Serious problem with RTF Scan, Zotero 2.1.1 Mac OS X 10.6.6

s.g.tan
Hello,

I just upgraded my Zotero to 2.1.1 on my Mac OS X. I tried out RTF Scan right away, since I am writing an M.A. Thesis in Scrivener. The thesis (due in three weeks!) contains several hundred citations which I need to footnote using the Turabian citation format. Imagine my horror when the RTF Scan failed to work properly. Instead of inserting the citations in footnotes, it inserted them directly into the text. I tried Chicago style to see if this was just a problem with Turabian. No luck. Then I installed the standalone application and tried it. Same problem.

Fortunately, I was able to restore my old Zotero database using Time Machine and downgraded my Zotero back down to 2.0.9. I ran RTF Scan again on the exact same source file using Zotero 2.0.9, and it came out perfectly, with the citations correctly placed in appropriate footnotes.

For the moment, I will continue using 2.0.9, and I do not plan on upgrading until after I submit my thesis, just to be sure. It is a shame that RTF Scan does not work properly. I hope that you are able to fix it as soon as possible so that those of us who use Scrivener and other non-Word/Open-Libre-NeoOffice apps can upgrade our Zotero as well.

Stan
  • fbennett
    Yes, major software upgrades in the midst of a major project (upgrades of any software, not only Zotero) can be risky. Sticking with the environment that you entered the project with is a sound policy, and it's good to hear that you've been able to dial back successfully.
  • samuelas
    s.g. tan--Zotero developers have indicated that RTF scan is not a feature that is likely to receive much of their attention. Just search the fora for "RTF scan" and you will probably see more of the kinds of responses that would indicate its relatively low level of importance (e.g. ' sorry to hear it doesn't work as expected... but don't count on it anytime soon', or something like 'learn how to code and do it yourself'). I suspect they got it working 'good enough' and ran up against the law of diminished returns. This feature, I gather, is difficult to implement well and their attention and reduced resources are directed towards other areas (for example, supporting citation plugins for more widely-used word processors).

    With an MA thesis, I agree, in theory, with fbennett's very sensible suggestion not to upgrade so close to the turn-in date. However, many scholars working with Zotero are, as is my case, working on longer term project (a doctoral thesis, already years in the making, which I am turning into a book... things like that), in which case this is of course impossible. It would be very hard to go the 5 or more years required by such projects without upgrading. If this is a requirement--and especially if you're planning on a PhD/career in academe, Bookends works well with Scrivener. Or pick up Word 2011, which I think is much nicer than previous versions, and works with Zotero via the well developed plugin.

    Good luck with the thesis/defense!
  • ajlyon
    You're right that RTF scan has been relatively neglected by the small core developer team. I've volunteered to try and work on it in the coming month or two. That said, the feature is known to work in Zotero 2.1 and Firefox 4 for at least some people.

    Can you replicate the problem with a new document and a single citation? Does it happen for all styles?
  • samuelas
    That's good to hear, ajlyon.

    I actually noticed the changed functionality that s.g. tan mentions long ago, but I thought that this was actually an intended improvement, an attempt to bring the feature in line with other RTF scan processes. That is, Bookends, Sente, and I think also Endnote all require for footnote styles that the user place the {Temporary citation} in the notes. This allows, for example, one to mix discursive footnotes with a citation. V. Important!

    I will mention the two issues that to me seem hamper the use of the RTF scan:

    1. the scan's inability to read names with accent marks--I think this feature worked or at least worked better before.

    2. Author suppression doesn't work well--a symbol is probably required (like the one used in Bookends) in order to force suppression e.g. {-Author, 1995, 45}
  • s.g.tan
    Hello Ajlyon,

    I will try replicating the problem as you ask later in the month once I have submitted my thesis. Since I have downgraded Zotero to a version that works with my Scivener, I am not keen to do any experimentation until I have finished my major academic project.

    Thanks.
  • cricketbird
    Hello Ajlyon,

    That's wonderful that you might work on the RTF scan. If I could get that working, I could escape the productivity-sucking vortex of Word and use other word processors more conducive to my workflow (Scrivener, OmmWriter, etc.). Here's hoping you find the time soon!
  • Heckscher
    I have experimented with rtfScan with current Zotero 2.1 and Word 2010; the results have been very erratic. It gets some references but not others. If I simply cut the ones it didn't get and paste them right back in again, it often gets them (though not always) -- but then it is likely to start missing others that it had gotten before. So I tried opening the document in Wordpad rather than Word, and it worked perfectly. That might be a useful workaround for others.
Sign In or Register to comment.