The Zotero icon, in the top right hand corner of your browser, changes according to the type of source (reference) you are dealing with (e.g. article, book, video, website etc.)
When you save an article to your Zotero library, the full text of the article is automatically saved too. Just double click the title in your Zotero library and the document will open. It opens as a tab in Zotero beside 'My Library'.
Ensure you have 'Automatically retrieve metadata (for pdf’s)' checked in Zotero’s preferences.
To do this go to Edit – Preferences – then in the ‘General’ tab
Simply drag your files from your document library into the Zotero folder you want them saved in. It will move across the metadata and the pdf (if there is one). You can move one file at a time, or a number of files.
The process is very straightforward to add articles to your Zotero account:
• Click on the title of the article.
• Depending on the database, go to the 'PDF Full Text' of the article, or just to the descriptive article page.
• Click on the Page icon (beside the Zotero icon) in the Chrome browser
• Select the Zotero folder you want to save the article into
We will look at adding and editing the metadata, so it is as complete as possible when it comes to using it for citations and the bibliography.
The aim is to save the item type in Zotero as a 'Journal Article' or 'Book' or 'Conference Paper' etc. and not as a 'Web page'.
When it saves as a webpage in Zotero, most of the metadata will be missing. You can see below the Web Page item type has a lot of detail missing, whereas the Journal Article item type has all the relevant information for referencing and creating a bibliography.
Sometimes webpages will save as a Snapshot when it goes into your Zotero folder, and the metadata will be missing.
Changing the Item Type
It is very easy to change the item type from a webpage to any other type of document you prefer
If you click on the word ‘web page’ beside Item Type – you can select any document type from the drop down menu, and it will give you all the blank fields you need to fill in to complete the metadata for the document type you want to save.
Once the item type is updated, just click on the field and type in any missing information manually.
We will look at creating metadata for PDF’s and other documents that have no metadata or fields to click into.
If an item saves as a pdf and has no metadata available, you ‘create a parent item’, which will then give you metadata fields that you can edit yourself.
1. Right click on the pdf you want to add metadata to, select 'Create Parent Item'
2. Select 'manual entry'
The ‘Item Type’ might save as a webpage or report or document. It also provides you with fields you can click into and add the metadata.
You can pick whatever ‘Item type’ you want simply by clicking in the item type field and selecting from the large selection of different document types.
The metadata for your items in Zotero is on the right hand side of the page. Click on the Notes tab.
Add whatever information you want in the note, by pressing the ‘Add’ button. Here we are adding the author of an individual chapter to the metadata for an eBook.
Your notes are now attached to the Zotero record for that book.
You can search your entire Zotero library, notes included, by using this search box on the top right of the middle column:
Click the magnifying glass to the left of the search box to select "search everything". Save the search so it will update automatically as you add new items.
Zotero has extensive support pages available which go through every function in detail: