Team writing Word - Writer - Zotero tips?

[Leigh]

Hi,

I am writing Eng / scientific journal papers in Word together with other authors who use Word

For references and citations I use Zotero (its wonderful)
When I send Word docs to my co-authors I flatten the Zotero citations, as I dont even know which reference software they use and dont want to get involved in shared libraries.

I have been 100% Linux at home for some years now, currently landed at ArchLabs (also absolutely wonderful) where I am pretty sure I will be staying

Now I am going to do the same move to Linux at work, so this means moving to LibreOffice (I also looked at Softmaker but no Linux Equation editor)

I already have (limited) experience of Libre Office (I use it 100% for home stuff) and the spreadsheet capabilities are more than enough for me, as are those of Writer

I have been told in other threads here that I should start off from the beginning using styles

The main constriction I can see is that co-authors will still be using Word. The exact formatting as the paper is written is not a huge problem, its the final version that must be formatted to the requirements and I usually do that. I also note that conversions are now far better than they were and are minimal.

The use of Zotero is essential for me, but the integration looks good

So, the point of this post?

I’d like to ask if anyone else fits this (or similar) usage case and if they have any tips and/or experience to share

This will help me (and any others now or in the future) to do this

Cheers
Leigh

PS
I have found the helpful two posts below but 3 years is a long time in terms of software development

Libreoffice - Word track changes between them?

Hello! A bit of background: I am interested in becoming a proofreader. There is no possible way I’d be able to use Word, but most people like the changes tracked. I just need to know this: if I download a document, change it with tracked changes, and upload it, and a person who is using Word downloads and opens it, will they see the changes correctly? I have heard of this ruining formatting in older versions of Word. Is this still a problem? Does it change depending on if you use a .doc or a .do…

Can Writer handle Word Track Changes?

Word is the standard for the editors I work with. If I start to use Writer, I need to make sure that the software can handle the back and forth between author and editor using MS Word track changes.

[Hrbrgr]

My tip:

IMHO never use different office programs in a team.

[Leigh]

Very sound advice, and the approach I have taken for years.

However, I really want to move to Linux for work

EDIT: I should explain that this is not only drivenby ‘idealistic’ motives, but everything is 300% faster on Linux on my Laptop, the look and feel is so much nicer (and easier to customise), and all my favourite and most used apps are in Linux as well. I have to use ‘Alternative to’ sites to find Windows apps that do the same job (worse) than my Linux ones (with the exception of some technical software, but that is changing)

If it doesnt work out I can always go back to my old ways

On my own head be it

EDIT 2: Not sure why, but although my previews show gaps between paragraphs in my posts, there are none in the posted version.
Doesnt happen in other Discourse forums I use. Any ideas why?

\ Doesnt work

<br> works, but I only need to put a blank line in other discourse forums

[keme1]

Alternating a file between Word and Writer context is likely to introduce problems. This kind of problems multiply rapidly in a collaboration setting. Unless you can get the entire team to shift to a compatible collaboration platform (I hear good things about Collabora), the advice is to stay with Word. A few “deal breaking” points:

• The (seemingly slight) differences between the applications’ data formats force translation workarounds, which build up over time.
  This happens regardless of whether you use ODF (LibreOffice native) or OOXML (Microsoft Office native) storage formats, and cause erratic content behavior.

  • Styles vs. direct formatting. (Page styles in particular.)
  • Difference in spacing interpretation (e.g. for overlapping padding).
  • Marginalia handling (page header/footer).

  Small details which amount to major problems with collaboration.

• LibreOffice does not support concurrent writing within the OneDrive/Sharepoint infrastructure.
  With M365 desktop/online apps this will work smoothly. Attempting to open a file in Writer when others collaborate on the same, may in special cases cause file corruption.

If you use Linux, consider using the Word online/cloud app instead of switching to Writer. It does not support Zotero, so you can’t add/edit reference info. Even so, you can safely edit documents containing Zotero objects.

IIRC, Zotero also works a little differently between Writer and Word, so you would need to use some “compatibility mode” for smooth transition.

Edit: If the workflow is mostly you supplying the foundation work and others contributing in a smaller way, with little transfer back-and-forth for the documents (as I gather from the discussion on @Ajlittoz’ answer), there should be minimal trouble. Beware of possible problems with Zotero fields, though. I had major issues with that at one time, but they may have fixed it now.

[ajlittoz]

If your co-authors will still be using Word, continue to work with Word to avoid problems created by recurring conversion to/from doc(x) format.

When document contents is finalised, you can make the ultimate formatting in Writer but you must pay attention to several factors to avoid damaging or polluting the document.

• store all you styles into a template document for consistent formatting of your papers
• create a new document based on your template and import the paper as “unformatted text” so that no stray formatting information from Word is carried over
  Unfortunately, this will probably cause problems with footnotes and also eliminate Zotero metadata.
• style your document with paragraph, character and page styles

Be aware that using Zotero in Writer will prevent you from applying very specific formatting to the citations. Contrary to what is commonly said, Zotero is not “integrated” with office suites but does its job in some universal way (independent of Word, Writer, …) through macros which apply direct-formatting to text. As long as you accept Zotero formatting choices, this is not a problem but if you need to customise citation appearance, there is no solution.

[Leigh]

Thanks for your help!

@ajlittoz

• store all you styles into a template document for consistent formatting of your papers

Thanks - very helpful advice

@ajlittoz

style your document with paragraph, character and page styles

Thanks - again, very helpful advice

@ajlittoz

create a new document based on your template and import the paper as “unformatted text” so that no stray formatting information from Word is carried over
Unfortunately, this will probably cause problems with footnotes and also eliminate Zotero metadata.

Thanks. However, in my case I dont use footnotes and since I am usually by far the main contributor, my plan is to write in Writer, then convert to .docx to send out, then cut and plain text back in any additions / edits from the .docx updated versions returned from me , which I think could work.
Well, I think its worth an experiment anyway, nothing ventured - nothing lost

For the few papers where I will have less input I am starting to think that I should stick to Word, as you both suggested - so thank you for your input

@ajlittoz

As long as you accept Zotero formatting choices, this is not a problem but if you need to customise citation appearance, there is no solution.

For me Elsevier numeric does exactly what I need most of the time and I have never had any problems over the years with this for other publishers’ journals

[ajlittoz]

Then if you are the main author and work as .odt, just converting for transmission, you won’t have any problem with Writer.

[Leigh]

Thanks again