Zotero doesn't work in a long word document

paulinalehmkuhl
Dear Zotero team,

I am working on a PhD thesis and have a very long Word Mac document with multiple Zotero sources (and cross references). As of today, I suddenly cannot insert any sources. I do not get any error messages: whenever I try to link a source, the software and Word freeze. I have read all the threads on the topic and here is what I tried until now:
- restart the software and the PC
-Update MacOS
-Zotero and Word were both up to date. I tried installing an older Word version where the issues were not there - unsuccessful
- Using a back up of the now corrupted file - no change
- Zotero WORKS in a new word document. It seems the old document is too complex for Zotero. I tried your troubleshooting for corrupted documents- no change. Reinstallling the toolbar makes no sense, based on the advice online.

Zotero was taking forever to insert citations already when the document was 200 pages long (now it is double the length). It offered inserting offline (I hope this is the right term) citations, which are underscored. None of the Zotero toolbar buttons lead to any action (settings, unlink citations....). Should I reinstall Zotero? Based on your advice online, it seems that it will not make any difference.

I was hopeless and thought about using a separate WORD document for new references that I am going to add and manually (...) updating the list of sources at the end. However, I CANNOT create a list of sources from my main document anyhow! I am afraid all my work with sources is lost. How do I save it? How do I create a table of content if Zotero is not responsive? Everything crashes constantly...Please send help...
  • paulinalehmkuhl
    ... pasting the main document into a new document did not help either. It seems the complexity of the document crushes Zotero. What to do?
  • aborel
    Zotero and Word on a Mac are known to be the slowest possible combination of platform and word processor, unfortunately. This means that updating a long document can take minutes, even hours. The Zotero developers are in contact with Microsoft about this, apparently the discussion is productive, but there is no information yet about a possible timeline for a solution.

    You can disable automatic formatting of the bibliography while you are working, it should help https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/citations_slow
  • paulinalehmkuhl
    Hey Aborel, many thanks for your prompt reply. I am already working with disabled automatic formatting, otherwise it was impossible to write. Given the length of the document, right now it is impossible to paste in a reference even with disabled automatic formatting. I ran further tests and they confirm your suspicion – if I only copy 10-20 pages of the main document into another word document, everything runs smoothly. I can refresh the inactive citations and create bibliography. How can I keep writing and working in the main document if the issue is the length and the automatic updating is already disabled? I was almost hoping for a corrupted citation that crushes the program. It does not seem to be an issue though? Many thanks!!!
  • adomasven
    You should allow Zotero more time to work on your document. You can open the Debug Output (Help -> Debug Output Logging -> View Output). You will see lines regarding document processing being logged, which means that Zotero is working on your document.
  • paulinalehmkuhl
    edited August 5, 2024
    Thank you. It unfortunately takes more than 5 min per citation, if Zotero doesn't crash. What a pity, it makes work impossible. Would the following solution work? I use a separate empty document for pasting in references, which I then copy-paste into the main document. Once I create the bibliography in the main document, will the copy-pasted reference be recognised effortlessly by the software? For this step, I can install Zotero on a windows computer and create the bibliography there, as it seems to never work on mac. Thank you!
  • tim820
    edited August 6, 2024
    Using unformatted citations might also be an option for you if other options are impractical. It avoids the need to use the word processor plugin. You can either just type in the plain text citations in curly brackets, or use Quick Copy. You save the penultimate file to RTF format (or work in that format all along), and then save the final formatted version (after processing within Zotero) to docx at the end if you need it.
    https://www.zotero.org/support/rtf_scan
  • adomasven
    Would the following solution work? I use a separate empty document for pasting in references, which I then copy-paste into the main document. Once I create the bibliography in the main document, will the copy-pasted reference be recognised effortlessly by the software? For this step, I can install Zotero on a windows computer and create the bibliography there, as it seems to never work on mac.
    This will work.
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