Of the different ways to automatically generate bibliographies (as well as in-text citations and footnotes), the easy-to-use word processor plugins are probably the most flexible. These plugins, available for Microsoft Word and LibreOffice, create dynamic bibliographies: insert a new in-text citation in your manuscript, and the bibliography will be automatically updated to include the cited item. Correct the title of an item in your Zotero library and with a click of a button the change will be incorporated in your texts.

To get started with these plugins, check out the following links. You can also get a taste of how these plugins work in action by watching screencasts of Zotero and Word (by Hannah Rempel, using the “Quick Format” version of the plugin) of Zotero and OpenOffice (by Ryan Guy, using the “classic” plugin).

• Installation

• Usage Guide

• Troubleshooting