editing a bibliography

Though this may be a dumb question, I haven't been able to find any information in faqs or forums. I am using zotero w/ Word, and I would like some general information about editing a bibliography. Here's what I've done:

1.) Composed my document, adding citations (MLA style) as I go.
2.) Hit the "create bibliography" button.
3.) Seen that the bibliography is not quite right. It's double-spaced, for example, and I want it to be single-spaced. It doesn't include a few references that I want to include. And some entries are not quite right.

SO: I hit the "edit bibliography" button, but then I'm stumped. It just gives me a list of all my references.

I tried to highlight a reference that I wanted to add to my document's bibliography, thinking that I could then hit the arrow button to add it to the bibliography, but nothing happened. I couldn't hit an arrow button.

I tried editing the bibliography right in the word document, but whenever I hit any zotero button, the bibliography refreshed to it's old (mistake-ridden) form--which is frustrating.

Can anyone point me to a basic, step-by-step, with web-shots if possible, instruction page on editing a bibliography in Word? This would be REALLY helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
Siobhan
  • edited September 15, 2010
    I tried to highlight a reference that I wanted to add to my document's bibliography, thinking that I could then hit the arrow button to add it to the bibliography, but nothing happened. I couldn't hit an arrow button.
    there is no good guide on this at the moment - but this should really work.
  • Thanks for your comment; if you have any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong here, I'd welcome the thoughts....
  • This currently isn't working quite right for me either.

    If you select an item that's not in the bibliography, you should be able to click the green arrow pointing to the right and it will be added.
    However - there is a) no way to see that it has b) no way to remove it later and c) no way to remove items of the bibliography at all.

    I'm pretty sure all of this used to work correctly at some point?
  • Using Firefox 3.6 and word 2008 for mac. I am using APA 6th style. Suddenly I can no longer edit my bibliography. I need to take out a reference and it just keeps going back on it's own. I have upgraded everything I saw on your homepage and restarted my computer. I tried a test document from scratch and still the same problem. The right side of the edit window is empty. I can add to my bibliography but I cannot remove. I have been given reference #1586422477.
  • It seems like this is a bug or a problem that needs to be addressed to someone at zotero? Do zotero programmers generally monitor these forum discussions for bugs, or should this be reported officially?
  • They do monitor it. Reporting it here is reporting it officially - though do have a look at the reporting bugs FAQ but I've reported what I suspect is the same bug here:

    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/14350/no-references-show-up-in-the-edit-bib-right-screen/#Item_1

    So the devs have got a report and debug id. Hopefully Dan or one of the other devs will open a ticket, if one hasn't been opened already but I've no idea if this is an easy or hard fix (I'd hope the former given that this was working just fine not that long ago - but it's a bit odd that there haven't been more people reporting this bug).
  • Just waiting quietly for the answer. This is critical for me I am in the middle of my candidacy paper.
  • why don't you finish your paper remove field codes and then edit the bibliography by hand?
  • Alternatively, you could install the Zotero 2.0 Branch XPI, where this is fixed.
  • Thanks Simon - do I need to install the Zotero branch, the word processor plug-in branch or both?
  • Just the Zotero branch should do.
  • Hmm, well no luck so far with ubuntu and openoffice, still getting exactly the same

    [JavaScript Error: "items is not defined" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/integration/editBibliographyDialog.js" line: 159}]

    that I was getting before zotero 2.0.7.r6781
    and nothing showing up in the right hand panel
  • Ah, Dan still needs to build the XPI. Should work in a few hours.
  • edited September 18, 2010
    Ah, have I jumped the gun here - the svn version is 6834 so is it fixed in that one? Don't really want to muck around with svn at the mo.

    [edit] no probs. Will try tomorrow. Off to pub now!
  • Now fixed in the branch XPI.
  • Oh thank you thank you thank you!!
  • Great stuff, thanks.
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