word but I have to change it each time the list of references is regenerated.

Thats it for any of the minor problems with the IEEE style. I have found a couple suggestions for Zotero itself that I will list off.

1. When I click the “Zotero Insert Citation” button, the window that pops up is not resizable or moveable. It would be fantastic to be able to resize this window manually as well as move it out of the way of where you are currently working. I found that I could click and drag the window to a new location but the window wouldn’t actually move until I closed it and clicked on the “Zotero Insert Citation” button again. Kind of strange haha

2. A preview pane in the window that pops up after clicking on the “Zotero Insert Citation” button would be nice. The preview pane could show what the formatted citation would look like in the bibliography, this way you could tweak the formatting before entering it into the document. I found it was a little tedious to have to regenerate the entire list of references just to see what effect a small change I have made in 1 reference will do.

3. A button to insert the last citation used would also be handy. Sometime I cite the same source in a couple of instances and it would be nice to just click an “insert last” button or something instead of having to open the main window again.

I have one more random bug. I am not sure if it’s from Word or Zotero but I’ll mention it anyway. I have a few citations in the caption of different figures. The formatting is slightly different from my main text, the font size is 11 pt. and bold compared to my main text which is font size 12 pt. and not bold. Each time I refresh the bibliography, Zotero changes my citation to 12 pt. font instead of leaving it at 11 pt. For some reason it only does it on my first in caption citation though. The rest all seem to remain at 11 pt. font.

That wraps up all my comments. Thanks for listening and keep up the good work on Zotero! I think all the features this program has rivals EndNote in most, if not all its aspects.