Report ID: 1981607681

jbonnell
I'm in the final few days of revising my dissertation for submission Feb 8th (!) and I'm getting a persistent error message with Zotero, "error communicating with Zotero; check that firefox is open and try again." The error occurs only when I hit the "refresh" button in my zotero plugin menu in Word. ie, I can enter citations, but I can't update existing citations with changes I've made in my zotero database.
I've been through the suggested steps for resolving this issue and for debugging a broken document (I don't have the same problem in entering citations in a new document). When I saved a copy of the document and switched to a new bibliography style, I got the same error message. I'm working with a document template with pre-programmed style formats, should that have any bearing here.
I did try copying a chapter and pasting into a new document, and the problem did go away then. Trouble is, I lose all my formatting, so I'm reluctant to do this for the entire document. Hoping the error report I submitted contains some clues to resolving this.
  • jbonnell
    just to add to this, when I delete half the document, I no longer get the error message upon hitting the "refresh" icon in my plugin menu, and zotero appears to be refreshing the document, but when I go in to look at my citations (to see whether my database edits have come through), they haven't been updated.
  • dstillman
    Upgrading to 2.0 would probably fix this.

    Just keep a backup of your pre-upgrade document and data directory.
  • jbonnell
    I certainly plan to upgrade to 2.0, but as my deadline for the dissertation is Monday, I don't want to be dealing with any unforeseen problems last-minute. I'd appreciate any suggestions for ways I can work around the problem I'm having using 1.0.
  • ftr
    Try with another copy of your text, backup your zotero data and upgrade to 2.0. I think this is the only way.
    Now you have a known problem which you might solve in upgrading. You will not solve it in staying with version 1.0 .

    Your anxiety is completely understandable - I know the feeling - but here it is the developers who decided at your place.

    Good luck with solving your problem.

    - ftr
  • jbonnell
    ok, I took the plunge and upgraded to 2.0, and installed the python and macword plugins. problem. I've reopened my word document and hit the zotero refresh button, and I get the following error:

    "Zotero integration error. Zotero experienced an error updating your document."

    I'm frantic. Please help.
  • jbonnell
    just to add to this, I get the same message in trying to insert citations in a new document. one possible problem: when I went to install the macword plugin, it asked me to select the "word script menu" folder (usually located in documents/MS user data). I found the MS user data folder but could find nothing titled "word script folder" so i selected the MS user data folder instead. when I go to firefox tools/add-ons/Zotero macword integration, and click on "preferences" a pop-up window comes up which says "reinstall word components." I'm not sure if this is because they were installed incorrectly, or if this is just a default message.

    Finally, I've reviewed the forum threads on this issue but it wasn't clear from the thread whether or not the issue has been resolved..
  • dstillman
    I found the MS user data folder but could find nothing titled "word script folder" so i selected the MS user data folder instead.
    I'm not sure how the installation script handles this, but let's make sure you have everything in the right place. Open ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/. You should see a Word Script Menu Items folder and a Zotero folder within that containing various files. If that's not what you see—i.e., if you have a Zotero folder directly within Microsoft User Data—then adjust the folders so you have the above. Then restart Word.
    "Zotero integration error. Zotero experienced an error updating your document."
    Can you provide a Report ID after receiving this error?
  • jbonnell
    Zotero is currently sitting directly within the Microsoft User Data folder, as I could find no "word script menu" folder anywhere on my system (and not in the Microsoft user data folder). I checked to be sure I was working withing the administrator's documents folder.

    Report ID: 283322599
  • jbonnell
    I'm not sure if this is related, but I have more than one Microsoft User Data folder, one sitting directly in my (system administrator's) Users folder and one in Users/Documents. Neither have a word script menu folder within them.
  • dstillman
    Zotero is currently sitting directly within the Microsoft User Data folder, as I could find no "word script menu" folder anywhere on my system
    Yes, what I mean by "adjust" is to create the Word Script Menu Items folder within Microsoft User Data (the one in your home directory) and put Zotero inside it.
  • jbonnell
    ah, I understand. ok, done. same error occurring.
  • dstillman
    Does this still occur if you restart your computer and have only the one Word document open?
  • jbonnell
    yes, error still occurs after restarting; only the one doc open.
  • dstillman
    Do you get it in a new document?
  • dstillman
    edited February 2, 2010
    Wait, are you using Word 2004 or Word 2008? Do you have both installed?
  • jbonnell
    yes, also in a new doc. using Word X for Mac
  • dstillman
    Oh. Word X won't work with Zotero 2.0. The installation page, which lists only Word 2004 and 2008 as compatible with the Zotero 2.0 plugins, apparently claims that the Zotero 1.0 plugin works with Word X—I'm not sure how that got there—but I don't believe we ever even tested Zotero with Word X, so if it worked, that was sheer luck. Word X was released over nine years ago, in October 2000.

    I'm not sure what to tell you at this point. The error you're getting in 1.0 was fixed months ago in 2.0, and Zotero 1.0 hasn't been updated in a very long time. Your main options:

    1) Upgrade to Word 2004/2008.

    2) Reinstall Zotero 1.0, close Firefox and restore your Zotero 1.0 data directory, uninstall Zotero.dot from the Word X Startup folder (I don't know what the path is for Word X, but it'd be within /Applications/Microsoft...), reinstall the 1.0 plugin, and try more of the Debugging Broken Documents steps. If this problem only started occurring recently, it's possible you can identify a particular citation that triggers the error.

    3) Make the rest of your citation/bibliography edits manually (using Quick Copy to generate the citations and bibliographies if you want).

    Sorry—I certainly would've told you this if you mentioned you were using Word X, but I wasn't aware that the documentation even listed Word X as supported for 1.0.
  • jbonnell
    Thanks for this. Not sure how the Word issue slipped by me. I'll upgrade and hope that solves the problem.
  • jbonnell
    I decided to go with Open Office and have downloaded the appropriate plugin. One remaining problem with refreshing citations--I'll open a new thread on this if I can't find the solution in existing threads.
  • ftr
    Hi jbonnell, how did you dot the end of the story ?
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