Word to Scrivener Conversion using Scannable Citation

Jasper Bernes
I'm thinking of moving a very large project with Zotero citations out of Word and into Scrivener. I understand how the "scannable citation" output format and RTF/ODF scan works. I am wondering, however, if it's possible to reverse the process. Can I convert the citations in my Word document to "scannable citation" form, before pasting the document into Scrivener? This would save me from having to change every citation manually (which probably would not be worth it). Is there a workaround?
  • adamsmith
    you can't, but there is a workaround:

    Set the reference format in Word to "Bookmarks" under "Set Document Preferences" in the Zotero add-on. Your citation style cannot use footnotes (you'll be able to change this back later if need be).

    Open the file in LibreOffice and change the format to reference marks (again under "Set Doc Prefs). Save the file as .odt.
    Now you can run reverse ODF scan - i.e. "to markers". That will convert all citations to scannable citations. You can now open and work with the file in scrivener.
  • smokhtari
    Can you give specific instructions to someone just trying to figure all of this with limited tech skills for how to "run reverse ODF Scan"? Would be much appreciated.
  • adamsmith
    Could you confirm what exactly you're after with some more details?
  • smokhtari
    Yes, I am trying to import research I have been doing on word with zotero citation management to scrivener which I want to begin using. I have followed all other steps you laid out above. I now have a libreoffice .odt file, but have no idea what to do next. I have also downloaded the rtf/odf scan to zotero add-on and followed the instructions to add it to the zotero standalone. Beyond that, I am stuck.
  • hugh1li
    @adamsmith I followed your workaround. But when I change the format to reference marks. These errors pop up. Could you help me with that? Thanks!

    Zotero experienced an error updating your document.

    An error occurred communicating with Zotero:
    java.lang.Exception: Invalid field type Field
    at org.zotero.integration.ooo.comp.Document.insertMarkAtRange(Document.java:575)
    at org.zotero.integration.ooo.comp.Document.convert(Document.java:472)
    at org.zotero.integration.ooo.comp.CommMessage.execute(CommMessage.java:153)
    at org.zotero.integration.ooo.comp.CommMessage.getBytes(CommMessage.java:61)
    at org.zotero.integration.ooo.comp.CommServer.run(CommServer.java:84)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
  • adamsmith
    Could you run through exactly what you did in which order?
  • hugh1li
    edited June 13, 2018
    @adamsmith Thanks for the swift response. So I have my word file with standard zotero citations (format: "fields").

    I first set reference format in word to be "bookmarks". Then I open the file in LibreOffice, and change reference format to be "fields" again (I did not see the reference marks initially). That's when the error pop up. This is my fault! Sorry.

    I looked at the post again. And instead of changing format to "fields", I just save the file to be ODT. Then run the RTF scan to markers. Now when I open the markers transformed ODT file, I can see the format to be "reference markers". I did not see a trace of scannable citations. I try to refresh the marker ODT file in LibreOffice, or copy and paste them into Scrivener, but no success seeing something like { | Fang, et al., 2017 | | |zu:1902414:Q8SAUBP5}. Hope I explain them clearly. Thanks for the help.
  • JD867
    Hi adamsmith, I'm following these instructions to convert a large mansucript with a lot of footnotes from Scrivener into Word. You said in an earlier post here that the citation style can't use footnotes, but that this can be changed back later on. Can you confirm that or elaborate on it a little bit?

    What I think that means is that - say I'm using Chicago style footnotes, and I convert to Chicago author-date in order to export it to Scrivener... when I export it again from Scrivener to Word, my references will be in author-date, but I can convert them again once in Word to footnotes.

    Is that right?

    Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    You actually can just use https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/moving_documents_between_word_processors#word_and_libreoffice instead of Bookmarks now, and the limitation for footnotes doesn't apply there.
  • JD867
    Thank you! That's so helpful.
  • acunniff
    Hello! Thank you so much for this workaround, it saved me so much time. I encountered a small hiccup right at the end with my scannable citations, which are now doubled.

    I was able to set the reference format in Word to "Bookmarks" using in-text citations and saved it as .docx. I then opened the file in LibreOffice and changed the citation setting to reference marks and saved it as .odt. In both of these versions, my citations looked normal.

    I then did the reverse ODF scan "to markers" and it inserted scannable citations but they are doubled for any citations with two works, tripled for citations with three works.

    I did the regular ODF scan "to citations" with this file to see if the doubling goes away but sure enough it now looks like (Blue, 2012; Hernandez, 2017); (Blue, 2012; Hernandez, 2017) and (Berger, 2014; Cummins, 1994; Felber, 2020); (Berger, 2014; Cummins, 1994; Felber, 2020); (Berger, 2014; Cummins, 1994; Felber, 2020).

    I'm wondering if this has something to do with the fact that the word document reference settings were originally in SAGE Harvard which might have fused the citations.

    Is there anything that I try do to stop the doubling and tripling citations in the reverse ODF scan?

    Thanks so much for your time and help, I have been able to do so much conversion with my academic documents thanks to all your posts on this forum.
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