This page describes some of the reported issues with the Zotero word processor plugins, together with possible solutions.
Citations and bibliographies generated by the word processor plugins might appear in a different style (font, font-size, etc) than the surrounding text. The appearance of the generated text can be changed by changing the default style. For example, in LibreOffice, open the Styles Manager in Format → Styles and Formatting or by pressing F12. Right-click on “Default”, select “Modify”, and make the desired changes to this style. In Word, open the Styles Manager in Format → Styles or by clicking the “Styles Pane” or “Manage Styles” buttons on the “Home” tab of the ribbon.
Bibliography formatting is controlled by the citation style you select in Zotero document preferences and should conform to the requirements of the style in use. The formatting of the bibliography can be modified by editing the “Bibliography” (Word) or “Bibliography 1” (LibreOffice) word processor style.
In most cases, the Zotero plugin should appear automatically in the Word ribbon or the LibreOffice toolbar after installing Zotero and restarting the word processor. If you don't see a Zotero tab or toolbar, follow these steps:
If you still don't see the plugin after performing a manual installation, follow these OS-specific troubleshooting steps:
If you can insert a Zotero citation in a new, empty document but get an error in an existing document, see Troubleshooting Errors in Word Processor Documents.
See Field Codes.
If you see one of the following errors in a new, empty document (and not just a specific existing document):
or if no insert citation window appears when you click the plugin buttons, try the following steps:
-no-remote
command-line option. This will prevent the plugins from functioning, and if you've done this you should remove the -no-remote
command-line option from the shortcut used to launch the Zotero profile. This flag should never be used with Zotero.First, make sure you've tried the general troubleshooting steps.
If you're using Microsoft Office Starter Edition, note that Zotero Word integration is not supported.
Other things to try:
Check if the Zotero plugin is correctly installed and enabled
Go to File → Options → Add-ins and look for Zotero.dotm in the list:
Check Trust Center
If the Zotero tab still isn't showing up and this is an institutional computer, you should contact your IT department, as they may be blocking Word templates from running.
If after installing the plugin the Zotero tab has an empty label, it means Word Macro settings are preventing the Zotero plugin from running.
You can find your Word Startup location in Word Options → Advanced, by clicking the “File Locations…” button at the bottom of the panel.
If you install Zotero with Word 2010 and receive an error stating
“Zotero experienced an error updating your document. [zoteroWinWordIntegration Exception… “Could not find a running Word instance.” code: “0” function: “zoteroWinWordDocument::initFromActiveObject” location: ”.\zoteroWinWordDocument.cpp”]“
you may be experiencing an issue relating to your Word 2010 installation method. Microsoft distributes a set of “Click-to-Run” versions of Office 2010 that are configured to run within their own virtual environment. Unfortunately, this virtual environment prohibits Zotero from communicating with these Word instances, producing an error.
You can fix this problem by switching your copy of Office 2010 from a Click-to-Run installation to a standard (MSI-based) installation. This process does not require an additional license. To do so, follow the steps under the “Workaround” heading on this page.
You may also experience this error if you are running either Word or Zotero as Administrator or in a compatibility mode in Windows Vista or 7, or if security software is interfering with Zotero's ability to communicate with Word.
This issue affects the users of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. To fix it you will need to change your regional format to English:
Zotero's Word add-on currently does not work for documents in OneDrive. Move your document to a different folder. Other cloud-syncing services such as Dropbox or Google Drive are not affected (note that Zotero documents should not be opened or edited in Google Drive's word proccessor as this will break Zotero citations. See this thread for details and developments.
When switching from a note-based style set to “Endnotes” under Set Document Preferences to a style that produces in-text citations (author-date or numeric), the citations remain in endnotes.
Workaround: Before switching to the in-text style, click on “Set Document Preferences” in the Word add-on and switch the format to “Footnotes.” Then switch to the in-text style. If you did already switch to the in-text style and are seeing this issue, switch back to the note-based style you were using, toggle to “Footnotes,” and switch back.
First, make sure you've tried the general troubleshooting steps.
If you're still having trouble, check your specific Word version number and follow the appropriate steps below:
Make sure you're running the latest stable version of Word.
If the tab still does not appear, check whether the plugin was installed in Word correctly:
If Zotero.dotm still doesn't show up, you may not have correctly performed the manual installation steps to copy Zotero.dotm to your current Word Startup folder.
Update Word to the latest stable version (15.41 or above).
First, make sure the Zotero app is open and running on your computer. Note that this is the Zotero program, not the Zotero website or Zotero Connector in your browser.
If Zotero is open and you're still receiving this error, there are two likely causes:
If you continue to receive the error, you may have modified your Zotero installation to work with multiple instances, in which case you need to do additional configuration for the Word for Mac Zotero plugin.
If you get no response when you attempt to use the Word plugin, try the following steps:
The Zotero Word for Windows plugin does not work out of the box under WINE, CrossOver Office, or other compatibility environments for Linux. We do not support running the Word for Windows plugin under Linux, and advise users to use LibreOffice instead. If you absolutely must run Zotero in WINE, this forum thread has some helpful tips.
As of March 2016, the following steps should work getting Office 2010 run with Zotero.
