To use different et al. rules in Zotero citations and bibliography entries, edit their settings separately in a CSL style. This Mac walkthrough uses one author for citations with three or more authors, while bibliography entries retain six authors before abbreviating.

Define the two author-list rules

Start with a precise rendering contract. For this worked example, the requirements are:

Output When abbreviation starts Names retained before et al.
In-text citation 3 authors 1
Bibliography entry 7 authors 6

The CSL attributes are et-al-min, the author-count threshold, and et-al-use-first, the number of names retained. Zotero’s editing guide documents both settings and shows how changing their values changes the rendered author list. Editing CSL Styles—Step-by-Step Guide.

This example means a three-author work becomes “Avery et al.” in the text but retains all three names in the bibliography. A seven-author work becomes “Avery et al.” in the text and lists the first six names followed by “et al.” in the bibliography. These are illustrative requirements, rather than a claim about a named citation style.

Keep every author in the Zotero item. The task is to change the displayed author list while preserving the complete source metadata. Use the boundary tests below to distinguish a correct rule from one that merely looks right for a single reference.

Open the style editor on your Mac

In Zotero, open Zotero → Settings, then select Cite. Zotero documents this Mac menu path; Command-, also opens settings. Zotero Settings.

Under Cite, open Style Editor. The Styles area also contains the Style Manager for installing styles and Style Preview for checking installed styles against selected library items. Cite.

For an existing document, begin with the latest version of the style that already provides the required punctuation, dates and reference fields. Zotero recommends choosing the closest existing style before editing it. If using TextEdit instead of the built-in editor, select Format → Make Plain Text. Editing CSL Styles—Step-by-Step Guide.

In the Style Editor, load the installed style from the dropdown. Selected Zotero library items provide the preview data; click Refresh after changing your selection. The lower pane displays both citations and bibliography entries, so inspect both as you edit. Save regularly: closing the editor or loading another style discards unsaved changes. Zotero Style Editor.

Put each rule on its own CSL section

Set the citation pair on the existing <citation> opening tag and the bibliography pair on the existing <bibliography> opening tag. Preserve their other attributes and contents. CSL allows these name options at both section levels. CSL 1.0.2 Specification—Inheritable Name Options.

The following is a complete demonstration style, suitable for pasting into the Style Editor. It deliberately renders surnames, title and year only, making the author-list behavior easy to inspect. Its UUID identifies this demonstration; the updated value is illustrative style-file metadata.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<style xmlns="http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl" version="1.0" class="in-text" default-locale="en-US">
  <info>
    <title>Separate Et Al Demo</title>
    <id>urn:uuid:fa5b39c6-4b80-4d1e-9405-1c39a3433ef1</id>
    <updated>2026-01-01T00:00:00+00:00</updated>
  </info>
  <macro name="authors">
    <names variable="author">
      <name form="short" and="text" delimiter=", "/>
    </names>
  </macro>
  <citation et-al-min="3" et-al-use-first="1">
    <layout prefix="(" suffix=")" delimiter="; ">
      <group delimiter=", ">
        <text macro="authors"/>
        <date variable="issued"><date-part name="year"/></date>
      </group>
    </layout>
  </citation>
  <bibliography et-al-min="7" et-al-use-first="6">
    <layout>
      <text macro="authors" suffix=". "/>
      <text variable="title" suffix=". "/>
      <date variable="issued"><date-part name="year"/></date>
    </layout>
  </bibliography>
</style>

The shared authors macro contains no local truncation settings. Consequently, the section calling it supplies the relevant rule. A lower-level name setting overrides an inherited section value; search existing name-rendering code for competing et-al-min and et-al-use-first attributes. CSL 1.0.2 Specification—Inheritable Name Options.

For your working style, transfer the two attribute pairs rather than replacing its complete formatting with this demonstration. Before installing a modified existing style, change its <title> and <id> so an update to the original does not overwrite your custom version. Editing CSL Styles—Step-by-Step Guide.

