Skip to Main Content Custom Header
Western Washington University. Make waves.
Western Libraries

Zotero Research Management Software

Collect research resources, organize them, and export citations. Plus other cool stuff.

Using Zotero in MS Word & Google Docs

About the Word Plug-In (Creating Your Bibliography While You Write)

Zotero offers word processing plugins for Word, Google Docs, and LibreOffice. The plugin adds a Zotero toolbar to your word processor that allows you to add citations to your document while you write.

Word plugin on a PC:

Google Docs plugin:

The Google Docs plugin works best when using Chrome and may not work on other browsers.

Screenshot from Google Docs showing how to add a citation with Zotero using the add-on

 

To add an in-text citation, click the "Add/Edit Citation" button. You can then search for the reference you want to cite and press enter. Zotero will automatically add the citation to your document. At the end of your paper, to add a bibliography, click the "Add/Edit Bibliography" button. Your reference list entries will be added automatically to your paper. To change the citation style of your paper, click on "Document Preferences."

Creating Quick Bibliographies

It's easy to create a bibliography from your Zotero library.

Select the references or collections you want to include. Hold the control key and click to select multiple items. Right-click one of the selected items and choose Create Bibliography.

Choose the bibliographic style you want, select Copy to Clipboard, click OK and paste into your word processor.

Creating a quick bibliography

This method works with any word processor (or anywhere you can paste text).

Adding additional citation styles to Zotero

Zotero comes with the most common styles including MLA, APA, and Chicago. Though you can download even more styles from the Zotero website.

To install a new style:

  1.  Open your Zotero software, click on "Edit" then  "Preferences"
  2. Click the Cite tab and then click on the link that says "Get Additional Styles" (a new window will open)
  3. Search for the style you want in the newly opened window
  4. Once you find the style, click on the name of the style and a pop-up window will appear
  5. Click the OK button in the pop-up window (this wil add the new style to your Zotero software)

The new style will appear in Zotero's "Style Manager" box. Style Manager lists all the citation styles that are installed.

To verify that the new style was added to your software:

  1. Open your Zotero, click on "Edit" then  "Preferences"
  2. Click the Cite tab and then check in the Style Manager box for the new style