Development Libraries: Windows: SDL2-devel-2.0.14-VC.zip (Visual C 32/64-bit) SDL2-devel-2.0.14-mingw.tar.gz (MinGW 32/64-bit) Mac OS X: SDL2-2.0.14.dmg. Linux: Please contact your distribution maintainer for updates.
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 Word or LibreOffice after installing Zotero and restarting the word processor. If you don't see a Zotero tab or toolbar (or Zotero scripts menu for Word 2008/2011 for Mac), 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 Citations Highlighted.
If you see one of the following errors:
“Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Zotero is running and try again.”
“Could not find a running Word instance”
or the plugin appears and buttons are clickable, but no insert citation window appears, 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
If Zotero.dotm is present and ticked in the Templates and Add-ins window
If the Zotero tab is still not present after these steps, go back into the Trust Center Settings, open the “Macro Settings” pane, and select “Disable all macros with notification”. Restart Word and see if you get a notification asking for macro permissions.
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). If the tab still doesn't appear, follow the steps above for Word version 15.41 and higher.
First, make sure you've tried the general troubleshooting steps.
Next, make sure you are running the last available version of Word 2011, 14.7.7.
Finally, check whether “Zotero Bibliographic Management” shows up in the View → Toolbars menu within Word. If it does but it isn't enabled, enable it.
On a system with a non-English version of Office 2008/2011 for Mac, the plugin scripts may not appear in Word automatically. Alternatively, after upgrading the plugin, you may receive a message saying that the plugin is incompatible with the installed version of Zotero.
These problems indicate that the new scripts were not installed into the correct location. By default, Zotero installs the scripts into ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Word Script Menu Items or ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office/Word Script Menu Items if either of these folders exist, or asks where to install them if it does not. Since non-English versions of Office prior to Office 2011 SP2 do not use the Microsoft User Data folder, but rather a folder with an equivalent name in the Office language, this can be problematic for non-English Office users. There are three potential solutions:
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, the most likely causes are previously having started Zotero from a disk image instead of dragging it to Applications and starting from there or having two copies of the Zotero app in different locations on your computer (e.g., a “Zotero” and “Zotero 2” in Applications). Close Zotero, open the Zotero profile directory, and delete extensions.json. Then restart Zotero.
If you continue to receive the error after deleting extensions.json, go to Tools → Add-ons in Zotero and make sure the Word and LibreOffice plugins are enabled. If they show as disabled, enable them. If they show as incompatible, you may have previously installed a very old version of the plugin, and you should uninstall it and restart Zotero. Current plugins are bundled with Zotero and don't need to be installed separately.
If you get no response when you attempt to use the Word plugin, try the following steps:
If using Word 2011, make sure you are running the last available version, 14.7.7. If the problem persists with 14.7.7, this may indicate a problem with Visual Basic for Applications. If the above steps do not resolve the issue, follow these steps for resolving Visual Basic for Applications-related issues.
Some Word 2011 users may see the following message upon attempting to insert a citation or bibliography into any Word document using the Script menu:
“Zotero could not perform this action. Please ensure that a document is open. If you have performed a custom installation of Office, you may need to run the installer again, ensuring that “Visual Basic for Applications” is selected.”
Attempting to use the Zotero toolbar may result in no response, accompanied by an error message reading “Word could not fire event” when closing the document.
This error indicates that Visual Basic for Applications is malfunctioning, which may happen for several reasons:
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.
After LibreOffice update unresponsive Zotero toolbar buttons are an indication of LibreOffice not having access to a working JRE setup. 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.NullPointerExceptionatorg.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 installing LibreOffice 5.2 or later.
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 ManagerSelect “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.
Publication Settings | Supported? | Notes |
Double-Sided, Facing Pages | Yes (Limited) | InDesign converts double-sided documents that do not contain facing pages into single-page spreads. When both Double-Sided and Facing Pages are selected, files are converted into facing-page spreads. |
Preferences | Supported? | Notes |
Snap to Constraints | No | -- |
Save Option (Smaller, Faster) | No | -- |
Horizontal and Vertical Nudge | No | -- |
Greek Text Below | No | -- |
PostScript Printing-Memory Freed for Graphics | No | -- |
Display PPD Name | No | -- |
Turn Pages When Autoflowing | No | -- |
TrueType Display (Preserve Line Spacing/ Character Shape) | No | -- |
Trapping Preferences | Yes | When Auto-overprint black strokes or fills (or both) are selected in the Trapping Preferences dialog box in PageMaker, the setting carries over to InDesign. However, Overprint Stroke or Overprint Fill is deselected in the Attributes palette. |
Page Layout Features | Supported? | Notes |
Booklists and Booked Publications | No | InDesign ignores Booklists when opening PageMaker publications. If you want to open all the publications on a Booklist together, run the Build Booklet plug-in in PageMaker with a layout of None selected. The booked publications are combined into one. Text blocks and frames are no longer threaded, however. |
Index | Yes (Limited) | Index entries from a PageMaker publication appear in the InDesign Index palette. Text with cross-references that use the See Herein or See Also Herein option are mapped as See or See Also. |
Items on the Pasteboard | Yes (Limited) | All items on the PageMaker pasteboard appear on the pasteboard of the first spread in the InDesign document. InDesign uses a different pasteboard for each spread. |
