Zotero Word Processor Plugin Troubleshooting

This page describes some of the reported issues with the Zotero word processor plugins, together with possible solutions.

The instructions on this page are for Zotero 7. If you're running Zotero 6, start by upgrading to Zotero 7.

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:

1. Close Word or LibreOffice.
2. Open the Zotero settings, click the Cite tab, and scroll down to the Word Processors section. Click “Install Microsoft Word Add-in” or “Install LibreOffice Add-in”, and then restart your word processor. If you get an error, see Troubleshooting Errors with Word Processor Plugin Installation.
3. If the installation completes but the Zotero tab or toolbar still doesn't appear in your word processor, follow the manual installation instructions.

If you still don't see the plugin after performing a manual installation, follow these OS-specific troubleshooting ​steps:

• Word for Windows
• Word 2016+ for Mac
• LibreOffice

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.

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 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. 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.

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.

See Field Codes.

See Citations Highlighted.

See Existing Citations Not Detected.

• “Zotero experienced an error updating your document.”
• “Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Zotero is running and try again.”

If you see one of the above errors in a new, empty document (and not just a specific existing document), or if no citation dialog appears when you click the plugin buttons, try the following steps, testing the plugin after each one.

1. Restart your computer. Start Zotero before starting Word.
2. If the plugin still isn't working in Word, go to your Word Startup folder, delete Zotero.dotm, and restart Word to make sure that the plugin is completely gone from Word. (If the “Zotero” tab isn't disappearing, see the steps in the linked section.) Once the “Zotero” tab is gone from Word, reinstall the plugin.
3. Make sure that you're running Zotero as the same user as Word. Specifically, check to make sure neither program is running as administrator (right-click → Properties → Compatibility). For security and stability reasons, you should typically not run any software as administrator.
4. Temporarily disable any security software you're running, which could interfere with the connection between Word and Zotero.
5. If you've set up Zotero to use multiple Zotero profiles (most people haven't), you might have configured Zotero to launch with the -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:

• If Zotero.dotm appears under Inactive Application Add-ins, select “Word Add-ins” in the Manage drop-down at the bottom, click “Go…”, and make sure Zotero.dotm is ticked.
• If Zotero.dotm appears under Disabled Application Add-ins, select “Disabled Items” in the Manage drop-down at the bottom, and click “Go…”. In the window that pops up, select Zotero.dotm and click Enable.

Check Trust Center

1. Go to File → Options → Trust Center and click “Trust Center Settings…” in the right-hand pane.
2. Under “Add-ins”, make sure that “Require Application Add-ins to be signed by Trusted Publisher” and “Disable all Application Add-ins” are unchecked.
3. Restart Word.
4. If the Zotero tab is still not present, 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. Click “Enable Content”.

Check institutional policies

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 or modifying the user interface (e.g., the Microsoft Intune policy “Disable UI extending from documents and templates”, which changes the noextensibilitycustomizationfromdocument registry key).

If after installing the plugin the Zotero tab has an empty label, it means Word Macro settings are preventing the Zotero plugin from running.

1. In Word, go File → Options.
2. Select the Trust Center panel and click the “Trust Center Settings…” button
3. Select the Trusted Locations panel and make sure that the Word default location startup is in this list.

You can find your Word Startup location in Word Options → Advanced, by clicking the “File Locations…” button at the bottom of the panel.

See Could not find a running Word instance.

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:

1. In “Windows settings” go to the page for “Region”, which has settings for “Regional format”
2. Change that setting to “English (United States)” or “English (United Kingdom)”
3. Restart Word

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.

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:

1. Go to Tools → Templates and Add-ins.
2. Make sure that “Zotero.dotm” is present under Global Templates and Add-ins and is checked.

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, you likely don't have the latest version of the Zotero plugin in Word. Go to your Word Startup folder, delete Zotero.dotm, restart Word, and confirm that the Zotero tab is gone from Word. If it doesn't disappear, follow the instructions for identifying your active Word Startup folder, delete Zotero.dotm from there as well, and reset your Word Startup folder location to the default to avoid future problems. Once the Zotero tab is gone from Word, follow the steps under Zotero toolbar doesn't appear.

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:

1. Restart Word and try again.
2. If the plugin still isn't working in Word, go to your Word Startup folder, delete Zotero.dotm, and restart Word to make sure that the plugin is completely gone from Word. Then reinstall the plugin.

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

“Installation could not be completed because an error occurred.”

See the installation troubleshooting instructions.

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 the Zotero settings. In the “Word Processors” settings, click the “Install LibreOffice Add-in” button. If you get an error, refer to the installation troubleshooting instructions

Unresponsive Zotero toolbar buttons are an indication of LibreOffice not having access to a working Java JRE. Refer to the installation troubleshooting instructions.

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.)