Initials appearing in in-text citation APA7

scarlet555 · September 2, 2024

I am a new user and encountered the following problem. When using the magic wand, to create a reference the intext citation appears correctly without initials (APA 7). If I manually populate a reference the initials appear in the in-text citation regardless of which spacing/punctuation conventions, I try.
What am I doing wrong?

damnation · September 2, 2024

See https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/given_name_disambiguation

scarlet555 · September 2, 2024

This occurs even if a unique surname or only 1 citation is used. No possibility of ambiguity or even relevance to deleted data etc. The only difference is in the creation of the reference whether it is manual or using the magic wand. Both methods correctly populate the reference list/bibliography but differentiate it in the in-text citation.

damnation · September 2, 2024

Can you take a screenshot of Word and Zotero side by side, that shows that entry in Zotero and how it appears?

I'm also not fully sure what you mean by "using the magic want to create a reference". The magic wand is used to input a source into your Zotero library using an ISBN or DOI etc.
In order to cite a source, you'd want to use the Zotero Word add-on using the "Add/edit citation" button.
See: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage

scarlet555 · September 2, 2024

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u14929888/sz5zssnx40b0w6yq9c5z.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u14929888/i45rccql95frggltfzdm.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u14929888/avxk6q6q3p0i9jg4evhz.png

scarlet555 · September 2, 2024

By referring to the magic wand I mean inputting a DOI or ISBN which then loads the data automatically. If I manually type in data the citation differs in-text. All the plugins are working fine.

tim820 · September 2, 2024

You have the surname and initial in the single author field. Click on the two boxes to switch to two fields.

scarlet555 · September 2, 2024

Thanks, everyone. That makes sense.....