Layers | Yes | To maintain the order of overlapping items, InDesign creates two layers when converting a PageMaker publication: Default and Master Default. Master Default contains the Master page items. |
Master Page Items | Yes | Master pages in PageMaker convert to master pages in InDesign and retain all objects including page numbering and guides. Some layers could be added to the document. To retain the stacking order established in the original PageMaker publication. (See the Layers listing in this section.) |
Non-Printing Objects | Yes | All objects designated in PageMaker as Non-Printing are converted with Non-Printing selected in the InDesign Attribute palette. |
Ruler Guides | Yes | -- |
Table of Contents | Yes | Table of Contents text converts as a Table of Contents, with PageMaker TOC Style available in the style pop-up menu in the InDesign TOC dialog box. |
Text Attributes | Supported? | Notes |
Text Composition | Yes (Limited) | InDesign assigns its Paragraph composer to all paragraphs. However, you can assign the single-line composer to one or more paragraphs. In InDesign, the single-line text composition engine chooses line breaks more similarly to the PageMaker composition engine, but text could still reflow. |
Top of Caps and Proportional Leading | Yes (Limited) | InDesign uses only Baseline leading. Proportional and Top of Caps leading in PageMaker convert to Baseline leading in InDesign, resulting in text shifting. |
Vertical Alignment in Text Frames | Yes | Vertical Alignment settings are maintained when you open PageMaker publications. |
First Baseline | Yes (Limited) | The First Baseline of converted text can appear different than text created in InDesign. The First Baseline of converted text is set to Leading, but the First Baseline of text created in InDesign is set to Ascent by default. |
Hyphenation | Yes (Limited) | InDesign uses a different hyphenation method than PageMaker, so line breaks can be different. |
Fonts | Yes (Limited) | All fonts in a PageMaker publication should be active when the publication is opened in InDesign. InDesign can continue to list fonts as missing if they are activated after the PageMaker publication is opened. |
Applied Bold or Italic Font Attributes | Yes (Limited) | InDesign preserves bold or italic formatting if the correct typeface is installed (for example, Tekton Bold). If the typeface is not installed, then the font is identified as missing in InDesign and is substituted. InDesign retains information about what text had bold or italic formatting applied to it so you can reformat it after substitution. |
Shadow Text Attribute (Mac OS only) | No | Shadow text converts to plain text. |
Outline Text Attribute (Mac OS only) | Yes (Limited) | Outline text converts as text with a stroke of .25 inches and a fill of paper. |
Expert Tracking Values | No | Expert tracking values revert to a zero kerning value. |
Paragraph Rules | Yes (Limited) | All paragraph rules convert as solid lines. Differences in the InDesign leading method affect the position of paragraph rules. Tints applied to paragraph rules are preserved. |
[No style] Paragraph Style | Yes (Limited) | The [No style] in PageMaker is the equivalent of [Basic Paragraph] in InDesign CS2 or [No Paragraph Style] in InDesign CS. However, [Basic Paragraph] and [No Paragraph Style] picks up the attributes of a named style if that style was selected before any typing occurred in the PageMaker publication. |
Text Links | No | Linked text documents are embedded upon conversion. |
Hyperlinks | Yes | -- |
Bullets and Numbering | Yes | InDesign applies bullets and numbering as normal, editable, characters. |
Data Merge | Yes (CS2, CS PageMaker Edition)No (CS) | InDesign treats text fields as regular text until you establish a link to the data source file. |
Color | Supported? | Notes |
Tints | Yes (Limited) | Tints are converted as percentages of the parent color. If the parent color isn't in the Swatches palette, it's added during conversion. When an object with a tint is selected, the parent color is selected in the Swatches palette, and the tint value appears in the pop-up menu. |
HLS Colors | No | InDesign converts color swatches based on the HLS color model to RGB values. |
Hexachrome Colors | No | All Hexachrome colors are converted to RGB values. |
Pantone libraries | Yes | -- |
CMS | Yes (Limited) | Profiles that are not ICC-compliant are replaced using the default CMS settings and profiles you specified for InDesign. |
Graphics and Objects | Supported? | Notes |
Missing Graphic Links | Yes | Link information for missing graphics is preserved when converting PageMaker publications. After conversion, the missing links can be updated. |
OLE Objects | No | InDesign doesn't support OLE. OLE objects drop out when you open PageMaker publications in InDesign, and any text wrap is lost. However, the bounding boxes of OLE objects convert. |
Embedded Graphics | Yes | -- |
Adobe Table 3.0 Objects | Yes (Limited) | PageMaker tables appear as graphics and are not editable in InDesign. |
Fill Patterns | No | Fill patterns applied from PageMaker's Fill menu become solid. |
Screen Patterns/Angles | No | InDesign doesn't support screen patterns or angles applied to TIFF images in Image Control; it drops them from imported TIFF files. |
Colorized TIFF Files | Yes | -- |
Photoshop Effects | Yes | -- |
Strokes | Yes (Limited) | InDesign supports only solid or dashed strokes. Other stroke variations (such as Reverse or strokes created with the Custom option) either unreverse or become solid strokes in InDesign. Hairlines become .25-point strokes. |
Keylines | Yes (Limited) | Keylines become grouped to the object to which they are applied. |
Text Wrap | Yes | -- |
Masking | Yes (Limited) | PageMaker items arranged between an item and its mask will be positioned behind the item and mask after you open the publication in InDesign. |
Inline Graphics | Yes | -- |
Imported PDF Documents | Yes (Limited) | InDesign displays the first page of a multi-page PDF file, regardless which page you placed in the PageMaker publication. To display the correct page, in InDesign delete the image (that is, the PDF file), and place the PDF page again. |
Imported QuickTime Movies | Yes (Limited in CS and CS PageMaker Edition) | InDesign CS and CS PageMaker Edition import QuickTime movie frames unless they have been scaled. If a movie frame has been scaled, the movie is reimported to InDesign, scaled to 100% (horizontally and vertically. And, it's positioned in the upper-left corner of the frame. |
Scaled Images | Yes (Limited) | Scaled images in documents with broken links are imported at a different size than expected. |