Zotero -- Aug 2024

My Zotero Library online (https://www.zotero.org/kbpok)

I pay for 2GB of storage ($20/year)

Running Zotero 7

Edit → Settings

• General

• PDF Reader: Title - Creator - Year 

• Advanced

• Files and Folders (this is where linked PDFs are stored)

• Choose online storage

• Default Directory Location: C:\Users\Kate\Zotero (this is the database and should stay here!)

Setting-Up and Using Zotero

(updated: 2022-12-28)

A few things have happened since this document was first created:

1. the Documents folder in Windows has become more fully integrated with OneDrive and now automatically syncs and
2. Zotero has become more advanced and no longer requires a separate install for PDF indexing.

This document has been modified to reflect these changes.

Remember that you can always print this document, using Ctrl+P

Setting up Zotero Across Computers

I. PREP FOR CONFIGURING ZOTERO PREFERENCES

II. INSTALL ZOTERO

III. INSTALL ZOTFILE

IV. CONFIGURE ZOTERO PREFERENCES

V. CONFIGURE ZOTFILE PREFERENCES

VI. SYNCING ACROSS COMPUTERS

Using Zotero for Teaching Classes

Using Zotero

Great Videos

Getting Files into Zotero

Setting up Zotero Across Computers

The easiest way to keep Zotero synced across several computers is to use Zotero's own storage/sync options. Going this route allows you to sync your Zotero library and store your PDF in Zotero’s online storage. However, it’s not free (anywhere between 5,000-15,000 pdf can be stored in a 1gb, so it’s also not outrageously expensive):

Zotero’s Storage Pricing

However, there may also be other reasons why you don’t want to store your PDFs in Zotero. For me it’s an issue of easy access. I like being able to access and share my PDFs easily from anywhere; storing them in Google Drive allows me to do both those things. For this installation, I've decided to use Google Drive since I already pay for Google Drive storage.

I. PREP FOR CONFIGURING ZOTERO PREFERENCES

Before we mess with any Zotero or Zotero Preferences, we need to do some prep.

Make sure that you check that your sync platform (Dropbox or Google Drive or whatever else you are using to sync your pdfs) is installed in the default location. Usually, that location is something like c:/users/username/…

• So my Google Drive is in this location: c:/users/username/Google Drive
• And my Dropbox is: c:/users/username/Dropbox

Create the following folder(s):

1. a folder where all your pdfs will be stored (I put mine in Google Drive and named it “Zotero”)
2. [Optional] a Zotero “watch” folder (I created a folder named “2Zotero” in my default downloads folder in Google Drive; for me this is where my new pdfs that need to go to Zotero go)

II. INSTALL ZOTERO

1. Download Zotero Zotero Standalone
2. Install Zotero (let it install in the default place where all programs install).

III. INSTALL ZOTFILE

Zotfile is important because it helps you with moving and renaming files. While Zotero does a great job extracting metadata from a pdf and even renaming files, it's not as good as Zotfile at moving a file to a specific place (in this setup, the pdfs will be actually stored in the “zArticles” folder (I created above) in my Google Drive.

1. Download the Zotfile extension- it's an xpi file.
2. Open Zotero and install the Zotfile extension by going to Tools -> Add-ons.
3. A new window pops up; if you see an error message, click the Tools Icon to pull up the the Add-ons Manager

4. Choose “Install Add-on From File…” and choose the Zotfile xpi file that you downloaded.

5. After you install the xpi, you should get a message that Zotero has to restart.
6. Close Zotero and restart it.

IV. CONFIGURE ZOTERO PREFERENCES

Now, we’ll configure Zotero preferences to behave the way we want.

1. Open Zotero and click on Preferences (please note that the Gear icon is no longer in Zotero 5; instead, Go to Edit -> Preferences)

2. (update: 7/25/20 No longer part of it) Install pdftotext: Click the Search tab and check to see if the pdftotext add-on is installed. This add-on allows Zotero to index your pdfs. If it is not, click “install it.”

3. Configure where PDFs and the Zotero database are stored

1. Next, we’ll designate where we want Zotero to store our PDFs and the Zotero sqlite database. Click the “Advanced” then choose the “File and Folders” tab
2. Base Directory: The Base Directory is where your PDFs are stored. I want my PDFs to be stored in the Google Drive folder I named “Zotero”.
3. Data Directory Location: The Data Directory is where the actual SQLite Zotero Database is stored. NEVER place the Data Directory in Google Drive or Dropbox. By default, Zotero stores the database in a user’s profile (usually in the location: C:\Users\username.

4. Choose the Sync tab and sign in or create a new account.
5. Under Zotero Sync Server

1. Check the box for "Sync automatically" so Zotero’s server will sync the database structure.
2. Uncheck “Sync full-text content”

6. Under “File Syncing,”

1. Uncheck “Sync attachments in my Library”
2. Uncheck “Sync attachments in Group…”

7. Now your Zotero SQL database will sync to Zotero, but your PDF's will sync to Google Drive/Dropbox.
8. Click OK

V. CONFIGURE ZOTFILE PREFERENCES

1. Go to Zotfile Preferences under Tools -> Zotfile Preferences

2. In the General Preferences tab, you’ll see the following:

1. Source Folder for Attaching New Files is where new pdfs that you want to add to Zotero are stored. It’s kind of like a “watched folder” but not really, because the process is NOT automatic. This folder just reminds me to move these documents into Zotero.

• In my case, I chose folder that I named "2Zotero"

1. Location of Files is where the PDFs are stored.

• This should be the folder you created to hold the PDFs- in my case “zArticles” folder (note that this is the same as the "Linked Attachment Base Directory" from the Zotero's preferences)

3. Now click on Renaming Rules to decide how you want files renamed

• Choose how you want your readings (re)named. Make sure you remember this, you'll need it when you set up Zotpad on ipad.

• I like to use dashes instead of underscore so I change it to the following:

• {%a-}{%y-}{%t}
• And prefer commas to delimit multiple authors - so I change underscore to (,)

• Click ok.

VI. SYNCING ACROSS COMPUTERS

Now that you're all set up on one computer. Repeat these steps on each computer you want to sync. The SQL database will always be stored locally, but is kept in sync using Zotero's online server while all the linked PDFs should be synced across the computers using Google Drive or Dropbox.

With this setup, you can still access your pdfs from anywhere on any platform (open Google Drive, read and mark up on desktop, laptop, tablet etc.) and all changes are synced since the PDFs are only links in Zotero.

Using Zotero for Teaching Classes

I create collections with subcollections in Zotero for teaching classes. For example, I’m teaching a Mig class so the structure looks like this:

Mig

→ 1. Citizenship Basics

→ 2. Rise of Nation State

Then I add readings into each folder. I can always go back and create links or find the PDFs, but this way there are NO more duplicates.

Using Zotero

Great Videos

https://youtu.be/kqFiCj1XV-E 

Getting Files into Zotero

Batch Indexing

Moving Large Number of PDFs to new folder