How to preview your references in APA format

When you add a reference to your library you have to make sure that it includes all relevant information. You can do this by selecting the reference and checking the content of the fields in the right-hand pane.

Sometimes it is quicker to see if something is missing if you preview the reference in bibliography format. There is no such preview pane in the basic version of Zotero, but you can fairly quickly preview your references with a text document and the function "Quick copy":

Go to: Zotero (Mac) or Edit (PC) > Preferences > Export > Item Format.
Select "American Psychological Association 7th edition" and check that the language is set to English. Click OK (PC) or close the window (Mac) - you only have to do this one time.

Zotero Quick Copy format selection

Have an empty text document open next to your Zotero app (for example a Word document).
Drag and drop the reference (or references) you want to preview from Zotero into the text document. It should appear in APA 7th edition bibliography format, for example like this:

Reference in APA 7th edition bibliography format

Advanced: If you preview references often and would prefer having the reference preview available directly in the Zotero app as a separate tab, you can install a Zotero plugin called ZoteroPreview.