To edit a record in Zotero, click on the record so that the citation information displays on the right side of the screen, then click within any of the fields (title, author, etc.) to edit them. Some common edits are:

• Displaying titles in sentence case: The American Naturalist citation style requires article titles to be written in sentence case, meaning words are capitalized just like they would be in a sentence. If any titles need to be changed to sentence case, right click on the title in the Zotero record, then click “Sentence case.”
• Capitalizing individual words in a title: In sentence case, some words (genus names, place names, molecular compounds like CO2) still need to be capitalized. If any of these words are displaying in lower case, manually capitalize them in the Title field of the Zotero record and click the Refresh button in Word’s Zotero toolbar to update the citation.
• Italicizing part of a title: To italicize text (especially important for genus/species names in titles), type <i> immediately before the text you want italicized, and </i> after the text.
  • For example, here's what an article title would look like in Zotero:
    • Microplastic study reveals the presence of natural and synthetic fibres in the diet of King Penguins <i>(Aptenodytes patagonicus)</i> foraging from South Georgia
  • And here's what that same article title would look like in your Word document:
    • Microplastic study reveals the presence of natural and synthetic fibres in the diet of King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) foraging from South Georgia.
• Subscripting numbers in chemical formulas: To subscript numbers in chemical formulas, type _{immediately before the number you want subscripted, and} after the text.
  • For example, here's what an article title would look like in Zotero:
    • Interactive effects of elevated CO₂ concentration and combined heat and drought stress on tomato photosynthesis
  • And here's what that same article title would look like in your Word document:
    • Interactive effects of elevated CO₂ concentration and combined heat and drought stress on tomato photosynthesis
• Citing departments/institutions: In Zotero, author names are listed as Lastname, Firstname.  If you are citing a department or institution, write the whole department/institution name in the last name field (e.g. “Carleton College”) so that Zotero will treat both words like a person’s last name.

To make sure these edits display properly in your citations and bibliography, go to the Zotero toolbar in your Word document and click the "Refresh" button. Review your document to check that the citations and bibliography are now formatted correctly.

Imagine you have this book in your hand and want it in your Zotero Library:

Freeman, S. 2017. Biological science (6th ed.). Benjamin Cummings, Boston.

1. In Zotero, click the "New Item" icon (it looks like a green circle with a plus sign on it) and choose "Book"
   
2. In the TITLE field, type: Biological science
3. In the AUTHOR field, type: Freeman (in the last name field) and Scott (in the first name field)
4. In the EDITION field, type: 7th
5. In the PLACE field, type: Boston
6. In the PUBLISHER field, type: Pearson
7. In the DATE field, type: 2020
8. The record you've created should save automatically

Imagine you have this book in your hand and want it in your Zotero Library:

Hougen-Eitzman, D. 2017. Biological responses to a changing atmosphere. Biology 126 lab handout. Carleton College, Northfield, MN.

1. In Zotero, click the "New Item" icon (it looks like a green circle with a plus sign on it) and choose "Book"
   
2. In the TITLE field, type: Biological responses to a changing atmosphere. Biology 126 lab handout
3. In the AUTHOR field, type: Hougen-Eitzman (in the last name field) and David (in the first name field)
4. In the PLACE field, type: Northfield, MN
5. In the PUBLISHER field, type: Carleton College
6. In the DATE field, type: 2017
7. The record you've created should save automatically.