Test the thresholds with synthetic work metadata

Create four temporary book items with the metadata below. Enter each listed surname as a separate author, in the stated order, and use 2025 as the date for every item. The names and titles are synthetic test data.

Title Authors, in order
Desk Layout A Avery; Benton
Desk Layout B Avery; Benton; Cole
Desk Layout C Avery; Benton; Cole; Dale; Ellis; Frost
Desk Layout D Avery; Benton; Cole; Dale; Ellis; Frost; Gray

Preview one item at a time initially. Compare the author portions against this acceptance table, which is derived from the example’s two threshold pairs:

Authors Citation author portion Bibliography author portion
2 Avery and Benton Avery and Benton
3 Avery et al. Avery, Benton, and Cole
6 Avery et al. Avery, Benton, Cole, Dale, Ellis, and Frost
7 Avery et al. Avery, Benton, Cole, Dale, Ellis, Frost, et al.

For the seven-author item, the demonstration’s expected citation is (Avery et al., 2025). Its expected bibliography entry is “Avery, Benton, Cole, Dale, Ellis, Frost, et al. Desk Layout D. 2025”. These are expected outputs derived from the style, not screenshots or reported Zotero execution results. The demonstration XML was parsed successfully, and a small deterministic check confirmed the threshold counts; Zotero rendering and schema validation were not executed here.

Testing immediately below and at each threshold is useful because it catches off-by-one mistakes. A six-author bibliography alone cannot establish that abbreviation begins at seven: test both six and seven. Likewise, compare two-author and three-author citations.

Next, test a repeated citation. The Style Editor lets you change citation position to preview subsequent occurrences. Check both positions before deciding that the same author-count rule applies throughout your document. Zotero Style Editor.

Diagnose output that differs from the contract

Use the symptom to choose the next inspection:

Symptom What to inspect
One section ignores its threshold Local name settings that override section settings
Only repeated citations differ et-al-subsequent-min and et-al-subsequent-use-first
Some same-author/year citations show extra names disambiguate-add-names
Truncated entries contain an ellipsis and last author et-al-use-last
The file has no citation or bibliography formatting Whether it is a dependent style

Subsequent settings replace the ordinary pair for repeated cites. Disambiguation can expand names, including corresponding bibliography names. Setting et-al-use-last="true" produces an ellipsis-and-last-name form. Dependent styles are aliases: edit a copy of the independent parent’s formatting. CSL 1.0.2 Specification.

For a requirement that every citation retain exactly one author, explicitly resolve any conflict with name-expanding disambiguation. Simply adjusting the threshold does not establish that stricter contract. Test two synthetic works sharing a first author and year, as well as repeated occurrences, before applying the result to a longer document.

If the bibliography must show every author, remove truncation settings from the applicable bibliography path, including inherited and local settings. Removing only the bibliography-level pair can expose an inherited root-level rule. Follow the same precedence check used above. CSL 1.0.2 Specification—Inheritable Name Options.

Validate, install and apply the edited style

Validate the complete edited file before installation. The CSL project’s development guide recommends its CSL Validator, which accepts a file upload or pasted code. XML parsing alone does not establish CSL validity. CSL Style Development—Validation.

Save the file with a .csl extension, such as separate-et-al.csl. In Zotero’s Settings → Cite → Styles, click + and select the saved file. Zotero documents local CSL installation through the Style Manager. Citation Styles.

For Microsoft Word on your Mac, open the Zotero tab and choose Document Preferences. Select your custom style, then use Refresh to update the document. If needed, insert the reference list with Add/Edit Bibliography. Style selection is a document-specific preference. Using the Zotero Word Plugin.

Make the author-list change in CSL instead of manually shortening the generated bibliography: Zotero documents that bibliography edits made directly in Word are overwritten on refresh. Finish by checking the two-, three-, six- and seven-author cases in the actual document. Those four checks, followed by a repeated citation and an ambiguous pair, provide a concrete way to confirm that the installed style meets your separate citation and bibliography requirements. Using the Zotero Word Plugin.

Sources