For IEEE citations in LibreOffice Writer, use Zotero’s Writer plugin, choose IEEE in Document Preferences, and insert citations and the bibliography through that toolbar. The steps below follow official documentation checked on October 18, 2026. A three-source worked example shows which numbers should change when a book becomes the first cited source. Keep the ODT editable while drafting and export a PDF when the references are ready.
Confirm the Writer Integration
Start with Zotero desktop and LibreOffice Writer. Keep Zotero running when you use the citation toolbar. The browser Connector saves sources from websites; the Writer controls come from Zotero's desktop integration. Installing the Connector alone will not add them to an ODT document.
Zotero normally installs its word processor plugins automatically. If the toolbar is missing, close LibreOffice, open Zotero Settings, and find Cite → Word Processors. Use Install LibreOffice Add-in, then reopen Writer. Zotero's plugin installation instructions describe the current settings location.
Look for Add/Edit Citation and Add/Edit Bibliography. You will also use Document Preferences and Refresh. If the toolbar is hidden, check View → Toolbars → Zotero. If Zotero is absent from Writer's Extension Manager, return to Zotero's settings to repair the installation.
The system requirements specify LibreOffice 5.2 or later and a Java runtime or development kit. On macOS, LibreOffice requires a JDK. Use a supported current release; that minimum version is a compatibility floor.
Set IEEE in Document Preferences
Create a blank Writer document and save it as an ODF Text Document (.odt). Open Zotero's Document Preferences in Writer and choose the IEEE style required by your course or publication. Selecting a style in Zotero's library preferences does not replace the style choice for an existing document.
If IEEE is missing, open Zotero Settings, then Cite, and use Get additional styles. Search the Zotero Style Repository for the required name. The general IEEE style and a style for a particular IEEE journal can differ. Note the full name when comparing two outputs.
For a Writer-only ODT workflow, Zotero recommends ReferenceMarks. Keep that setting while drafting. Collaboration with a Word user needs its own format-conversion procedure; changing citation storage is a separate task from selecting IEEE.
Prepare Three Distinct Library Items
The following publications give you a journal article, a conference paper, and a book. Their similar titles make it useful to check authors and years before selecting an item.
| Item | Source identity | Fields to check |
|---|---|---|
| Journal article | Y. LeCun, Y. Bengio, and G. Hinton, “Deep learning” | Nature, vol. 521, pp. 436-444, 2015. DOI 10.1038/nature14539 |
| Conference paper | K. He, X. Zhang, S. Ren, and J. Sun, “Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition” | 2016 CVPR proceedings, pp. 770-778. DOI 10.1109/CVPR.2016.90 |
| Book | I. Goodfellow, Y. Bengio, and A. Courville, Deep Learning | MIT Press, 2016. ISBN 9780262035613. Authors' book record |
You can add the two DOIs and the ISBN through Zotero's identifier lookup, or import the prepared three-record RIS file. Check that the resulting records have the appropriate item types. In the conference record, inspect the proceedings title and page range before citing it.
Our Zotero IEEE guide covers metadata corrections. For an existing RIS library, the RIS to IEEE workflow explains the import checks. Here, the focus is the link between Writer's citations and its bibliography.
Insert Citations and a Bibliography
Use a short practice document before applying the workflow to a long manuscript. Make four paragraphs that identify, in order, the LeCun article, the He paper, the Goodfellow book, and the LeCun article again. Each paragraph should name the source it cites so you can compare the number with its reference.
- Place the cursor at the end of the first paragraph and click Add/Edit Citation.
- Search for LeCun. Select the matching article and press Enter to place it in the citation dialog. Press Enter again to insert the citation into Writer.
- Repeat with He in the second paragraph and Goodfellow in the third. In the fourth, select the already cited LeCun item rather than a duplicate library entry.
- Type a References heading at the end. Place the cursor below it and click Add/Edit Bibliography.
With the general IEEE style, the intended initial sequence is LeCun [1], He [2], Goodfellow [3], then LeCun [1] again. The reference list should contain three entries. A second citation to the same item reuses its number.
If two similar library records appear in the search results, check the author list and title. Citing a duplicate record can create a separate reference even when both records describe the same publication. Fixing that source identity is more useful than manually deleting a number from the bibliography.
Move a First Citation and Refresh
Save a copy, then cut the entire Goodfellow paragraph, including its Zotero citation, and paste it above the LeCun paragraph. Move the field with the text. Typing a new bracket number at the destination creates ordinary text that Zotero cannot renumber.
Click Refresh on the Zotero toolbar. Compare both occurrences of the LeCun citation and the order of the bibliography. This worked example describes the expected mapping; it is not a report of a desktop plugin test.
| Source | Before moving the paragraph | After moving and refreshing |
|---|---|---|
| Goodfellow book | [3] | [1], first bibliography entry |
| LeCun journal article | [1] at both citations | [2] at both citations |
| He conference paper | [2] | [3] |
| Reference list | LeCun, He, Goodfellow | Goodfellow, LeCun, He; still three entries |
After the move, the four paragraphs read Goodfellow [1], LeCun [2], He [3], and LeCun [2]. Checking only whether the bibliography contains 1, 2, and 3 would miss an incorrect source-number pairing. Follow each bracket to the publication it should identify.
Keep an Editable ODT and Export the Final PDF
Save the refreshed ODT as your working document. To check that a citation remains editable, place the cursor inside it and open Add/Edit Citation. Zotero should recognize the cited item. A bracket that looks correct on screen can still be plain text.
For a PDF hand-in, use Writer's File → Export As → Export as PDF. Review the exported bibliography for line breaks and missing entries. LibreOffice's PDF export help explains the export options. Keep the ODT alongside the PDF for later revisions.
You do not need to unlink citations to export a PDF. If a publisher specifically requests editable plain citation text, make a separate final document before using Unlink Citations. That command removes the citation codes and prevents further Zotero updates in that copy.
Fix a Stale or Incorrect Writer Bibliography
If the toolbar is visible but its buttons do nothing, check the Java setup and make sure Zotero desktop is running. Try a blank ODT. An error in every new document points toward the integration or runtime; a failure confined to one manuscript needs document-specific troubleshooting. Follow Zotero's LibreOffice troubleshooting instructions.
If a title or year is wrong, correct the cited library item and refresh. Editing the bibliography directly can leave the underlying record unchanged, and a later refresh may overwrite your edit. If Zotero no longer recognizes a citation, check whether its fields were unlinked or lost during copying or format conversion. The existing-citation checklist helps distinguish these cases.
For a page-specific citation, use the locator controls in Add/Edit Citation instead of typing inside the generated bracket. The IEEE in-text citation guide explains how repeated references and passage locators work.
Where IEEE Citation Generator Fits
Use the IEEE Citation Generator to format a supported source or prepare a static reference list. Its Word export does not create live Zotero citations or Writer ReferenceMarks. Pasting the exported text into Writer leaves later renumbering to you. For a manuscript that needs automatic updates, insert and maintain its citations through Zotero.
Sources and Tutorial Notes
This documentation-based guide was checked on October 18, 2026. The official Writer plugin guide, Cite settings, and linked installation, troubleshooting, and LibreOffice pages establish the workflow. The publication links establish the sample records. The numbering table is a worked example for checking your own document.