Moving a Word document with Zotero citations to Google Docs or LibreOffice

Supervisor wants comments in Google Docs? Co-author uses LibreOffice? If your thesis or paper has citations from a reference manager, opening it in a different word processor can quietly turn every citation into plain text, and your bibliography stops updating.

Why it happens

Reference managers store each citation in Word as a hidden field code. Other word processors keep the visible text, such as “(Smith, 2020)”, but not the code behind it, so your reference manager can no longer find or update those citations. Zotero's own documentation confirms the citation links are lost if you simply open the document in another word processor.

Zotero: convert first, then move

1. In Word, save a copy of the document (File › Save As), and work on the copy.
2. In the Zotero tab, open Document Preferences and choose Switch to a Different Word Processor…, then save.
3. Open the converted copy in Google Docs or LibreOffice, then choose Refresh from the Zotero menu there.

Going back works the same way: convert in the app you're leaving, then Refresh in the app you're arriving in. If you switch between Word and LibreOffice often, Zotero also offers storing citations as Bookmarks instead, which works in both without converting, but not with footnote citation styles.

Mendeley, EndNote and others

Their Word citations aren't recognised by Google Docs or LibreOffice, so they'll stay as fixed text. Do your final citation edits in Word, or re-insert citations with the reference manager's add-on for the other app, if it has one.

Other things to check when moving a document

• Cross-references such as “see Figure 3” may become fixed text and stop updating.
• Text boxes are a common casualty in Google Docs: move important text into the main body first.
• Page size: US Letter and A4 break pages in different places, so check which one your university or journal expects.