Zotero shortcuts do not stay in the Word quick access toolbar

Zotero commands are provided by an Office Add-in, and not all add-in commands are supported on the Quick Access Toolbar in Word for Mac. When a command is not supported, it will not persist on the Quick Access Toolbar after customization, which matches the behavior described: built-in Word commands stay, but Zotero commands do not.

On macOS, the supported way to keep Zotero easily accessible is to use it from the ribbon tab that the add-in provides, or to rely on any keyboard shortcuts the add-in itself exposes. Office Add-ins can also define their own keyboard shortcuts; if Zotero does so, those shortcuts are managed by Word’s add-in shortcut system rather than by the Quick Access Toolbar.

If there are shortcut conflicts between add-ins or with Word itself, use the Reset Office Add-in Shortcut Preferences command so Word will prompt again for which action to associate with a shortcut.

Steps to reset add-in shortcut preferences:

1. In Word for Mac, place focus in the Search / Tell Me box at the top of the window.
2. Type Reset Office Add-in Shortcut Preferences.
3. Select Reset Office Add-in Shortcut Preferences from the results.
4. After this, when using a shortcut that multiple add-ins or Word share, choose the desired action when prompted.

Because Quick Access Toolbar support for add-in commands is limited on Mac, this behavior cannot be changed from Word’s side; use the Zotero ribbon buttons and any Zotero-defined shortcuts instead.

References:

• Customize the Quick Action toolbar in Word for Mac
• Customize the ribbon in Office
• Keyboard shortcuts in Office Add-ins