Note 1: This page documents the quick-format citation dialogue implemented with version 3 and higher of Zotero. Documentation for the “classic” view of the layout can be found here.

Note 2: Although the following instructions have been written for the Zotero plugin for LibreOffice, the Microsoft Word plugin is very similar.

After installation of the plugin you should see this row of icons () in your LibreOffice toolbar (or these items in your script menu, for Word for Mac 2008 and 2010 users). These seven buttons allow you to manage references in your Microsoft Word documents. From left to right they allow you to insert citations, edit citations, insert bibliography, edit bibliography, set document preferences, and remove field codes.

If you do not see the plugin in your word processor check the troubleshooting instruction.

When you would like to cite something from your collection click the first button, “Zotero Insert Citation” (). If this is the first citation you have added to the document the Document Preferences window will open. Chose the bibliographic format you would like to use from the list and click OK.

The Quick Format bar will then appear:
Type (part of) a title, an author's last name, and/or a year and a selection of items will appear. Select the desired item by clicking on it or by pressing return when it is highlighted. The item will appear in the Quick Format bar in a grey-shaded field. Press return again to insert the citation and close the Quick Format bar.

Frequently you will want to add a “locator”, such as a page number with a citation. In order to do this, click on the grey-shaded citation in the Quick Format bar. A box with several fields will pop-up: Put the page number or range in the field labelled “Page”. To add a different locator such as “chapter” or “paragraph”, click on the label “Page” and select the appropriate locator from the list.

On occasion you may want to add free text to a citation, e.g. (cf. Tribe 1999, see also…). Add these to the prefix and suffix field respectively, as shown above.

It is possible to format all or part of the prefix and suffix fields using html tags: <i> for italics, <b> for bold, <sup> for superscript. For instance, writing ”<i>Cf</i>. the classic example” will be displayed as ”Cf. the classic example”.

Especially in author-date styles, it is common to use authors in the text and omit them from the following parenthetical citations, e.g.: ”…according to Smith (1776) the division of labor is crucial…” Checking the “Suppress Author” box below the “Suffix” field you can create a citation like this. You will write the author's name (“Smith”) as part of the regular text with your word processor and then insert the citation with “suppress author” checked to get the year in parentheses (1776).

To include multiple sources in a citation, (e.g. [2,4,7] for numerical citations, (Smith 1776, Schumpeter 1962) for author-date citations, or multiple works in a single footnote for note-based citation styles), simply add them one after the other in the same Quick Format bar. After selecting the first item, don't press return, but type the author, title, or year of the next one. .

To create complex multiple citations such as the one shown above, or to crate footnotes with commentary between items, prefix and suffix fields can be applied to each individual item in a multiple-item citation.

Some citation styles, especially author-date styles, require that items within one in-text citations are ordered either alphabetically or chronologically. Zotero will do that automatically. To disable the automatic sorting for an in-text citation, click on the small arrow on the left of the Quick Format bar and uncheck the “Keep Sources Sorted” option.

You can switch temporarily to the “Classic” add citation view by clicking the little arrow on the left of the Quick Format box and clicking on “Classic View”. You can permanently switch to the classic view by checking the “Use classic Add Citation view” box in the “Cite” tab of the Zotero preferences in Zotero for Firefox or Zotero Standalone.

To generate a bibliography from all the items you have referenced, click the “Zotero Insert Bibliography” button (). The bibliography will be inserted at the current location of your cursor.

The edit bibliography () button allows you to edit a bibliography you have already inserted into your documents. You can add items that you have not cited to the bibliography, or you can remove items that you have cited from the bibliography. You can revert these edits using the “Revert All” button on the bottom left.

The Document Preferences Dialogue comes up when you insert the first citation in a document. You can return to the dialogue any time later by clicking the “Set Document Preferences Button” (). At the top of the window you can select or change the citation style. Below that, you can chose between footnotes and endnotes. This option is only available for note-based styles such as Chicago Manual of Style (Note with Bibliograph). The Footnote/Endnote style as well as your preferences for Footnotes in non-note styles can be adjusted in your word processor.

Below the style selection window you can chose the format Zotero uses to embed citations in your document. You can chose between “Field” and “Bookmarks” in Word and between “Reference Marks” and “Bookmarks” in OpenOffice type software. You will need to use Bookmarks if you plan to insert and edit citation in both Word and OpenOffice. In all other cases it is strongly recommended to use the default, i.e. Fields or Reference Marks.

At the bottom of the window you can check or uncheck the “Store references in Document” option. This option embeds citation data (in JSON format) in the document, so that potential co-authors can work with your document without using a group. The feature also allows for co-authoring with other reference management software that supports that functionality (currently Mendeley). Including reference data in the document is generally recommended (and set as a default). It will slightly increase the document and a document with embedded citation data will not work with Zotero versions before 3.x.

“Zotero Refresh” () updates your references to any changes in your Zotero collection. () will open the Document Preferences window again, allowing you to change your bibliographic style on the fly.
Remove Zotero Fieldcodes () removes all connections between Zotero and the document. This may be useful right before sending the document to a publisher/journal. It is strongly recommended that you perform this on a copy of the document, in case you want to make Zotero edits later.

Zotero's Quick Format dialogue has been designed to allow users to quickly insert citations. Many users will find that the fastest workflow involves no use of the mouse. The following keyboard commands will be helpful:

• You can define keyboard shortcuts for all of the functions in the Zotero word processor toolbar in your word processor. [Documentation forthcoming]
• To select between several items, use the up and down arrows. Use return to select an item.
• To insert a page number or range, simply type p.45-48 or :45-48 after a citation.
• To get to the options dialogue with the prefix and suffix field, the locator field, as well as the “Suppress Author” checkbox, press Ctrl+down (Cmd+down on Mac) with the cursor in the grey field around the item you want to modify in the Quick Format bar. Move between the fields with Tab and Shift+Tab. Toggle the “Suppress Author” checkbox with Space.

If you run into problems while trying to use the word processor plugins, make sure to check out the word processor plugin troubleshooting page.