II have extensively modified the macro to link (in most cases) directly to the cited reference in the bibliography list. The macros should work for both numbered and author date citations. However, there are some styles were they do not work (i.e., styles that put lines in between the references).

Sub linkNumberedReferences
insertZoteroBookmarks(TRUE)
refSearchnumbered("([1-9][0-9][0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9])")
End Sub

Sub refSearchnumbered(sSearchString)
oDoc = ThisComponent
oCursor = oDoc.Text.createTextCursor
oSearch = oDoc.createSearchDescriptor
oSearch.SearchRegularExpression = True
oSearch.SearchString = sSearchString
oFound = oDoc.findFirst(oSearch)
While Not IsNull(oFound)
oCursor = oFound.Text.createTextCursorByRange(oFound)
if isObject(oCursor.Start.ReferenceMark) Then
bm = "#_Ref_" & oCursor.String
oCursor.HyperLinkURL = bm
End If
oFound = oDoc.findNext(oFound, oSearch)
Wend
End Sub

Sub linkAuthorDateReferences
insertZoteroBookmarks(FALSE)
refSearch("\p{Lu}[\p{Lu}\p{Ll}'-]*( et al.)(,?) [0-9]{4}")
refSearch("(\p{Lu}[\p{Lu}\p{Ll}'-]* and )?(\p{Lu}[\p{Lu}\p{Ll}'-]*)(,?) [0-9]{4}")
refSearch("(\p{Lu}[\p{Lu}\p{Ll}'-]*, \p{Lu}[\p{Lu}\p{Ll}'-]*, and \p{Lu}[\p{Lu}\p{Ll}'-]*)(,?) [0-9]{4}")
End Sub

Sub refSearch(sSearchString)
oDoc = ThisComponent
oCursor = oDoc.Text.createTextCursor
oSearch = oDoc.createSearchDescriptor
oSearch.SearchRegularExpression = True
oSearch.SearchString = sSearchString
oFound = oDoc.findFirst(oSearch)
While Not IsNull(oFound)
oCursor = oFound.Text.createTextCursorByRange(oFound)
if isObject(oCursor.Start.ReferenceMark) Then
bm = "#_Ref_" & findFirstWord (oCursor.string)
oCursor.HyperLinkURL = bm
End If
oFound = oDoc.findNext(oFound, oSearch)
Wend
End Sub

Function findFirstWord (oString)
oReturnString = Split (oString, " ")
findFirstWord = Replace (oReturnString(0), ",", "")
End Function

Function Replace(Source As String, Search As String, NewPart As String)
Dim Result As String
Result = join(split(Source, Search), NewPart)
Replace = Trim(Result)
End Function

Sub insertZoteroBookmarks(bNumbered As boolean)
deleteRefBookmarks
Dim vSections
Dim sEventNames 'Array of event types
Dim sNames
oDoc = ThisComponent
oCursor = oDoc.Text.createTextCursor
vSections = ThisComponent.TextSections()
sEventNames = vSections.getElementNames()
For Each sEventName In sEventNames
If instr (sEventName, "ZOTERO") Then
oSection = oDoc.getTextSections().getByName(sEventName)
oSectionAnchor = oSection.getAnchor
oViewCursor = oDoc.CurrentController.getViewCursor()
oViewCursor.gotoRange(oSectionAnchor, false)
oSelection = oDoc.getCurrentSelection (oViewCursor)
oSel = oSelection.getbyIndex(0)
iCount=0
oPE= oSel.createEnumeration()
Do While oPE.hasMoreElements()
oPar = oPE.nextElement()
If oPar.supportsService("com.sun.star.text.Paragraph") Then
oSecEnum = oPar.createEnumeration()
Do While oSecEnum.hasMoreElements()
oParSection = oSecEnum.nextElement()
If oParSection.TextPortionType = "Text" Then
bm = ThisComponent.createInstance("com.sun.star.text.Bookmark")
oCurs = oParSection.getText().createTextCursorByRange(oParSection)
If bNumbered Then
iCount = iCount +1
bm.Name = "_Ref_" & iCount
Else
bm.Name = "_Ref_" & findFirstWord (oCurs.string)
End if
oDoc.Text.insertTextContent(oCurs, bm, True)
End If
Loop
End If
Loop
End If
Next
End Sub


