Quick Format Citation box appears behind LibreOffice window and unfocused

caviaporcellus
Using LibreOffice Writer the Zotero quick format citation bar/window opens behind the document window. It also does not have focus, so if you start typing to search for a citation, you just end up typing more text in the main Writer window.

Here's a screenshot of the issue using a fresh Kubuntu 24.04 USB image to make sure the problem isn't some weird configuration on my end:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u11997154/xtdho3i7h5mnnfit7euj.png

The "Zotero - Document Preferences" window also opens behind the Writer window, though that's not as big of a deal since that happens pretty much once per document, but probably stems from the same issue.

The first issue I can workaround using KDE's Window Rules to force the box to be above other windows, but that doesn't solve the lack of focus and the need to move the mouse and manually click the box with each and every citation.

I've experienced this issue with the new 7-series version of Zotero; version 6 (just tested 6.0.35) works fine and the quick citation box appears above the Writer window.

Zotero 7.0.2
LibreOffice 24.2.5.2
Kubuntu 24.04 (X11, not Wayland if it matters)
KDE Plasma 5.27.11

Report ID: 320651768
Debug ID: D381790518

Thanks!
  • caviaporcellus
    I've done some further testing and this does not just affect KDE desktops, but GNOME as well, so it's likely a bug affecting all Linux Zotero users.

    Tried out Zotero 7.0.2 on Ubuntu 24.04 and the same thing happens: the citation box appears behind other windows and unfocused. Not fun when you are adding many citations!

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u11997154/mhh2aw2vssjb374qzu0h.png
  • caviaporcellus
    And here's a link to a brief screencast to illustrate the problem: https://imgur.com/3Xe3LT9

    When you add a footnote and start typing you just add text to the main body of the document instead of searching for a citation.
  • berwynhoyt
    Yep. Definitely an issue for me on Gnome-based Cinnamon under Linux Mint. I'm somewhat tempted to switch back to Zotero 6. Nice screencast!

    There's also another problem with the citation box. When you type a document/author name into the citation searchbox, it comes up with a list of search results. In Zotero 6, when you pressed tab it would insert the top result, letting you then type the page number and press . In Zotero 7, tab does nothing.

    These two issues mean you've got to do a lot of mouse work whereas previously it was pure keyboard: Ctrl-Alt-n, , , .

    Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
  • berwynhoyt
    Re my previous post, I should also have mentioned my Report ID 841688953 and debug Debug ID D1749173547.
  • adomasven
    @berwynhoyt @caviaporcellus Does this happen with Wayland or only X11? Do you get a "Window is Ready" gnome notification? If you manually focus the window once, does it appear on top of LibreOffice subsequent times?
    There's also another problem with the citation box. When you type a document/author name into the citation searchbox, it comes up with a list of search results. In Zotero 6, when you pressed tab it would insert the top result, letting you then type the page number and press . In Zotero 7, tab does nothing.
    You can press Enter in Zotero 7. Zotero 7 has vastly improved citation dialog accessibility, but that means that Tab had to take on a more standard function of changing focused elements.
  • berwynhoyt
    @adomasven Good to know about replacing , thanks.

    Re your questions: 1) I do not use Wayland, so I'm not sure. 2) I wouldn't know where to look for a "Window is Ready" notification. 3) No, if I manually focus the window once, it's still unfocussed subsequent times.

    > Zotero 7 has vastly improved citation dialog accessibility

    Ahem. I haven't noticed any difference aside from this issue. Sorry! What specific improvements are you thinking of? If you want to improve it, one thing that would be really nice is after you've typed in author name, pressed , typed in the page number, then it would be nice to have a hotkey (say Ctrl+Space) to pull up the page number dialogue to either correct the page number or change it to a section number or something without taking your hands off the keyboard. I have to use section names/numbers constantly to cite pageless ebooks.
  • caviaporcellus
    @adomasven I use X11, that's were the issue occurs. Manually focusing the window once does not affect anything: it always appears below and unfocused.

    I did just test out a Plasma Wayland Session (I use the KDE desktop, but X11 by default), and in that case the citation window appeared as it should, above the LibreOffice window. So it seems to affect X11, not Wayland.

