This is a general issue with Word for Mac unfortunately. After restarting Zotero, when you cite in a new document for the first time with "automatically update citations" disabled, the initial cite will take a while, but subsequent ones should be relatively fast until you restart Zotero, certainly within seconds, not minutes, for that particular document.

You could submit a Debug ID from Zotero for an attempt to insert a citation after an initial insert, and we can take a look.

Otherwise, the standard suggestion is to split your document into multiple documents by chapter and work on them individually, and then recombine them in the end, or work on a Windows machine if possible.

I can see that the actual operation here took 3 minutes. You have nearly 1000 citations, so this isn't something unexpected. Based on this Debug ID however it doesn't look like you have automatic citation updates disabled. You should double-check in Zotero Document Preferences and make sure it's disabled, which should speed this up.

Otherwise, the recommendation to split the document chapter-wise is probably the best option to improve speed.

Automatic citation updates definitely disabled (see ss). Have just done it again with this double-checked - definitely off - it took 1m55 seconds to insert one citation. See D132745974.

Hmm, Zotero seems to act as if Automatically update citations is enabled here. We'll see if there's a bug in Zotero and whether we can fix it. In the meantime:

Given that academic dissertations often have over 1000 references, this is really poor

In our experience helping Zotero users very few actually write papers with over 1000 references, and all such documents are on the extreme end. Still, we try our best to support such documents as they are often those that benefit the most from a citation manager.

I already split the document chapter wise but at some point I have to combine them and carry on working. Are there any other suggestions you have apart from what you've already said? Is it a known Mac for Word issue? If so, does Google doc fare better with Mac?

The idea is that you should combine your chapters only before submission, and only then run a few slow Zotero operations. I understand, that this is not always entirely feasible, but we're unfortunately at technical limits of Mac for Word on this. We're working on Microsoft for a much faster Word integration, but we're currently stuck waiting for changes on their end.

LibreOffice and Word for Windows both are very fast and stable. Mac for Word becomes slow with many citations, and even more so when they are footnote citations. Google Docs becomes as the size of the document increases, where we don't recommend it for documents that are longer than 100 pages.

Thanks. It is a specific style written by a tutor atthe Uni that we are instructed to import and use within Zotero.

I was about to ask whether using something like MHRA (4th ed) would improve the reaction time, and then I thought I should just try it. I did. And it inserted it immediately. D334900982

So it seems that all along it has been the specific citation style that does not like Word for Mac (fellow students using Word for Windows had no issues). I am going to move to MHRA and see how I get on. Thanks for your help with this.

not sure how to link to a style. here is a ss.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u13832981/ml15paytvnykhkv9yr82.png

@damsandell I thought I had a breakthrough this week by changing the referencing style, but unfortunately not. Back to two minutes to insert one citation. I was wasting two hours per day just waiting for Zotero to enter referencing. And if I tried a refresh at the end of the day it would take 6-7 minutes. Like you said, too buggy and slow to be of any use whatsoever. I found out that it’s the way that MacOS operates with Zotero. It scans every single option, which Libre and Word for Windows does not do. I was told by helpdesk here that almost 1000 references is too many - but all of my course have that sort of number due to the nature of our course. But Mac for Word and lots of references with Zotero is appallingly bad.

@adamsandell I have been experimenting using the same dissertation that Zotero and word for Mac refused to co-operate with.

I downloaded Libreoffice which is one of the two systems that does not work in the same way as MacOS Word does. But I hated the look. So clunky and outdated even when I changed the view options.

Then I tried it with Google docs. It inserted the reference within seconds. No issues at all. I know the Zotero helpdesk did not mention it to me as a recommended option, it works on a 200 page dissertation with multiple images, tables and 1000 references already in place. So try experimenting with that and upload something and then embed Zotero and save as Google doc. This also has the advantage of never having to press “save” before every single Zotero insertion in case it makes Word crash again.

I also experimented with a different referencing software and did find some improvement with MHRA compared to the bespoke one that our Uni course suggested we use.

So worth some experimenting - but do a back up first!

@adamsandell Please create a new thread and describe your problem precisely. What you are describing isn't normal or expected Zotero behaviour. See Reporting Problems.

@NicolaJohnson We strongly advise against working on documents longer than 100 pages with Google Docs. Due to difficult to explain technical issues with Google Docs that are outside of our control, citing there may become extremely slow (much slower than on Mac for Word) at any time, and there will not be any way to speed it up again.

If citing is slow with MHRA in Word even with automatic citation updates disabled for all subequent cites, then it's a bug in Zotero and we will fix it if you send the document to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread. Otherwise, the recommendation is to either use LibreOffice, Word for Windows or split the document chapter-wise. We strongly don't recommend using Google Docs.