Sub deleteRefBookmarks
Dim i As Integer, oBookmarks, sBookMarkNames()
If HasUnoInterfaces( ThisComponent, "com.sun.star.text.XBookmarksSupplier" ) Then
oBookmarks = ThisComponent.getBookmarks()
sBookMarkNames = oBookmarks.getElementNames()
For i = 0 To Ubound( sBookMarkNames )
If instr(sBookMarkNames(i), "_Ref_") Then
oBookmarks.getByName( sBookMarkNames( i ) ).dispose()
End if
Next
End If
End Sub

Hi,

as I am not familiar with LO Basic nor with Macros at all, it took me some time to get the things working. Let me drop here some comments for potential other „noobs“:

-citations in the document have to be as ReferenceMarks (option under „Set Document Preferences“ button: „ReferenceMarks“/„Bookmarks“)

-Out of all the „routines“/„Subs“ that appear in the list of macros, run only one: „linkNumberedReferences“ or „linkAuthorDateReferences“, based on the actual citation style used in Your document (other „Subs“ are helping functions for organizing the source code)

-After Macro is run, the numbers marking the references in text (e.g. [27]) should get underlined to symbolise that they became hyperlinks. But I observed also that nothing visible happened which is some bug of my LO distribution (6.2.8.2. x64). Try to export PDF to see, whether the references in text changed into clickable hyperlinks

-The references does not become clickable hyperlinks in your ODT, it works only in exported PDF (when you hover your mouse over the reference in our ODT, you still can see the „ZOTERO“ system ToolTipText)

-You don't do the Unlink Citations as it would break also the result of the Macro

Finally, many thanks to the author of this macro!

You mentioned that the reference numbers do not get underlined. This is true, they should change colour to blue to show that they can be selected. I have not made a change as underlining can look a bit messy. However, the change can be made in: "def modifyStyle" by changing 0 to 1 in this line e.g. oStyle.setPropertyValue("CharUnderline", 1)
Also, you should be able to use the hyperlinks in libreoffice. You may need to press ctrl at the same time as the mouse button, depends on your setting.

E.g. https://youtu.be/3Ef_ordyWQs

Thanks for the great work, gwyn-hopkins! This feature should really be part of Zotero itself.

Because the video was not useful at all, here is how install this macro (LibreOffice version 7.3):

1. On Ubuntu, an extra package should be installed to manage Python macros:
sudo apt install libreoffice-script-provider-python

This will create the menu entry "Python" under "Tools > Macros > Manage Macros"

2. Copy the script into $HOME/.config/libreoffice/4/user/Scripts/python/. For other OS, see here: https://help.libreoffice.org/7.3/en-US/text/sbasic/python/python_locations.html

Now the script shows up in "run macro" window in "My macros".


Some comments on the code: the function 'ModStyles' to update character formatting of category "Internet Link" failed, because my interface is in French so I think it should be "Lien Internet". Anyway I removed this function call and edited this style in the normal LibreOffice interface.
It would be better to use a new specific style for bibliography links, because we want to style them separately from actual internet links.

Thank you. Yes you have permission to upload to github.

I did rewrite to automatically detect numbered or author-date references. I am including it here with your update.
I also wrote something similar for word (https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/86621/linking-citation-to-bibliography#latest) - please note the additional routine I managed to miss off the code I presented in the last comment.


import uno
import re
import json
from json import loads as to_dict

# alter this for citations divided by comma
semicolon = re.compile(r"\d\w?;")
comma = re.compile(r"\d\w?,")
colon = re.compile(r"\d\w?:")

document = XSCRIPTCONTEXT.getDocument()


def modifyStyle(cStyleName, cStyleFamily, oFont, oSize, oColor):
oStyleFamily = document.getStyleFamilies().getByName(cStyleFamily)
oStyle = oStyleFamily.getByName(cStyleName)
oStyle.setPropertyValue("CharFontName", oFont)
oStyle.setPropertyValue("CharColor", oColor)
oStyle.setPropertyValue("CharHeight", oSize)
oStyle.setPropertyValue("CharUnderline", 0)
oStyle.setPropertyValue("CharNoHyphenation", True)


def modStyles():
modifyStyle("Internet Link", "CharacterStyles", "Times New Roman", 12, 0x0000FF)
modifyStyle("Visited Internet Link", "CharacterStyles", "Times New Roman", 12, 0x0000FF)


def deleteRefBookmarks():
bookmarks = document.getBookmarks()
bmList = []
for bookmark in bookmarks:
if "Ref_" in bookmark.Name:
bmList.append(bookmark.Name)
for bm in bmList:
bookmarks.getByName(bm).dispose()