    I only tested the default Ubuntu Gnome desktop once, but in that screencast I made I can see the "Window is Ready" notification. It was using X11 by default I believe, and the citation bar always appeared under the window.
  • adomasven
    @berwynhoyt @caviaporcellus do you run a multi-screen setup? Does the behaviour change if you change which screen you put LibreOffice on?

    I haven't noticed any difference aside from this issue. Sorry! What specific improvements are you thinking of?
    The dialog is fully navigable using only keyboard. There was no screenreader support and now there is.
    If you want to improve it, one thing that would be really nice is after you've typed in author name, pressed , typed in the page number, then it would be nice to have a hotkey (say Ctrl+Space) to pull up the page number dialogue to either correct the page number or change it to a section number or something without taking your hands off the keyboard.
    You can do this by pressing Left Arrow -> Down Arrow. Press Tab and Shift-Tab to navigate the item properties popup.
  • berwynhoyt
    > You can do this by pressing Left Arrow -> Down Arrow. Press Tab and Shift-Tab to navigate the item properties popup.

    Oh, that's good! Thank you!

    In that case, we're back to just the initial issue reported here - in X11 alone.
  • adomasven
    Do you run a multi-screen setup? Does the behaviour change if you change which screen you put LibreOffice on?
  • berwynhoyt
    I do run a multi-screen set-up, but the behaviour does not change when I change which screen I put LibreOffice on. It makes no difference. The citation dialog always appears on my primary screen and never in focus. The current LibreOffice writer window is always on top.

    Furthermore, even if I switch off my second screen the behaviour still occurs in exactly the same way.
  • caviaporcellus
    @adomasven I use a laptop, which I use both alone or with an external monitor (generally with the laptop monitor off in the later case).

    It occurs as described when using either the laptop monitor or the external one, as well as when both are active. Although in the later case the issue is even worse, because as berwynhoyt noted the citation bar always appears on whichever is set as the primary screen even if I'm working with LibreOffice and the main Zotero windows on the secondary screen.
  • GabeSouza
    Is there any update on this issue? I use Libreoffice on both Windows 10 and Linux Mint and as of Dec 2024 this issue exists on both operating systems.
  • adomasven
    @GabeSouza The issue is OS and configuration dependent. Window focus management is heavily locked down by each OS and Zotero is limited in what it can do to improve it. However, you should try to disable any window management software if you have it installed, as well as any native features that allow pinning windows to stay on top. Restart your computer and try only opening Zotero and LibreOffice without any other applications. Avoid minimizing Zotero, instead switch the focus away directly into LibreOffice.
  • caviaporcellus
    @adomasven I retested Zotero 7 (7.0.11), still the same issue using a stock Ubuntu 24.04.1 image (the most well known and frequently used Linux distro?), as well as Kubuntu. No special window management software added, just stock images. Nothing else running except Zotero and LibreOffice.

    In Linux it seems to affect just about any distro, provided that you are using X11 (the default for many, and sometimes the only choice for a user depending on their hardware) not Wayland. Not sure about the issue @GabeSouza is having with Windows 10 though, I can't test that, but it doesn't surprise me that Linux Mint would function the same way.

    While, as you said, Zotero is limited in what it can do to fix this, on all the systems I've tested I also tried Zotero 6.0.35, and that still works just fine: the citation box pops up and is in focus with the cursor right in it. This problem is clearly a regression with the 7 series. Unfortunately I'm not a programmer so I don't know why this is the case.
  • adomasven
    @caviaporcellus I've create a ticket to track X11 issues. Zotero is based on Firefox and with Zotero 7 we've updated to Firefox 115 ESR base. Zotero inherits all its window management code from Firefox and as much of Linux is moving away from X11 and towards Wayland, so is Firefox. I didn't look for specific code changes in Firefox, but they've been putting a lot of work in into supporting Wayland better, which means that some X11 window management code may have been removed intentionally or broken accidentally. It could also be caused by some change by us, but that is very unlikely as we have very limited display server code in our codebase and we don't generally touch it. If it's an issue upstream in Firefox, given the limited size of our team, we cannot promise that we will be able to address this.
  • caviaporcellus
    @adomasven Understood, I appreciate your efforts looking into this (and somehow I didn't realize you had a bug tracker). Haven't had any issues with Firefox these days, but the kinds of popups like the quick format box aren't something I'd probably see. Hopefully if it's not your code then a relevant bug can be filed on the Firefox side.
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