1. Install Office 2010 and Zotero on Wine
2. Change directory to /home/%user%/.wine/drive_c/users/%user%/Application Data/Microsoft/Word/STARTUP/. Substitute “Zotero.dot” file with this file
3. Open Zotero.
4. Open Microsoft Word.
Thanks to Sudarlin Laoddang for providing these instructions on his blog.
Zotero requires LibreOffice 5.2 or later. If you are using an older version, upgrade to the current version of LibreOffice. See System Requirements. Apache OpenOffice and NeoOffice are based on older versions of LibreOffice and are not supported by Zotero.
At the last step of LibreOffice Integration installation, you may see the message
“An error occurred installing Zotero LibreOffice Integration.”
If you experience this error during plugin installation:
Next, restart Zotero, open the Cite pane of the Zotero preferences, and click the Install LibreOffice Add-in button on the “Word Processors” tab.
When you are asked to locate your LibreOffice installations, ensure that your LibreOffice installation is listed. (You can add new LibreOffice installations by clicking the “Add Directory…” button below.)
If installation continues to fail, repeat the same steps, but click the Manual Installation button. This will open a folder containing the integration component to be installed within LibreOffice itself. Double-click this component to install it, or select Tools → Extension Manager within LibreOffice, click the Add button, and navigate to the component. While this is unlikely to succeed, it will provide further information about the cause of the installation failure.
If you believe your Java configuration is correct and you're still getting an error for a manual installation attempt, you can try deleting some or all of your LibreOffice profile folder, which can fix problems installing LibreOffice extensions.
If you receive an error stating “Could not create Java implementation loader” when attempting to perform a manual installation, follow the instructions below for the Windows, Mac, or Linux.
If you receive an error stating “JNI exception occurred” on Linux, follow these instructions.
For errors not listed below, post the error you receive during manual installation to the Zotero Forums.
Check if there's an entry for Zotero under View → Toolbars. If not, look for the Zotero LibreOffice Integration plugin in Tools → Extension Manager. If it's in not there, return to Zotero and the Cite pane of Zotero preferences. On the “Word Processors” tab, click the “Install LibreOffice Add-in” button. If you get an error, refer to installation troubleshooting instructions.
Unresponsive Zotero toolbar buttons are an indication of LibreOffice not having access to a working Java JRE. Refer to the Installation Error section.
In Zotero LibreOffice Integration, when attempting to add or edit a citation or bibliography, you may see the message
java.Lang.NullPointerException at org.zotero.integration.ooo.comp.Comm.getMessageResponse
or the message
[JavaScript Error: “_lastDataListener is undefined” … when calling method: [zoteroIntegrationApplication::getActiveDocument]
This error indicates that the version of the extension within Zotero does not match the version of the extension within LibreOffice, typically because installation failed. Try reinstalling the plugin. If the installation fails, or you continue to experience this error after reinstalling, see the above section on how to resolve an installation error.
Users with other word processor integration plugins (Word for Mac or Word for Windows) installed should also make sure that those plugins are the latest available versions.
When attempting to manually install Zotero LibreOffice Integration, you may see the message
Add extension(s): «DIRECTORY»/Zotero_LibreOffice_Integration.oxt does not exist
We believe this is caused by a corrupt LibreOffice profile directory. Move or delete the LibreOffice profile directory, then follow the instructions above to reinstall the Zotero LibreOffice extension. (This will revert any LibreOffice settings you have customized to their default state.)
Upon manual installation of the LibreOffice component, you may see the message
“Could not create Java implementation loader”
This error reflects a faulty Java installation within LibreOffice. This issue affects not only Zotero, but any LibreOffice extension that uses Java. Follow the steps below, testing whether manual installation succeeds after each.
Upon manual installation of the LibreOffice component, you may see the message
“Could not create Java implementation loader”
This is usually caused by an outdated version of LibreOffice that does not properly locate the system Java installation. It can be resolved by reinstalling LibreOffice.
Upon manual installation of the LibreOffice extension, you may see the message
(com.sun.star.uno.RuntimeException) { { Message = JNI exception occurred”, Context = (com.sun.star.uno.XInterface) @7f01b00518b8 (ImplementationName = “com.sun.star.comp.stoc.JavaMachine”) } }
The most common cause of this error is a deselected Java installation due to a system update. To fix this, open Tools → Options, select LibreOffice → Java (or Advanced) on the left, press the radio button to the left of your Java installation, and close LibreOffice. You should now be able to reinstall the LibreOffice extension from within Zotero.
On some Linux installations the Zotero toolbar refuses to install properly in LibreOffice, or is visible in LibreOffice, but clicking the buttons has no effect.
Installing the libreoffice-java-common package, available in the repositories of most common linux distributions, usually solves this issue.
You may still need to activate the extension: In LibreOffice go to Tools → Extension Manager Select “Zotero LibreOffice Integration” and click the “Activate” button.
There is a known bug in current 32-bit Linux kernel that causes a 32-bit JRE to crash when used with LibreOffice.
The current solution is to install a 64-bit version of LibreOffice and JRE. You will need to upgrade to a 64-bit version of Linux if you are running a 32-bit version of an OS.