Skip to Main Content

Zotero

Remove Zotero Codes from a Word Document

1. To enable Word and Zotero to communicate with each other, Zotero inserts codes within your Word document so that your citations can be updated and refreshed as needed.  You can tell the codes are in place when you click on an in-text citation or the bibliography and see the items are highlighted in grey.  Sometimes it is necessary to remove those codes, for example if a journal editor requests that manuscripts be submitted with codes removed or if you are working with a collaborator who may be using a different citation management tool.  To remove the codes, simply click the Remove Codes icon on the Zotero word processing toolbar. 

Unlink citations option in the Zotero word processing toolbar

This action cannot be undone, so before doing this, it is a good practice to always save two versions of the document – one with the codes intact and one with the codes removed.  This way if you want to add more citations to your paper or make any other changes, you can always do so in the version of the document with the codes still intact.