How to use the Zotero Word plug-in: insert citations and references

Key points of this article

The plug-in calls the Zotero desktop version of the library. Before writing, make sure Zotero can be opened normally and use the desktop version of Word.
Complete the author, year, journal and page number of the document entry before inserting the citation. The format of the reference is determined by these fields.
The citation style can be switched during writing. Refreshing after switching will regenerate the annotations and lists without changing the text content one by one.
After inserting, check the documents corresponding to the annotations, the order of author names and the number of lists. If you find any problems, go back to Zotero to modify the entries and refresh them.

When writing a paper or course report, references are often the last troublesome part: journals require different formats, and the same document must be consistent in the text. If you change the format once, you have to rework it item by item. The bibliographic management Zotero Word plug-in can incorporate this into the writing process, inserting annotations directly where the text needs to be cited, and the reference list at the end of the text is generated by the plug-in according to the selected style.

This article is for readers who are already using Zotero, or planning to start using it. The following will first explain a few things to confirm before starting, then give the specific steps to insert a reference in Word, and finally list what to check after getting the document. The operations in this article are based on the common desktop version environment, and the specific interface is based on the version on your computer.

How to use the Zotero Word plug-in? One sentence conclusion

Use the Zotero desktop version to centrally manage documents. When writing, insert references in Word through a plug-in. The end-of-text list is generated by the plug-in, which is more trouble-free than manually entering items one by one, and is less likely to miss changes. The table below gives methods for common situations.

your situation	Recommended practices	reason
A paper cites twenty or thirty documents	First create the collection (category) in Zotero and then insert the reference	Entries can be quickly located when inserting, and subsequent changes can be completed in the document library.
Documents come from web pages or PDFs, and the information is incomplete	After importing, first check the author, year, and journal name before starting to cite.	The format of the reference depends on the entry field. Missing fields will directly affect the list.
The journal or school has a designated citation format	Select the corresponding citation style in the plug-in	The style determines how labels and lists are written, and can be adjusted uniformly after switching styles.
Word is the web version	Use the desktop version of Word instead, or open the document in the desktop version before inserting	Plug-ins are installed in the desktop version of Word and are generally unavailable in the web version
Multiple people co-author the same manuscript	Use the same Zotero library or share the same bibliography list	Avoid inconsistent entry formats from different people, resulting in confusing reference styles

Before you start: Confirm these points first

Taking a few minutes to confirm the following items before proceeding can reduce repetitions during the insertion process.

Whether Word is the desktop version. Plug-ins are installed in the desktop version of Word and are generally not supported in the web version of Word. If you mainly edit documents in the browser, it is recommended to complete the insertion and list generation in the desktop version first, and then return to the web version to make other modifications.
Whether the desktop version of Zotero can be opened normally. The plug-in needs to read Zotero's literature library. When Zotero is not running, inserting references will fail or no entries can be found.
Whether the literature entry information is complete. The author's name, year, title, journal name, volume and page number will all appear in the annotation or reference. Entries with missing information should be completed as much as possible before insertion.
Citation style of the target journal or school. Determine the style name first, so that you can choose the right one before inserting it and avoid rearranging the entire text after the full text is written.
Whether the document is a scanned copy. If the scanned PDF does not have a text layer, reliable metadata cannot be obtained after importing, and the author and journal information need to be manually added. The literature workspace of the OmniDoc desktop client can be connected to Zotero for finding PDFs and translating papers, which is suitable for use in the organization stage. It is still recommended that the translated content be checked against the original text for important terms.

Steps to insert citations and generate references in Word

Open and keep Zotero Desktop running. The plugin reads the library through Zotero, it is recommended to keep it running in the background during writing.
Confirm that the entrance to the Zotero plug-in has appeared in Word. On Windows and macOS, Zotero typically comes installed with Word integration. If the relevant tab does not appear in Word, close and reopen Word, or check to see if Word integration is enabled in Zotero's settings.
Organize the documents to be cited in Zotero. Put the documents that will be used in the paper into the same collection, which will make it easier to find when inserting, and also facilitate the final check to see if there are any omissions.
Position the cursor in Word. Place the cursor at the end of the sentence that needs to be annotated or within the brackets, and the annotation will appear at this position.
Insert reference. Through the insert citation function of the plug-in, enter the author or keyword search, select the corresponding entry and confirm.
Continue to insert other references. When the same document is cited again, the plug-in will use the existing annotations, so there is no need to repeatedly enter information.
Select a citation style and generate a reference list. Move the cursor to the end of the text and use the plug-in's generate reference function, and the list will be arranged according to the selected style.
Switch and refresh when you need to change the style. Refresh the document after switching styles. The plug-in will regenerate annotations and lists based on the new style. The text content does not need to be modified item by item.

Check each item after completion

After the document is generated, do not submit it directly. Read the following suggestions one by one.

Check items	What do you think?	What if there's a problem?
Text tagging	Randomly check more than a dozen places to make sure that the label corresponds to the correct literature.	Go back to Zotero to check the entry, delete the annotation and reinsert it if necessary
Author and year	Compare the information of the original home page or periodical page	Modify the entry field in Zotero, and then refresh the document
Reference format	Check whether the punctuation, italic and author order are in accordance with the selected style	Switch to the correct citation style and refresh it again
Chinese literature	Check the order of names and the completeness of the title	Manually correct the last name and first name fields in the entry
Omission or redundancy of literature	Compare the number of text annotations and the number of list items	Interpolate missing references and delete entries that are not referenced
What is translated or rewritten.	If the title or abstract has been machine translated, check the important terms and proper nouns	Modify the entry field based on the original text

If the problems found during checking focus on a few documents, usually the problem of item information, it is safer to correct the items in Zotero and then refresh them than to modify the text one by one.

# frequently asked questions (FAQ)

1. What if the document citation plug-in can't be seen in Word?

First make sure that you are using the desktop version of Word and that the Zotero desktop version is already installed. Then close and reopen Word and Zotero to check that the plug-in is enabled in Word.

2. What is the reason why the text shows the code or garbled code after inserting the reference?

In most cases, it is the Word that displays the domain code rather than the annotation result. You can try to refresh all fields in the document, or turn off the display of the field code and see if the annotation is normal.

3. What if the format of references does not meet the requirements of journals?

Replace the citation style of the target journal in the plug-in, and then refresh the document. If there is no ready-made style, you can make a list, and then modify the entry field item by item according to the author's instructions of the journal.

4. What if the author's name of the Chinese document is not displayed correctly?

Open the corresponding entry in Zotero and check that the last name and first name are split correctly and that the title and journal title are complete. After modification, go back to Word to refresh, and the list will be updated with it.

# Summary

The idea of the document management Zotero Word plug-in is to sort out the literature in Zotero first, then insert the citation in Word as needed, and finally generate and check the reference list. Completing the item information in the early stage and unifying the style in the middle of writing can reduce the rework at the end of the article. After insertion, spot-check the tags and lists, and most of the problems can be fixed at once in the Zotero entry.

Open OmniDoc and translate the whole article.