Zotero at Temple

Information and screenshots on this page were done with Zotero 6. Zotero 7 has redesigned the platform and location and icons may look different.

What you need

1. First, check that you have the Zotero tab in Word or Google Docs.

2. Have the Zotero program open on your device.
3. You must also have an account with Zotero, which is free to set up.
   For Google Docs, you may be prompted to authorize Zotero to access your Google account.  The pop up box to select the style may also be behind some other windows. Clicking on your Zotero desktop may help to reveal it.

Steps for APA Style citations

1. Double check the Information tab of the parent record for the sources you will be citing.
   • Use sentence case for all titles. If you change case, check that Proper nouns are capitalized.
     • How to change to sentence case
   • Make sure you have a Title, Author, Source and DOI or URL, and where necessary the date or year
      
2. Place cursor where you need to add the citation.  If it is a parenthetical citation at the end of a sentence, place the cursor before the period.
    
3. Click on the Zotero Tab.  Select Add/Edit Citation. 
    
4. Select APA 7th edition for the style (if prompted to, which is usually the first time you cite).
    
5. Depending on your preference settings, you will get a quick view (one bar) or a classic view (which shows your resources like they are on your device).
   With the quick view, you can start typing in an author name or part of the title and matching authors and titles will appear for you to select and press enter.
   For the classic view, select what you want to add and click OK.
    
6. As needed:  Add page number in the page number box and additional notes in the prefix (e.g. See or other notes before the first citation) and suffix boxes (any notes after the citation).
    
7. Start a page for References or go to the References section of your paper. 
   From the Zotero tab, select Insert Bibliography
   • The citation will be automatically added.
   • You will only need to select "Add/Edit Bibliography" the first time you add a cite.
   • Subsequent cited sources will be automatically added

Using Zotero with Google Docs

More guidance on citing sources and creating bibliographies on Mastering Zotero: A user guide for the Zotero reference manager.

Citing Sources in Word and Google Video Tutorial

This video demonstrates how to insert a parenthetical citation, narrative citation (omitting the author), multiple sources, page number, a figure and a quote and how to automatically generate the list of references.  Citing sources in Microsoft Word and Google Docs is similar so it may be useful to watch both sections. The demonstration uses Zotero 6 and it is the same for Zotero 7.

Citing sources in Word 00 to 11:15

Citing in Google Docs 11:15 to 17:12

Creating stand-alone bibliographies 15:12

By default, when you cite in Word or Google Docs, a quick view bar will appear.  When the Quick View bar appears, to change to classic view, click on the little arrow next to the Z and select Class View. 

To set your default as Classic View for the Program, go to preferences, and click Cite. 

For Zotero 6:

Click the Word Processor tab, and at the bottom, check the box "Use classic Add Citation dialog."

For Zotero 7:

 In Cite, scroll to the bottom to "Word Processors".  Check the box "Use classic Add Citation dialog."

APA allows URLs to be hyperlinked or not:

"It is acceptable to use either the default display settings for hyperlinks in your word-processing program (e.g., usually blue font, underlined) or plain text that is not underlined."

If you would like to make the DOI and URL hyperlinked, you can follow the video instruction or read about this in the Zotero forum: How to Make DOI a Clickable Blue Hyperlink in Zotero (APA 7).

• To add references not cited in the paper, click on Add/Edit Bibliography.  You will see your sources on the left and a box labeled "References in Bibliography" to the right that includes citations that have been cited or are in the bibliography.  
• Select from the sources (press Ctrl key and select for multiple sources) and add with the right arrow to the References in Bibliography. Click OK.
• You will see the additional references in alphabetical order by author.  Press Refresh if needed.

Within a Word document, click on Document Preferences to change to a different style.