Using multiple versions of LibreOffice and Zotero at once

[alphaamanitin]

Hello Everyone,

What is the best option for running multiple versions of LibreOffice and Zotero (an open source citation/database manager)? I need to do this because I am working on a manuscript that I will submit for publication and use as a chapter in my PhD dissertation. At this point in my graduate studies career I need to finish things up quickly and redoing the manuscript so that I can edit it in the newest version of LibreOffice and use Zotero. See the problem is that trying to edit or insert new citations causes the document to freeze and crash as the document was made before LibreOffice 4.

Am I over estimating the difficulty of running multiple versions of LibreOffice (not at the same time)? I had thought to really make sure I did not mess anything up, it would be best to simply create a temporary user account that has the correct versions of LibreOffice and the Zotero plugin on it. Is that not necessary? Can I simply just install the different (older) version of LibreOffice in a new folder and run that? I think that the newest Zotero plugin still works for the older LibreOffice version. It does on OS X 10.6.8.

I know I could just try it, but I am a bit worried about messing things up. I don't have time to deal with issues right now, and the new version of LibreOffice on my Xubuntu computer has other manuscripts and parts of the dissertation, which means I am too invested in things risk issues. I am interested in this though because it is becoming a real pain in the butt to haul around two laptops due to different resources on the laptops. My linux laptop has 16 gb RAM and an i7 while the MacBook Pro is from 2009 and has a core 2 duo and 4 gb RAM, so you can see why I would like to go back to the linux laptop. I also cannot get .jar files to work on the OS X laptop, which is preventing me from using my usual note keeping software.

Thanks,

AlphaA

[grahammechanical]

I am not sure I understand the problem.

I came to Ubuntu back in in 2007 when the office suite was OpenOffice. I converted some Lotus Wordpro documents to OpenOffice documents. I am still adding to and editing some of those documents and copying and pasting between them and newer documents and I have had no problem transiting from OpenOffice to Libreoffice and I have used every version of Ubuntu since 2007. Right now I am working with Libreoffice 4.4 I do not have problems with having multiple document windows open and copying and pasting between them.

When Libreoffice goes grey it is a sign that the application is busy. The problem seems to be with the compatibility of the Zotero plugin for the web browser.

LibreOffice 4: No response from plugin

Zotero LibreOffice Integration 3.5.3 and earlier are not compatible with LibreOffice 4. Under these versions of Zotero LibreOffice Integration, clicking buttons will not elicit a response from the plugin. To fix this, Zotero for Firefox users should install the latest version of LibreOffice plugin, while Zotero Standalone users should install the latest version of Zotero Standalone. If these components are up to date and the plugin still does not function, follow these instructions.

https://www.zotero.org/support/word_...roubleshooting

Regards.