def insertZoteroBookmarks(bNumbered):
deleteRefBookmarks()
vSections = document.getTextSections()
sEventNames = vSections.getElementNames()
for sEventName in sEventNames:
if "ZOTERO" in sEventName:
oSection = document.getTextSections().getByName(sEventName)
oSectionTextRange = oSection.getAnchor()
oPE = oSectionTextRange.createEnumeration()
iCount = 0
while oPE.hasMoreElements():
oPar = oPE.nextElement()
if oPar.supportsService("com.sun.star.text.Paragraph"):
iCount = iCount + 1
bm = document.createInstance("com.sun.star.text.Bookmark")
oCurs = oPar.getText().createTextCursorByRange(oPar)
if bNumbered:
bm.Name = "Ref_" + str(iCount)
else:
bm.Name = "Ref_" + findFirstWord(oCurs.getString()) + "_" + literatureDate(oCurs.getString())
if not document.getBookmarks().hasByName(bm.Name):
document.Text.insertTextContent(oCurs, bm, True)


def findFirstWord(oString):
# finds first capitilzed name! updated 2021-09-24
notFound = True
while notFound:
(firstWord, nextString) = oString.split(maxsplit=1)
if firstWord[0].isupper():
notFound = False
else:
oString = nextString
return firstWord.rstrip(",")


def literatureDate(oString):
year = re.search(r'((19|2[0-9])\d{2}[a-z]?)', oString).group(1)
# year numbers from 1900 to 2999 and optional a-z
return year


def linkReferences():
modStyles()
search_descriptor = document.createSearchDescriptor()
search_descriptor.SearchRegularExpression = True
text_cursor = document.getText().createTextCursor()
reference_marks = document.ReferenceMarks
for reference_mark in reference_marks:
reference_mark_content = reference_mark.Name
reference_mark_content, _ = reference_mark_content.rsplit(" ", 1)
_, _, reference_mark_data = reference_mark_content.split(" ", 2)

# data_dictionary = to_dict(reference_mark_data)
data_dictionary = json.loads(reference_mark_data, strict=False)

plain_cite = data_dictionary["properties"]["plainCitation"]
plain_cite = plain_cite.replace("(", "").replace(")", "").replace("-", ",").replace("–", ",")

if plain_cite[0] in "0123456789":
insertZoteroBookmarks(True)
plain_cite = plain_cite.replace("-", ",").replace("–", ",")
numbers = list(plain_cite.split(","))

for number in numbers:
text_cursor = reference_mark.getAnchor()
text_cursor_start = text_cursor.getStart()
search_descriptor.SearchString = number
found_range = document.findNext(text_cursor_start, search_descriptor)
text_cursor_by_range = found_range.Text.createTextCursorByRange(found_range)
text_cursor_by_range.HyperLinkURL = "#Ref_" + number
else:
insertZoteroBookmarks(False)

if semicolon.search(plain_cite):
names = list(plain_cite.split(";"))
elif comma.search(plain_cite):
names = list(plain_cite.split(","))
elif colon.search(plain_cite):
names = list(plain_cite.split(":"))
else:
names = [plain_cite]

for citation_items in data_dictionary["citationItems"]:

if "itemData" in citation_items.keys():
item_data = citation_items["itemData"]

author = item_data["author"][0]["family"]
date_year = item_data["issued"]["date-parts"][0][0]

citation = list(filter(lambda x: author in x, names))
citation_year_duplicates = [c for c in citation if (date_year in c)]

text_cursor = reference_mark.getAnchor()
text_cursor_start = text_cursor.getStart()

found = False
for cite in citation_year_duplicates:
search_descriptor.SearchString = cite
found_range = document.findNext(text_cursor_start, search_descriptor)
if found_range.HyperLinkURL == "":
found = True
if found_range.String[-1].isalpha():
date_year = date_year + found_range.String[-1]
break
else:
text_cursor_start = found_range.getEnd()

if found is False:
break

text_cursor_by_range = found_range.Text.createTextCursorByRange(found_range)
text_cursor_by_range.HyperLinkURL = "#Ref_" + author + "_" + date_year



g_exportedScripts = linkReferences,



For pre and post suffixes try adding after "found = false":

if not citation_year_duplicates:
citation_year_duplicates = [plain_cite]

However, this does add them to the hyperlink.